Medway Pride Radio

Click to Visit Outing Medway’s Past Website

Outing Medway’s Past is a project to uncover the histories of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning, intersexual, asexual and agendered people of the Medway Towns.

If you would like to be involved in the project and have a story to tell, please get in touch by emailing ro*@ou***************.uk or use the contact form below.

We’re especially looking for stories about the Dockyard, its workers, the merchant seamen and the sailors that passed through, stories about the pubs and social life in the Towns – both pre- and post-the 1967 partial decriminalisation, and what it was like to grow up as a non-hetero person in this area.

The project is in three parts;

• Examining the past to look at the lives of LGBTQIA+ people and the influence they had on the development of the Medway Towns, including the nationally known figures that visited or are celebrated here – the likes of Edward II, James I, Queen Anne, Pepys and Lord Kitchener, people whose sexuality would be framed with the LGBTQIA+ acronym today.
• Uncovering the history within living memory, speaking to the older members of the community for their first-hand testimony of World War II, the post war years, 1967 and the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, the AIDS pandemic and increasing discrimination in the 1980s and the injustice of Clause 28 in 1988 until its repeal in 2003 (but still casting its shadow over education even today).
• Looking to today, the creation of Medway Pride, the wider acceptance of ‘difference’ in sexuality into mainstream culture, but also the substantial issues that still exist with trans rights and the misinformation that creates transphobia.

What a week it has been, turbulent, tiring, and so, so busy. More staff have come on board, and we have loved every second of it.

The standard of DJs (most of whom have never broadcast before) has been amazingly high!

Both on air and behind the scenes we have been treated to an amazingly diverse range of music. Our team is starting to get to know each other and the help and time that the old hands are giving in coaching and teaching the new peeps is amazing as well. Team (and I can call you that, even at this early stage) I know I keep saying it but thank you…

If you were on Twitter last Friday, there is every chance your timeline was swamped by the band Deco with their mash up of Smalltown Boy and Wonderwall, if you haven’t heard it then please check it out. They have been kind enough to take time out to visit (socially distanced of course!) MPR and will be chatting with us on the Sunday Sessions. We will also be joined by 11-year-old Astrid, if you don’t know Astrid, she wowed us all last year with an original composition ‘Little Jazz Singer’ and had to be a guest on our first ever Sessions. We will be talking all things records, Dr Who, and cats (won’t forget the cats!) with Andrew Cartmel, author of the fabulous ‘Vinyl Detective’ series.

We could not have an inaugural Sunday Session without inviting Elberace AKA James Haslam into the studio to cause the campest of chaos. James will also be joining the team with a 7pm show on Saturdays called ‘Divalicious With James’, what has he got instore? I have no idea, but it will be sensational.

While we are talking new shows, Monday sees the triumphant start of The Breakfast Show with Mike Maingard. Yes, I know 3 weeks before I said we would start a breakfast show, but the man is eager to bring the finest tunes, his dulcet tones and the occasional traffic report to you. Starting at 7am he will wake you all with a ‘Well hello there’

There is still time to enter our competition to win Jecca Blac lipsticks. There will be a chance to get your hands on a Celeste signed CD on Sunday night too, and we are still looking for Jingles!

New Releases…

Lilly Winwood, daughter of Steve has stepped clear of her father’s shadow with her debut album ‘Time well spent’.

The machine that is the William Loveday Intention keep producing great (is that 4 albums this past 6 months?) tracks with new album ‘Blud under the Bridge’

Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings get a vinyl re-release of “Just dropped (in to see what condition my rendition is in)”, a must for funk fans.

And of course, Celeste has a self-titled album out…

It’s been a big week here in the heart of Chatham’s Intra. We are all tired but soooo happy, and next week things get even BIGGER!

Shea

Medway Pride Radio is pleased to announce The Superstar DJ Show for 10 to 16 year olds. Every Saturday morning at 10am we will be turning the station over to the next generation for an hour of…. well that’s up to them!

To join, email us for a parental permission slip, then return the slip with your recorded set (29 minute running time please), and choose a suitable DJ name (as we will not broadcast real names), and we will get you on air!

For further details, and a permission slip email In**@me**************.uk

……And it is

I was asked about this back in December (you remember shops were open) by Hilary Cooke. There were many reasons NOT to do this project, and as many reasons to do it, ultimately what convinced me to do it was the passion of Hilary, and her overwhelming belief that we can make things better for all people not just the LGBTQIA+ community.

However, it is with the LGBTQIA+ community where this starts! In the coming weeks and months, we will be reaching out across Medway and indeed much, much further to bring you great music, some fantastic entertainment, a mix of DJ’s and presenters, and hell, we may even do some good locally!

We start broadcasting on Monday at 6pm, and from the beginning you will notice some things that are very different. The starting line up of DJ’s range from those with bags of experience to someone who, as I write this on Thursday night has just ‘gone live’ for the first time, having never done anything like this before (Jayne, you were amazing!). So please bear with us in the first couple of weeks if we don’t quite get everything right, that said I am so very proud of each and every person who has gotten involved. It is a lot of fun, but also a commitment and fair bit of work.

I want to thank my fellow co-founders Hilary and H for partnering with me on this exciting project and putting their faith in me. Sarah, who is designing the social media and putting up with me, and the DJ’s/presenters who have come onboard some at very short notice. All have been working hard this past couple of weeks to create a station we can rightly be proud of, and it would not have happened with everyone’s efforts.

I’ll be posting (mostly) about music every Friday.

In the coming weeks we will be showcasing the great and the good of Medway and beyond, and we will be having a fantastic time doing it. I hope you tune in. I hope you enjoy what you hear, and I hope you feel inspired to get involved either at the station or at one of the community groups we help promote.

It is after all your station, your community, your Medway. Take Pride.

Shea