RadioReverb, Brighton’s local not-for-profit radio station, celebrated its recent move into the Brighton Open Market by hosting its very own Sound Women, Brighton event and dedicated radio show on Thursday, November 17.
RadioReverb is bucking the trend in broadcasting with three of their five weekday drive-time shows being hosted by women.
In fact, RadioReverb has female presenters presenting and producing 45% of their weekly shows, providing a platform through which equal opportunities within radio can be achieved. Nationally this figure is just 20%.
The coming together of both RadioReverb and Sound Women last night (Thursday, November 17), appeared complimentary as both not-for-profit organisations focus on the localisation of news and content to provide a fairer and more representative voice from women within the local community.
Since its conception in 2011, Sound Women has strived to raise the profile of women within the radio and audio industry. Working towards making women’s voices more influential and in turn making the audio industry more representative. Primarily focusing on creating more opportunities for women, enabling more exposure to networking opportunities and above all celebrating the achievements of women in audio.
Sadly this month, the Sound Women national organisation said that it was hanging up its headphones, but hoped that the “Sound Women legacy will continue to operate online and hope that the regional communities will also flourish” and continue the purpose which has been to nurture the relationship between women and the radio industry in a way that is mutually advantageous.
The Brighton event clearly demonstrated its impact with a diverse range of local women in audio attending to network and discuss their successes, and agreed on-air to continue the Sound Women legacy for Brighton.
Sound Woman and RadioReverb presenter, Kathy Caton, whose show Out in Brighton was dedicated to the event and joint link-up, said: “I love radio for the fact that it is about what you’ve got to say and what you’ve got to think, rather than how you look or how you identify.”
She added: “Sound Women events help women in audio and radio meet each other – they help us connect. I’ve had amazing personal opportunities out of it and I’ve been able to help people in turn. I wish an organization like this had been knocking around at the beginning of my career. I think that there is a really active community who want to help each other in a non-competitive way and I love that.”
When asked about the future of Sound Women locally Eleanor Dobing – Director of RadioReverb added: “Well, perhaps an hour before the live radio show I would have wondered whether or not it would be happening, but now we have all agreed on-air that it should, so we’re good to go!”
RadioReverb’s final call to action on the show was to invite more women to present unique shows on RadioReverb. If you would like to submit a show idea email office@radioreverb.com with your pitch, and music genre.
Kathy Caton’s show Out In Brighton is broadcast live every Thursday from 5-6pm, repeated at 10pm, at 8am on Friday and 11-1200 on Saturdays.
You can also subscribe to the podcast at outinbrighton.podomatic.com, or find it in iTunes by searching for Out In Brighton.
You can hear RadioReverb on 97.2FM, on DAB or by logging on to www.radioreverb.com where you can also see the list of shows with female presenters.
