OUR STORY, OUR JOURNEY, OUR MISSION.
Sunny G's been about for a while!
For two weeks in August 1998 Sunny Govan Community Radio began its first broadcast from the old Police Station in Govan and turned a building that the community tried their best to keep out into a platform and voice of the community. This included transforming the former interrogation room into a radio studio and for two weeks in the summer of 1998 Sunny G began broadcasting positive messages, vital information, messages of hope, love and lots of requests for Scheme and Bob Marley songs.
Initially the first FM broadcast was a one-off celebration of the G51 area as a response to the media promoting a negative image of Govan and the people who lived and worked there at that time. The overwhelmingly positive response from local people showed there was a clear demand for a regular and permanent community radio service in the area.
For the next few years, the team (all volunteers from the local community) continued to tirelessly fundraise and eventually raised enough to get some basic equipment and a temporary FM licence to broadcast. We began our second FM broadcast for 3 weeks starting at the beginning of December in 2001.
FM broadcast licensing is expensive and at that time, you could only broadcast for a maximum of 4 weeks each year. Always keen to embrace new technology for accessibility, Sunny G bravely went digital and started to broadcast online. This meant we could broadcast 24/7 365 days a year
and have been broadcasting continuously on the web since then. In 2004 we won an award from BT for "Innovative use of broadband technology". Broadband was only a buzz word to most people at that time and we used the new technology to connect our community, give a platform to local artists and help local people to develop new skills.
In 2005, we were successful in achieving a full-time community radio license. This was in recognition of our work as pioneers of the community radio sector and our community development activities (we have community radio licence number 3). In March 2007 we started our full time FM broadcast as a Community Radio station for Govan and for Glasgow. Since then we continue to broadcast 24 hours a day, all year round on FM across greater Glasgow and around the world on Sunnyg.org
Our volunteer team is very diverse (like Govan) and our broadcast reflects this, we have programming content that covers a wide range of topics some of which include recovery, mental health, community issues, benefit / financial advice and much more. Our specialist music programmes range from Hip Hop to classical music and everything in between with a huge emphasis on local musicians and artists. Our volunteer teams age ranges from 12 to 85 and we are keen to encourage intergenerational connections and the sharing of knowledge and promote greater understanding and respect between generations which will contribute to building a more cohesive community.
Our daytime programming typically consists of around 65% music, 35% speech.
We reflect topics of local interest such as arts and cultural programmes, community magazine programmes, local news and event information, issue-based talk shows, health information and advice. The station’s musical output is driven by our volunteers and listeners (researched through regular surveys and questionnaires) and reflects the diversity of the local community
At Sunny Govan Community Radio, we are passionate about local talent and actively promote local artists their music and performances. While the majority of our output is locally produced, we do work with other like-minded community radio stations in Scotland and across the world to exchange not only programming but good practice
Sunny G Radio is your station your creation.
We very much retain our community development principles at the heart of our organisation and we are extremely proud to serve Govan, Greater Glasgow and the world.