History of SHCR

Written by Station Manager Dave Smith

Introduction

In June 2014, Surrey Hills Community Radio launched. Since then we have had some amazing times during that time span, with a lot of great presenters and volunteers joining us for our journey, but there was a long and winding road to get to that launch date!

In this section you’ll find links to how SHCR was first discussed, the efforts to get to launching the station, memories from that great day, building a new studio, how we coped with the challenges of the pandemic and more recent accomplishments and memories of our journey!

 

It started with a meeting…

On January 22nd 2013, as a snow storm hit Leatherhead, a public meeting chaired by local resident, actor and business owner Graham Pountney with main speaker Steve Ray, was held to see the potential for launching a community radio station on the internet. Steve had been involved in two other radio stations, Hawks Radio in Harlow and Vectis Radio on the Isle of Wight. 

The question for discussion was –  “Would Leatherhead like a Community Radio Station?”

My friend Andy Newbold and I attended, as did around 20 others but it was clear that whilst the audience liked the idea there was not an obvious volunteer to take the project on and it was clear the meeting organisers were not intending to set it up themselves.

As I believed the idea would benefit the town and local area, I sent several emails to Graham offering my support. However, time went by and it looked like the idea may drift into obscurity without someone taking the reins and forging ahead with planning. 

With that in mind, I set out to fill Andy with as much caffeine as possible until he agreed to get involved! By June 2013 I decided to go it alone and drag anyone along who wanted to be involved. After seeing this action for ourselves, Graham recruited Simon Ferrar and we formed Surrey Hills Community Radio Ltd on 3 October 2013.

Another public meeting, another agenda, and more caffeine. The very first proposed name of the radio station was ‘The Vision’. The name had been suggested by Steve and Graham which, after lengthy discussions, it was clear this would not work. Settled on Surrey Hills Community Radio, Andy started work on the logo. This went through many revisions. Many, many revisions! I liked the first one!

Looking back, it was chaos as I received many emails and one springs to mind on 1 October 2013 suggesting we could operate out of a trashed garage with no water heating or electricity, no internet and no idea. We had to learn quickly.

 

All the logistics

Steve’s technical man Gavin who set up Hawks in Harlow was asked to provide us with a full spec sheet of requirements but Gavin moved to a new house so we couldn’t put it together. We were also waiting for a bank account to be opened by Steve as that would be easier and the problems just continued to dominate our days. I was completely out of control of proceedings and in September 2013, looking to launch in December I was told not to worry about the website as it would form part of the streaming and playout package whatever that meant. Some shady deal was done about the broadband/telephone in return for advertising and a place on the front page of our website and to this day I still am unsure as to what it was about!

I had to convince Andy again it was still a good idea although until we had something concrete, I was still painting a picture in a coffee shop.

February 2014 and Graham was still working on mates deals for everything. We managed to secure premises in North Street which was a big boost and thanks to Chris Dyer we managed to secure a manageable rent for an initial period which to date has been over 8 years! Thank you Chris.

This is not the place for whys but we revised our launch date to May 2014 and flyers were printed saying this. Many things were happening Andy and I didn’t know about including the kind donation of Windows 8 which would not work with our system so we had to but licences for conversion to Windows 7 so progress was slow.

The finances were also slowly moving into place for equipment.

Launch Day was set for May 2nd and Andy Newbold started work on his Media Pack, invites, newspaper articles with I organising mail drops around Leatherhead and District with Grahams contact who had offered to do them for nothing. Not sure where they ended up!

We set up a training day in April ready for the big day, sorted out wine with Majestic and got Dave Shelton ready to fit the equipment with Gavin.

I was suddenly hit with the fact that we had more financial commitments than I knew about and that didn’t help my mood!
We booked a date to help with the painting even though me and Andy had spent 24/7 over the last 2 months putting it together and we did get as small response but nothing great, however this would be the date – 29th March 2014 – that changed the future of the station as Phil Wessell walked through the door to collect egg boxes I was donating to the Community Garden in Leatherhead. I apparently offered him a show, so some good comes of that action sometimes and that was it!

We were still under the illusion we could operate by advertising revenue and Graham was putting together a rate card and getting Surrey Chambers involved plus many others. We were looking at ways of recording interviews.

We were hit by a massive shockwave in April when the equipment ordered was totally inadequate and on April 25th we had to re-order making it pretty obvious we were not going live on May 2nd. Cue more emails from a slightly disgruntled Andy to advise that the new launch date was June 6th. Cathy Smith’s birthday – that went down well!

May 12th Andy raised concerns that with just 3 weeks to go we had a few issues to deal with including the lack of advertisers or facility to record jingles for them as offered. No leaflets had been delivered and the contact to deliver had not been approached.

We were not expecting the equipment to be installed until May 17th at least so training would be tight.

Andy and I did many ‘dummy’ shows which hopefully are lost to the world as we could have been finished before we started and this time ‘on air’ cemented what had become a pretty good friendship, under severe pressure to deliver to a few doubting Thomas’s.

The Landlord was looking for a long-term lease as agreed after 3 months and Andy expressed his misgivings due to lack of urgency or activity in key areas.

We pulled it together and the week leading up to June 6th was hectic.

 

Launch Day

FRIDAY JUNE 6TH was a lovely sunny day which is why I picked that date as the sun shines on the righteous and we were expecting 100 people on the night including the Chairman of the council, President of Chamber of Commerce, Councillors, BBC Newsreader and Classic FM presenter Nick Owen who was officially opening the station together with a 16 year old Josh Lawton who started the first official show LIVE at 7PM that Friday night. We were off!

 

 

Early Presenters included Andy Newbold, Josh Lawton, Mark Batchelor, Sophie Butler-Manuel, Phil Wessell, Clare Truman, Kayleigh A, Chris Snelling, Peter Snell, Dave Smith and we were training and adding people regularly.

By the end of 2014, just 6 months, money was becoming a problem. We were still paying off the extortionate costs of the building work and front door, the initial commitments were having a strain on the funds.

 

Something had to change

The Company was running at an accidental overdraft level of £1,000 and a meeting took place in February 2015 for presenters to give their views. Ideas included grants, loans and advertising but due to lack of volunteers this seemed unlikely. We had survived to this stage with loans from presenters. The main suggestion was a 100 club and although this was agreed. It didn’t take off.

In October 2015 a Board Meeting was called to discuss the future of Surrey Hills Radio as the financial situation had not improved even though monthly bills had been halved to around £500 per month thanks to Phil. Despite some successful fund-raising events it was obvious the station was not sustainable on a self-sufficient basis. It was agreed to introduce a Presenters payment of £22 a month. This would cover the monthly running costs and keep the station sustainable no matter who was running it. This change took place from December 1st 2015.

With the running problems solved we needed to progress and a second studio was required.

 

Studio B

Funding would have to be on top of running costs so a crowdfunding site was set up by Kayleigh with the pressure to reach our target to be able to draw on the promises made. The next chapter was about to open,

There are only two people who should be credited with Studio B and they are Phil Wessell and Kayleigh A. Yes, there were a few more bit part players but without their drive it would never have happened.

You remember moments from the build and these moments stick in your mind including me, Phil and Simon Gadd moving large sheets of plasterboard/hardboard from the car park to the studio on an Argos trolley. The items were too heavy for the upright trolley and danger of crushing was imminent hence the Argos trolley. We survived the turn into Leret Way but misunderstood three things. The weight of the load, the slope of the road towards North Street and the enthusiasm of Simon. It was frighteningly hilarious to watch 3 people attempting to beat the cars and pedestrians in the dark to the Studio. We made it, just!

Also Phil and Kayleigh dared to go away during the work so the sight as I entered the station of Dan Joyce standing on a desk looking like a forensic officer in white overalls with a paint brush attempting to paint the ceiling despite being told not to paint the ceiling – Mark Regan was also guilty of this although he just dressed up in the costume! You can see it you look up in B that Dan didn’t finish! Phil and Kayleigh should have hidden the brushes.

Studio B is now enjoyed by presenters and guests alike with space for Brownies, Cubs and Scouts and students to be live on air at the same time and do they make some noise!

We have had the pleasure of meeting 100s of new friends as presenters who stayed short and long term. People have many reasons to want to do a radio show and I hope we have been able to help them fulfil their dreams and will be able to continue to do so.

 

Up to July 2019.
Coming up next… Our Covid story…