Athlone Community Radio is back on air until June 20 after being awarded a 30 day temporary license from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland.
This second temporary licence allows the station to broadcast from 4pm to 8pm, Monday to Sunday over a consecutive 30 day period on 88.4FM.
As part of the new schedule, the station will be presenting a Soul Show called Accelerate every Tuesday evening from 4pm until 5pm which will feature the best in 60s and 70s soul, funk, and jazz but unlike a lot of commercial stations, Athlone Community Radio is going back to basics by playing vinyl as well as CDs.
The decision to revert to using turntables and dusting down those old 45s was made because the show will also feature a segment on collecting records which has hit media headlines recently due to current prices realised at auctions of various records.
In particular, the first show aims to focus on the 60s soul single ‘Do I Love You’ by Frank Wilson which was recently auctioned by a site in England for €25,000, making it the most expensive single ever sold. The single is only one of 3 known copies to exist and was originally recorded on the Soul label, a subsidiary of Tamla Motown records. However, Berry Gordy, owner of Motown decided not to release it and it has since become the Holy Grail of records for collectors of Northern soul music.
Soul music and vinyl are inextricably linked and the likes of auction sites such as eBay have opened up collecting to a global audience. However, the series of programmes also aims to look at other genres of collecting and will feature an interview with the Elvis fan from Swords who is auctioning a rare 78rpm acetate of Elvis Presley, entitled ‘My Happiness’ for €1 million!
Listeners will also be able to listen live on line at www.athlonecommunityradio.ie, where they will be able to keep up to speed with recent developments and the latest news about the station. A full programme schedule will appear on the website shortly and will include an eclectic mix of music and talk-based programmes.
Athlone Community Radio was established in 2006 as a not for profit organisation with the aim of serving the wider community living within a five to 10 mile radius of Athlone Town. The station is run by both paid staff and volunteers from the local community.
The Soul Show is part of a series of different themed music programmes called Accelerate which are aired each day between 4pm and 5pm.
