User:Affinity Radio Maidstone

 Affinity Radio (Maidstone)

Background
Affinity Radio was the idea of Dave Kelly (Presenter and Station Technical Manager)and Ray Webb who both had been in the music business for years as mobile and some times hospital radio DJ's. The idea was to present the best music from the 60's, 70's and 80's, aiming for the listening audience aged predominantly between 35 to beyond. As with most 50 something's, he has fond memories of the days of UK Pirate Radio and the excitement that generated at the time. Listening to stations like Radio Caroline, Radio London, Radio City and more provided an escape from the rather conformist programmes presented by the BBC at the time. Having missed the chance to be involved in those heady days, the advent of the possibility of internet radio "broadcasting" proved irresistible.

First Baby Steps
Affinity Radio's First internet broadcast was made on August 12 2010 using Winamp via the home desk top PC and out to Shoutcast. Initial broadcasts were on Sundays only. The station took out internet broadcasting licenses with both the PPL and PRS. Programmes then increased to Saturdays and Sundays and Bank Holidays.

Getting Listeners
A website was designed and uploaded along with a new contact email address. The next task was to submit the station details to as many on line internet radio station directories as possible to increase our listener base. New broadcast presentation software was installed and a third party server provider was contracted to deal with the stations internet output. It became apparent that to maximise our chance of attracting listeners, we needed to provide a service 24/7, so on the 14th October 2010the station began broadcasting twenty four hours a day.

The Affinity Radio Crew
Being a relatively new venture we are "lean and mean", basically run on a shoe string as we are self financing with no external revenue. The "CREW" consists of:

Dave Kelly - Presenter and Technical Manager

Ray Webb - Presenter and 60's music specialist

Emma Kelly - Designer and technical assistant and presenter

Joy Kelly - Publicity and Specialist Consellor

Julie Webb - "Six of the best" mixer specialist and maker of the famous 60's Sunday's Gateaux's