A STUDENT radio station will soon broadcast across the Forth Valley area.

Connect Forth Radio made its debut on the airwaves last week following five years of work staff and pupils at Forth Valley College.

Principal Dr Ken Thomson was the first guest to be interviewed live as the show hit the airwaves from 12-2pm last Tuesday.

Initially the station will broadcast live, using industry-leading Myriad software, and be available to listen to via Moodle on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

After continuous in-house development it will then be rolled out to the Forth Valley area.

FVC Principal Dr Ken Thomson, said: “I am delighted to have been invited to be the first live interview guest on the Connect Forth Radio platform, and thought it was a great experience from start to finish.

“I am very proud of all the staff and students who are working, or have worked, on Connect Forth over the last few years to develop an industry standard multi-media platform which will help to make the next generation of digital media professionals ready to enter their chosen profession."

BA digital media students Craig Paterson and Adeel Ahmed were the first ones to broadcast live on air as they presented the first schedule programme with the first song played All Over The World by ELO.

Connect Forth offers impressive radio, video, social media and online platforms under a striking newly designed brand and will be using these to promote and enhance the new live radio broadcast stream.

It is integrated with academic study within the media department while also offering extra-curricular opportunities for students across the college.

Complete with a full management, social media and production structure – as would be found in any industry media organisation – Connect Forth offers media and creative industries students the opportunity to apply for management and production roles to create the perfect content which can be broadcast to the full Forth Valley College student and staff body.

All previous student management teams have been instrumental in helping the station to take the next step forward and leave a legacy for future students to improve upon even further.

They have been fully supported and mentored by the Creative Industries Media Team and this year’s cohorts will be no different.

Kris Cummins, a former FVC BA media and communications student and one of the early developers of the Connect Forth brand, who now works as a writer and director with BBC Scotland, was also interviewed on the launch day.

He added: “It went really well and I thought the presenters were great. It is kind of amazing to see how far Connect Forth has come since I was here. The media team has helped it come on leaps and bounds.”