WYC Radio

WYC Radio, the radio programme of Westbury Youth Centre, produces radio reports, podcasts and audio works from Westbury and the wider Johannesburg area. All the publications are produced  by Westbury Youth Centre radio students; all of which has been made  available on the WYC Radio SoundCloud page (https://soundcloud.com/wycradio)

We aim to teach our students  both the technical and expressional skills needed in radio work. This also includes learning about  the use of field recorders, studio equipment and editing software along with sound design skills and the basics of radio journalism.
What do we publish?

WYC Radio brings in stories of survival, stories of hope, hard-hitting stories filled with truth and free of scandal. We use this platform to make known the views, wisdoms, challenges, and humours ,of life in Westbury. We also look to impart unto our listeners the history of Westbury, as well as provide encouragement, push awareness of relevant issues and questioning the things around us. Building legacies, following lives, and looking to the arts to inspire people and bring up issues that we, young WYC Radio reporters and audio enthusiasts wish to engage.  via the means of high quality audio work. We want to take the public speech of our community into our own hands and to showcase the richness of field work radio production, often forgotten in the busy and studio-centered radio we see today.

The WYC Radio programme also entails deeper sound engineering work, such as, audio ID’s and radio adverts for interested and advanced students. You’ll find these kind of works on our SoundCloud by the tags of #ID or #advert.

(soundcloud.com/wycradio.)

Who do we work with?

From the perspective of contacts and cooperation, radio professionals come to Westbury Youth Centre and WYC Radio students visit radio organisations and radio stations. Our key partner in Jozi is a renowned community radio station Eldos FM 87.6 MHz (”Eldos FM 87.6 MHz could be a simple link to http://www.eldosfm.co.za). WYC Radio students’ top stories and top entire talk shows are often broadcasted on Eldos FM. Dankie ma se kind for great cooperation, Bevelyn & co!

Awe, any other radio station in Jozi, if you want to jump on this young revolutionary radio train, please let us know. Our small devoted team at Die Kaas se Stasie station is open to all suggestions.

Our international partners include, such as, various educational institutions in Helsinki, Finland (both upper secondary and university level radio schools), a radio station called Kaupunkiradio as well as many independent musicians.
How is it done?
All our studio equipment (microphones, mixing console, connectors) as well as all the digital fieldwork equipment (mostly zooms) are donations from the radio partners of Westbury Youth Centre. These mainly consisting of Finnish musicians, radio stations and sound engineering professionals. We edit our work with free professional quality sound editing software: Studio One Free. The podcasting work is done with free professional quality studio software: Radio DJ and Audacity. The software used in WYC Radio is chosen based on their quality and free accessibility.

Who is doing WYC Radio?

The passionate students from WYC are responsible for the WYC Radio. From the facilitating perspective, WYC Radio was initiated and established during the period of September 2014 – June 2015, by two Finnish teachers, Matias Harju and Kaisa Osola. Starting from July 2015 they operated as minor fundraisers and international supporters of the programme from Helsinki, Finland. WYC Radio is now proudly led by a three-member team consisting of Martin Bouwers, Chellon Palmer and James Seetelo. Martin Bouwers and Chellon Palmer are former students of the programme. James Seetelo works as the Social Media facilitator of WYC.

Many of the 2014–2015 students run their podcast shows and reportages in our very own working space at Westbury Youth Centre: WYC Sound Hub a.k.a. Die Kaas se Stasie. A new intake of students will start in the beginning of August 2015. Follow the details at WYC Radio Twitter ( twitter.com/WYCRadio) and WYC Facebook (facebook.com/WestburyYouthCentre).

Who to contact?

Martin Bouwers, wycradio@gmail.com, 082 630 4526
Natasha Hein, wycradio@gmail.com, 082 211 0504
Alsenio Philander, wycradio@gmail.com, 083 509 3422

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Sounds fancy? There’s practically no budget allocated for running WYC Radio. To support the programme and to keep radio work in Westbury alive and kicking, come to Friends of WYC Radio atfriendsofwycradio.wordpress.com.