{"id":379170,"date":"2025-12-31T10:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T10:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/379170\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T10:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T10:10:07","slug":"how-new-belfast-local-music-station-is-attracting-thousands-of-listeners-from-across-globe-after-bbc-cutbacks-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/379170\/","title":{"rendered":"How new Belfast local music station is attracting thousands of listeners from across globe after BBC cutbacks \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new Belfast radio<\/a> station broadcasting from a 10-by-12-foot record shop has attracted 11,000 listeners in its first month, with over a hundred people lining up to do shows after the BBC slashed local music programming.<\/p>\n

Radio Starr began broadcasting from Starr Records, based at the Oh Yeah! Music Centre in Belfast\u2019s<\/a> Cathedral Quarter in early November.<\/p>\n

Sinead Green, one of the female-led radio station\u2019s co-founders told the Irish News that the station was formed to fill a gap in the market after the BBC cut local music programming.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, BBC Radio Ulster\u2019s long\u2011running Across the Line new music programme was shelved, drawing criticism from some quarters that locally\u2011focused music<\/a> opportunities were being sidelined.<\/p>\n

\"Judges<\/a>\"Rory<\/a><\/p>\n

Ms Green says there are a lot of things that make Radio Starr different from other broadcasters in Belfast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is one of, in fact I think it\u2019s the only, record shop radio station hybrid on the island. It runs from a footprint of 10 by 12 foot, so it\u2019s really tiny on top of being a hybrid shop,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes the output different for us is that it\u2019s female-led, and our commitment is to showcase and platform underrepresented voices within Belfast and the wider arts community in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also committed to being female-led, with 50-plus per cent of our output from female, global majority or underrepresented voices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Green says that the idea for the radio station, which broadcasts shows currently from Wednesday to Sunday each week with continuous music at other times, came from a sense of duty to the city\u2019s arts scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the amount of funding cuts the arts have suffered, especially in Northern Ireland, it felt like something we felt obliged to do, to provide some kind of platform,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like somebody needed to do this. There was a massive gap there as the city has so many creative and talented people. We don\u2019t have any budget. We don\u2019t get any funding. We pay for everything ourselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is now a lot less local music programming on BBC Radio Ulster, which used to be the lifeblood of emerging talents, so we are saying to artists to come and use our platform instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says that despite only being on air for a number of weeks that the station has also been hugely successful with listeners across the globe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have listeners in Japan and the Faroe Islands \u2014 all these really strange places. The amount of hosts, DJs, artists and bands coming through is phenomenal. I cannot keep up with the amount of submissions I\u2019m getting,\u201c she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had 11,000 listeners in our first month. For a first month, that\u2019s up there with established stations.\u201d<\/p>\n

And now people are lining up to take part and get their voices heard on the station, with many from across the UK, Ireland, and Europe wanting to have their voices heard on the Belfast station.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the minute we have regular 148 presenters. Some are weekly, some fortnightly, some monthly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have hosts coming from Dublin, a guy from Nottingham got in touch. Another guy from London who edits Spotify playlists asked to do a show. I\u2019ve even had people from Estonia contact me asking for a show, I\u2019m hearing daily from across Europe. People want to make a connection to Belfast and they also want to hear what Belfast has to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not discerning in terms of what we think editorially or culturally should be listened to. We just want to platform voices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have jazz, soul and funk, and a licensed sex therapist from Australia coming on. In January we\u2019re working with Black Moon, a group for adults with learning disabilities through the Black Box. They\u2019ll have a monthly rotating DJ host. <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we\u2019re not a commercial station, we don\u2019t have to subscribe to anyone else\u2019s idea of what we should be. There\u2019s a bit of freedom with it. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want it to be Belfast-made and born community radio, but arts-focused, and so we want to get a real cross-section of people living here or from here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose in a lot of ways we want it to be a little dream factory and really show what is possible here.\u201d<\/p>\n

To listen to Radio Starr or to find out more, go to https:\/\/www.radiostarr.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new Belfast radio station broadcasting from a 10-by-12-foot record shop has attracted 11,000 listeners in its first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[29427,161671,49,48,161672,569,75,341,1893,1297],"class_list":{"0":"post-379170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-belfast-city-centre","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-cathedral-quarter","13":"tag-culture","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-music","16":"tag-radio","17":"tag-women"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}