Special plaque unveiled at Black Country Radio

Express & Star

Special plaque unveiled at Black Country Radio for the renaming of Studio B2 to The Billy Spakemon Studio.

Transcript

00:00I'm Keith Horsfall, I'm chair of Black Country Radio here in what is now the Billy Speightman

00:06studio. Previously it was known as B2, but this man on my left is a legend. What he's brought

00:13to the radio over God knows how many years, he predates me and I've been here a long time,

00:20is, well he's just a legend. It's incalculable, but in particular we launched Black Country X,

00:26what was it Billy, about three years ago? About three years ago. About three years ago and it

00:31was a blank sheet of paper and now we think it's unique in the country in the sense it draws in

00:39dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of community groups that Billy has worked with.

00:45He brings them in, they tell their story on a platform that so they can be heard in like no

00:51other way. So quite simply we have named the studio after him because this man on my left,

00:59Billy Speightman, is a legend. What do I say about that then? I don't know how you go after that.

01:05Well it's funny, it's funny really because probably now 20 years ago when I first did

01:11a show with Steve Welsh as a guest on Black Country Community Radio, you never envisaged

01:16a journey you know that life's going to take and now when Keith, about three and a bit years ago,

01:24said do you want to come to a board meeting, I've got this proposal. Dave, the boss and Keith

01:30had always wanted a community radio station and because I do a lot of work in the community

01:35I just said yeah right then I'll get a few folks, not realising that it would be like 24-7.

01:40But I was thinking the other day and I said to James from The Star,

01:44my dad was you know my dad was a tube drawer but very wise and he used to say to me son it

01:50doesn't matter what you do as long as you do your best. At the end of the day you know you've done

01:54your best and it gives you a dogged determination so you know my philosophy was well you know

02:01you'll work your rag off and if it works it works, if it doesn't it's not through any fault,

02:06not putting any work in. But it's just been an absolute honour, we've had people come haven't we

02:10that we never expected would open up and tell the stories and we very often say if we were

02:18talking about it on the Sunday show, the Arm and Chain show on Black Country Radio, it would be

02:23powerful but not the same as somebody who's lived it and I think Exeter is all about lived

02:28experiences, giving the community a chance to tell their lived experience and that could be

02:35somebody with autism, down syndrome, an ex-alcoholic, an ex-drug user, kids, yeah kids

02:45from, we have people on work placement and they've ended up you know running their own shows and we

02:52we're almost just like the station that they come through in terms of a train station and we let

02:58them go on their own journey and hopefully we you know we're here to you know to help them along.

03:04The strap line for Black Country Exeter, it's all about you and it is and Billy has facilitated

03:12that, it's all about you. Black Country Exeter is available on DAB across the region and also

03:21online of course just go to Black Country Radio and you'll find us with what we can now say our

03:26sister station Black Country Radio can't we really, on this particular environment. So

03:31Billy is a stalwart on that station too but this is his, this is his baby, he's built it

03:39into something that's unique. We talk to people across the country in the sector and they can't

03:46believe we do what we do on Black Country Exeter so and that's due to this man. And nobody's excluded

03:52I mean our favourite, I mean we've got a blind presenter, our favourite is we've got non-verbal

03:58presenters who come in with their machines and you know we give them the prompters to what needs

04:06to be said and then and then they just play it through the mics and why should they be excluded.

04:11So then through a computer and running a radio show, that's pretty cool. It's unbelievable really

04:18so if there's any community groups out there that want to do their own show just get in touch

04:23yeah it's billy.spakemanblackcountryradio.co.uk and come and have a look you know. I guarantee

04:29that if you come in the studio you know it all looks a bit awesome. It'll be like when

04:35when we do our Sunday show and our biggest compliment is it's like talking to two blokes

04:40down the pub. That's what it is, it's their platform.

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