Ujima Radio turns 10

One of Bristol’s most important media institutions reaches the landmark of its tenth birthday this summer, a decade that has seen it become temporarily homeless and battle for funding on a daily basis, but still produce some of the most vital and groundbreaking broadcasting in the city.

Ujima Radio first went on air in July 2008 from its studio in the CEED building in Wilder Street with a remit to serve Bristol’s Afro-Caribbean community.

The CEED building is no longer there; indeed Ujima doesn’t even broadcast from St Paul’s anymore but while community radio stations up and down the country have folded since their first sprouting in the noughties, Ujima – along with its sister station BCfm – is still standing and quietly flourishing, producing an engaging and often thought provoking mix of music (everything from grime to dancehall to r n’ b), speech and community news.

Ujima wouldn’t be where it is today without its loyal team of volunteers

Andrew Hartley, aka DJ Style, has been station manager since 2013 and sees its work as crucial. “It’s given a voice to people who all too often are unheard, to stories that sometimes don’t get the attention they deserve,” he says.

Sometimes, however, Ujima has shaped the media agenda, most notably around the time of an anti-immigration march by far-right group English Defence League in July 2016.

“We looked at how much money was being used to police them when they (the police) were charging the carnival a considerable amount – one of the reasons it didn’t happen that year,” Style said. “We ran with that and some of the mainstream press picked up on it. For a community radio station that’s great.”

There have also been times when Ujima has pushed the boundaries. Around World Aids Day one year they featured a presenter having a live on-air HIV test.

In 2010 they invited a local BNP member to a studio discussion. “At first I was very uncomfortable about that,” admits Style. “But in the end it made for great radio. He got ripped to pieces so I guess ultimately it was a win-win situation.”

More worrying was the time when their landlords hadn’t paid the electric bill and the station temporarily found itself powerless.

“The electric company came along, saying they had a warrant to switch off our supply,” Style recalls. “There was a bit of a standoff and the police got involved. We put out a call to (then mayor) George Ferguson and the various politicians at the council and to be honest they were all very supportive. Eventually, the bill was paid and we were able to get back on air.”

Ujima were awarded gold for National Community Radio Station of the Year at the 2016 Community Radio Awards

St Paul’s and Easton have, of course, changed much in the last decade, as private housing costs have soared, gradually reshaping the areas’ demographics. This in itself brings challenges to the station.

“Our core audience is probably different to what it was 10 years ago,” Style said. “We are less focused on those areas now and I know that some people are passionate that we are not located in St Paul’s anymore. But I’d argue it’s not about where you’re from, it’s about what you continue to do.

“In Bristol, we’ve got more and more people from different cultures coming into the city. We’ve been asked sometimes ‘do we do a Somalian show?’ or ‘do we do a Polish show?’ and indeed a while back we did have a Polish show but we’ve got to be careful we don’t stray too far from our remit. Ultimately, we still have to oblige the licence that has been provided to us by OFCOM.”

But whilst considerable challenges lie ahead, not least financial, in the short term the station’s future is bright.

“We’re as secure as we can be,” confirms Style. “Of course it’s difficult. As a community radio station there are restrictions on where you can get revenue from so it’s always been difficult. But we’re not complacent. And we’ve been here for 10 years now so we must be doing something right.”