We may use different mediums, but when it comes down to it Penarth Sounds and Nub News are about the same thing: bringing the community closer together and producing content YOU care about.

It is therefore only natural that we've joined forces to bring you a new feature: WITH PENARTH SOUNDS. Every week, we join a Penarth Sounds presenter while they produce their show to give you some behind-the-scenes insights.

This team of presenters will soon be joined by us (Nub News). Our editor will be broadcasting a weekly news round-up to keep you up-to-date on local news. Exciting times.

For this first installment of WITH PENARTH SOUNDS, Nub News sat down with the digital radio station's directors for an introductory Q&A.

NUB NEWS: Let's start at the beginning. How did Penarth Sounds come to be?

PENARTH SOUNDS: Penarth Sounds was born of lockdown. After spending years running short term radio stations for events, Andrew had wanted to start something more long-lasting.

Seeing the Penarth community spirit rally so well during lockdown was a great catalyst – the question of, "I'm not a healthcare worker, how can I help this situation?" was swiftly answered!

A few Facebook posts, several Zoom meetings with potential programme hosts, and six weeks later Penarth Sounds started broadcasting.

The three of you run the station. Can you tell the readers a little bit about yourselves?

Andrew, originally from New Zealand, has worked in radio for twenty years as a sound engineer and producer; previously at BBC Radio 3 in London, and after moving to Penarth 5 years ago, is now the senior sound supervisor for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Richard has extensive working knowledge of music, touring, events, festivals and sound engineering from over the last 20 years. Having originally started as a digital music producer for Grassroots in Cardiff, he moved to become a technical live engineer in Clwb Ifor Bach. In tandem, Richard toured internationally with artists, eventually becoming Clwb's Head Promoter. Recent years has seen him freelance on production and events, such as Gwlad, Dydd Miwsig Cymru and as an engineer for Radio Wales, Radio Cymru and BBC 6 Music.

Stacey is a freelance DJ with almost 15 years experience in the industry. She spends most weekends (when not in lockdown!) travelling the UK to play for festivals, brands and club nights and has held residencies in both Cardiff and London. She currently holds a Saturday night residency in Cardiff's Clwb Ifor Bach and in 2019 supported the likes of Jess Glynne, Groove Armada and Liam Gallagher. Stacey grew up in Penarth and after a brief stint in Cardiff, moved back when she started a family.

Ah, so you come from pretty varied backgrounds. I've noticed that about Penarth Sounds, the diversity of content. Is this by necessity or design?

There is a great choice of what to listen to on Penarth Sounds, and that comes both from our vision of the radio station to have something for everyone, and from the fact that we work with what we've got!

However, the diverse mix that we provide will only get bigger, as we begin new programme strands regularly, and seek to include those who are perhaps under-represented in the mainstream.

And what are you trying to achieve with Penarth Sounds?

Penarth Sounds aims to be a virtual central arts and community space for Penarth. A platform that people can visit on a casual basis to hear whatever is playing then, or an appointment to listen – to tune into local people expressing their love of music and the arts, or to hear from community members about what's happening in our special part of the world.

We love to feature stories from and about members of our town, and find out how what people do here impacts us both locally and further afield.

How has it been received so far? It seems to be pretty widely listened to considering it only started a few months ago.

Penarth Sounds has been warmly welcomed into Penarth. We very quickly gained between 500-1000 listeners live each week, and our "Listen again" pages, which we believe is a real strength of our setup, has around another 500 regular listeners, and is growing each week.

By the figures available to us we can see that around 90% of our audience is based in Penarth, which is fantastic, as it means that we're reaching the people we're aiming for.

But we'd love to bring more of the Penarth community into the family. There really is something for almost everyone in the schedule. And the benefit of being a small outfit is that if there's something that you think we should be doing, just drop us a line and we'll do our best to make it happen!

I saw that you had your Strong Communities Grant Fund application denied by the Vale while the established station BroRadio received theirs. What was all that about?

We are disappointed that we didn't receive funding for some key ideas that would have developed the station, the volunteers and the objective to benefit the whole region – but we're committed and will continue to provide this voluntary service that is making its mark in the community and beyond – and look forward to developing the project in the future.

It seems as though you give contributors free rein to do what they like. Can you tell me a little bit about the structure and how it all works?

Due to the current restrictions, almost all of the programmes on Penarth Sounds are pre-recorded at the hosts' own homes.

The hosts put together their shows themselves, with us available as technical support if they need any help. Each week they send their shows to us, which we check them and upload them to our schedule. There are occasions when we can do live broadcasts. For instance, the Penarth Chamber Music Hour, on Wednesday evenings, is often broadcast live from the hosts' music studio. As it's a larger space and can accommodate live musicians and a sound engineer safely, we're able to make live music available to the community again.

We also produced the Penarth Chamber Music Festival from the studio, with a weekend of live classical music available to listen to live on Penarth Sounds, and also streamed live on YouTube. One day soon we hope to have our own dedicated studio, too.

If you would like to get involved with the station, please email [email protected] – we are always on the lookout for more volunteers both as show hosts and behind the scenes!

You can also stay up to date and connected with the station via our social media channels, twitter and Instagram @penarthsounds or just search for Penarth sounds on facebook.