Media
Castle Vale is served by a community radio station and a free bi-monthly newspaper, both of which were started by CVHAT and are now operated by Headline Media Birmingham. The community radio station originally started out in 1995 when young residents staged the first Vale FM temporary licence broadcast (RSL) from Topcliffe House with funding from the HAT. A further broadcast took place in 1996, firmly establishing local support for a community broadcasting service in Castle Vale. This led to the creation of Castle Vale Community Radio (CVCR), also known as Vale FM. In 1998, the organisation's premises within Topcliffe House were completely fitted out with new facilities which included two broadcast studios, a training room, digital recording facilities and office space. Since 1997, the organisation has run fifteen radio skills training programmes for approximately 230 unemployed participants in partnership with East Birmingham College, part of City College Birmingham. In addition, a total of seventeen Restricted Service Licence (RSL) broadcasts have been staged, including five weekend broadcasts staged in partnership with other organisations. Further to this, a number of community - wide initiatives have been organised in conjunction with local organisations to facilitate the involvement of 350 young people in community radio activity. The station was granted a Community Broadcast Licence by OFCOM and began broadcasting under the name Switch Radio in 2006 to target their services elsewhere in Birmingham area.
Vale Mail was first published in 2000 by CVHAT before being taken over by Headline Media Birmingham in 2004. The bi-monthly newspaper has 16 pages and is distributed to 8,800 residents in 4,100 households. In 2007, a survey conducted by Castle Vale Tenants and Residents Alliance showed that 84% of local residents relied on it as a source for local news. Vale Mail also operates a WordPress blog which provides up-to-date local news between editions.
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Famous quotes containing the word media:
“The media transforms the great silence of things into its opposite. Formerly constituting a secret, the real now talks constantly. News reports, information, statistics, and surveys are everywhere.”
—Michel de Certeau (1925–1986)
“The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.”
—Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)
“The media no longer ask those who know something ... to share that knowledge with the public. Instead they ask those who know nothing to represent the ignorance of the public and, in so doing, to legitimate it.”
—Serge Daney (1944–1992)