A love letter to one of my good radio friends, & the success of her podcast.

Warning:  Gushingly positive opinions lie ahead.

Hello Creatives, Jay here.  Personal opinions are abundant below, but only because I’m so proud of my friends and colleagues.

Earlier this week, the nominations for the Community Radio Awards 2016 were announced, and my community radio station Spark FM has received 11 nominations, across 9 different categories.

This will be the first of a few posts, but I wanted to publicly congratulate close friend of 99% Perspiration, Rute Correia.  Regular listeners to the podcast will remember Rute from episode 18, where she shared her multiple pursuits alongside her MA degree.  “The limit is always the one you set yourself.  Sometimes things take a long time, and you have to be so persistent…  Even if you put it on hold for a while, if you really love it, don’t be afraid of going for it.  Don’t stop.”

Rute Correia – MA Radio
Nominated for “Innovation Award of the Year”

“I’ve been producing White Market for 8 years now, since starting the podcast in my hometown Lisbon in Portugal.  While I have accomplished other achievements along the way, this is definitely one of the highlights of White Market Podcast’s activity.

“White Market is a show about free music and free culture.  It has a profound community-oriented ethos, and it’s set on a commitment to digital rights and freedom.  Given its nature, the project can never go commercial, but it fills a gap often forgot; it brings free access to culture.  And very often that’s the mission of community radio; to empower communities with the tools they need to stride. In a time of endless financial cuts, it seems like culture is often the place to start slashing, but culture and education are the main tools of development, so I am hoping White Market Podcast can provide both in a free and accessible manner.

“I am rather proud and excited about this nomination!  Being shortlisted is already a victory, but I’m crossing all my fingers to bring home something more.”

And, as always,
Stay productive, stay awesome!

Jay Sykes
Executive Producer, 99% Perspiration