FOR such a radio lover as NCB Radio’s founder, April 3 this year was something of a cathartic day. It was, after all, the first April 3 in his life where there was no Pirate FM 102 in existence, what with being nine months older than the station which enthralled him as a child and inspired him as an adult.

It will very soon be a year since the name Pirate FM was no more on the airwaves, as it quietly sailed away into the collective memories of Cornwall, replaced by Hits Radio on DAB and Greatest Hits Radio on FM. At the time, slightly insultingly, it was branded as Pirate becoming part of a bigger brand, but the localness that people still valued would remain.

Yet, not even a year later, it was confirmed that soon, Independent Local Radio as we’ve always known it is officially dead. Gone is the buccaneering spirit and revolutionary local feast of the ears of the independent local radio sector when it arrived in different areas, replaced with national ‘chains’ with a ‘celebrity’ filled offering that is as homogenised and uniform as a bottle of milk.

Sure, there will be some for whom that’s quite alright – it is obvious that the format by and large has been a success, especially with the accountants who no longer have to manage the finances for multiple staff at multiple studios producing multiple radio programmes.

But what of the future for those who want genuinely locally produced radio? Well, this is where it is time for the community radio sector to step up and fill the void, complementing the excellent work of Rewind Radio on DAB.

Obviously, we’d love for you to give us a try. We are NCB Radio – an internet radio station accessible online, via most radio apps and by asking your smart speaker to ‘play NCB Radio’.

We are a station that does things differently. Being a small volunteer led effort that’s been on the air since 2011, most of our shows are in the evenings or at weekends and this is where we really thrive. We play the music you generally won’t hear everywhere – of a varying degrees of genres and types; for example, we often play album tracks and unsigned artists too. We have two taglines which describe our output – from North Cornwall to the World and Real Music Radio. We’re always keen to expand what we do in our community and always welcome support and engagement, and if you can offer something we don’t already have, we also are always willing to consider new presenters.

We’re a relatively diverse bunch, with our team ranging from pub managers to solicitors, journalists to postmen, surveyors to emergency service staff, DJs to salespeople, playing everything from drum and bass to David Bowie.

Other Cornish community stations include Liskeard and Looe Radio, with whom we share this column space, Coast FM in Penzance, Source FM in Falmouth, Chaos Radio in St Austell, CHBN in Truro and Islands FM on the Isles of Scilly.