Many of you will have already heard about our radio station, Radio Platfform inside our building in Cardiff. But did you know we also have a thriving radio station in Porth in the Rhondda valley?

Our sister station launched in 2019 and is located at the Factory in Porth. It came about through Together Stronger, the Centre's partnership with Valley’s Kids which was created to ensure our work is accessible to young people living outside of Cardiff.

Since we launched, our Porth station hasn’t had much attention due to the Coronavirus pandemic which severely hindered our progress.

In July 2021, I was appointed as the Station Co-ordinator in Porth station to establish the station in the same way that our Cardiff studio has performed.

Alongside my wonderful colleague and youth arts worker, Tom Stupple, we’ve been busy re-opening since August 2021, kickstarting with an open day and free digital and radio workshops for all the brilliant young people that joined us.

We also struck up a great relationship with Bryn Celynnog, a local school who reached out to us for help when they received funding to start their very own radio station.

We visited the school once a week for eight weeks running workshops and teaching the students how to run a radio station. We’ll continue to run drop-in sessions with the students and can't wait to see their radio station up and running this year.

In December 2021, Tom and I ran our first ‘in person’ accredited radio training course since the pandemic began.

It was amazing to see how many people gave up their weekend to come and learn with us and everyone who attended are now regular members of our Porth station. They've gone on to create their own radio shows to an incredible standard, and we’re excited to see how everyone develops over the next 12 months.

Looking ahead, we have some big plans. We're hoping to renovate our radio room and turn it into a chill-out space where young people can come and hang out with their friends, plan their radio shows, and basically use it however they wish to. Young people are central to this project and it’s their space!

We are also having our radio systems upgraded to a newer version which means we’ll soon be able to broadcast live from Porth for the first time ever.

Our next training course begins towards the end of March, so if you are interested in enrolling yourself or for somebody else, please email me at molly.palmer@wmc.org.uk.

Tom and I are incredibly proud of the work we’ve achieved over the last six months and the future of our Porth station is looking very bright.

I'd like to give a special 'diolch' to Tom Stupple, Alan Humphreys, Guy Evans, Jason Camilleri, and our friends at Sparc for everything they’ve done and continue to do - and of course all the young people involved.

Molly Palmer - Radio Platfform Station Co-ordinator, Porth