COLUMN: A busy summer ahead for 103 The Eye
As the summer approaches, we are becoming increasingly busy on 103 The Eye.
We are getting a flurry of invitations to attend events of various kinds and we are also starting new projects and preparing to welcome some work experience students.
Earlier this month we took part in Melton's VE 80 celebrations with our soundstage from where we kept audiences entertained with 1940s music for two days and also broadcast interviews live on air.
We cover quite a wide geographical spread of the rural area around Melton and the Vale of Belvoir, which helps to keep the station sustainable as the majority of our income comes from outside of the town.
We do get some support from the town - for which we are very thankful - but unfortunately it is not nearly enough to cover all our costs.
Sometimes people don't appreciate how much the station costs to run. 103 The Eye is entirely operated by volunteers but incurs substantial expenditure in terms of licensing (broadcast and music fees), energy bills, insurance, equipment, administration etc.
It is always a good idea to book early if people would like us to attend, particularly with our stage.
On June 28 we are again taking part in the Open Day at the Defence Animal Training Regiment.
103 The Eye has a great track record in training young people to go on to successful careers and the newest presenter to join our team is 16-year-old Dylan Haylock, a student at Melton's Long Field Academy (pictured).
Having joined only a few weeks ago, he now presents a regular show on Saturday lunchtimes live from our Melton studios and he also helped with our roadshow throughout the Melton VE80 Weekend.
During the Easter holidays we ran a radio workshop for teenagers at our new Vale of Belvoir base in Cotgrave which involved them in recording public service announcements for broadcast on topics of interest to children and young people.
And in the summer holidays we will be welcoming media students from Toot Hill School, in Bingham, and from Derby University, who are doing work experience with us.
We hope this will pave the way for more collaboration between the station and the educational sector.