About the community

Vintage Radio is a community radio station in Birkenhead set up and run entirely by older people for older people.  It started broadcasting in February 2009 and has given 60 volunteers aged over 50, many of whom have no previous radio experience, the chance to develop the station and present a range of programmes aimed at listeners aged over 50 in the local area.



The Community Voices project

Older people are often disadvantaged through increasing infirmity, the loss of a social network through retiring from work and, most traumatically, bereavement.  Through the Community Voices project the station aimed to make radio programmes with residents of care homes in Merseyside enabling them to talk about their lives and memories and to take part in an interactive experience.  These broadcasts online would show that older people can still learn new skills and contribute to society.

What the community did
The radio station trained new volunteers to make and present radio programmes helping them overcome their fear of new technology.  With more staff the station became better organised, it had the capacity to make more programmes and it improved the quality of its programmes. 

One of its new challenges was to record a programme on location from a residential care home in the Wirral. This led to greater interaction among those taking part and sowed the seed of further outside broadcasts in the local area.

How it changed the community
It made a difference in several ways.

• The radio membership increased by more than 60%,  with more volunteers engaged in making programmes 
• Participants learnt new skills, both technical and organisational, and the quality of the output improved.
• It helped forge new friendships and enabled older people to overcome the sense of  ‘invisibility’ they sometimes suffer from.
• The radio station reached out to those in care homes giving isolated and lonely residents a sense of belonging.
• Through radio programmes, older citizens were able to speak out directly about the difficulties they face.
• It has given greater confidence to all those involved – the presenters, interviewers and interviewees.
• There is now a plan to do regular outside broadcasts from local care homes to spread the benefit.

Who’s Involved?
To find out more about Vintage Radio, visit their website.

Vintage Radio also won an Inspiring Voices award.