On the air, in the air, everywhere (on and off)...

This has been a big weekend for Frome. Last night the community radio station officially took to the airwaves on 96.6 (despite its name, Frome-FM had only broadcast on the internet up until now). The launch took place at the Assembly Rooms and the Fromarati was out in force. Following a witty "fasten your seat belts" montage from manager Phil Moakes, the first prog proper was a chat show hosted by Sam Phripp and featuring local celebs Luke Leighfield, Mark & Caroline McGann, Cara Dillon and Sam Lakeman, with music from The Bad Detectives. Unsurprisingly the questions were hardly stiletto-like, but the likeable Phripp did a pretty good job. And while he floundered a bit towards the end and the show outstayed its welcome by about 10 minutes, the first 50 were highly entertaining.

So we all wandered off into the Fromian twilight with high hopes for the future of our local station, now all grown up and able to go out on its own on car radios, transistors and radiograms across East Somerset and West Wiltshire. Unfortunately, the best laid plans...

Day One has been a bit of a disaster. Long periods of 'dead air', programmes being abruptly terminated, sponsors messages fading out midstream and so on. One of the flagship launch shows, an ambitious production of Shakespeare's 'The Rape Of Lucrece' with Frome Drama Club, fell foul of the automated play-out system and we were denied Lucrece's tragic end by the technology.

FF-M is a great asset to the town. Run entirely by volunteers, much of its programming is very good indeed and the new frequency will enable it to reach more listeners than ever before. But in these days of multiple media choices, people are notoriously impatient and will quickly re-tune if the output is not up to scratch. Hopefully the glitches of today are merely teething problems and will quickly be cured by the radio equivalent of a dose of clove oil.

www.fromefm.co.uk