Skyline Gold community radio station's national award nomination

The Community Radio Awards take place annually and this year’s ceremony will be in Newcastle on Saturday November 4th. 

Skyline Gold is a not-for-profit community radio station run entirely by volunteers, rather than a large corporation.

The station has been broadcasting for 18 years but this is the first time one of its programmes has been nominated for the Community Radio Programme Of The Year.

READ MORE: Skyline Gold ousted from Hedge End premises after 16 years

Show presenter Andi Cortez, 71, said: “I’m absolutely delighted and flabbergasted in equal measure. 

“Here at Skyline Gold our mission is to connect and involve our community in local radio and this accolade is perhaps long overdue. 

“Local radio is a great friend to many people who are socially isolated.

"With BBC local radio cutting back and a general dissatisfaction with national radio output, we’ve seen a doubling of our listener numbers in recent months.

“Now is the time for community stations to fill this void and this nomination proves that we can do it to the max. I am even more proud of this remarkable achievement as Skyline Gold is run entirely by hard working volunteers.”

The Community Radio Awards have entries for more than 600 local community stations across the UK.

The programme that has been nominated is Skyline Gold’s Monday Afternoon Diversion, presented by Andi Cortez.

The programme features sections such as weird news, the word nerd and other topical news items.

It also features the Skyline’s book club and films of the week discussions.

The programme has been nominated for it’s coverage of local events, involvement of ordinary local people and presentation of both regional and national stories in an entertaining way.

Station Manager Stevie Edwards, 69, said: “The Monday Afternoon Diversion show really does engage our listeners on many levels.  It encapsulates all that local community radio should aim to be.”