One of the UK’s pioneering community radio stations, Cross Rhythms City, was honoured on Saturday at the CMA Festival at MediaCityUK, Manchester, as part of celebrations marking 20 years of community radio.
The award, presented by the Community Media Association (CMA), celebrated the handful of stations that launched Community Radio as part of a pilot scheme in 2002 that are still going strong today. Those channels helped shape the community radio landscape across the UK.
ABC Director, Steve Perry was part of the team receiving the award alongside current Cross Rhythms CEO Jonathan Bellamy. Steve was instrumental in securing the station’s initial licence from the UK’s broadcasting regulator and later led the successful application for a full-time licence from Ofcom, following the end of the trial period.
Steve remarked, “There is some debate about the order in which those first few stations started, however Cross Rhythms City was certainly one of the very first to launch in the whole of the UK. So it was a privilege to be there right at the beginning and lay the initial foundations for community radio in this country.”
The CMA Festival is the UK’s flagship event for community broadcasters, drawing stations, producers, and volunteers from across the country to share ideas, celebrate successes, and look ahead to the future of community media.
A statement from the CMA added: “For two decades, community radio has been a powerful force – amplifying local voices, showcasing emerging music, sparking vital conversations, and connecting communities across the UK. From kitchen tables to high streets, and from grassroots activism to culture-defining broadcasts, community radio has made an undeniable impact. So it’s important to honour those who’ve helped build a thriving movement, while exploring how we grow and future-proof community radio for generations to come.”
As the sector marks two decades of licensed community broadcasting, the award honoured those who worked behind the scenes to turn a grassroots vision into a national movement.
Cross Rhythms also operates the XRhythms DAB channel that is currently part of the Stoke and Newcastle DAB Transmissions