Portsmouth's newest community station, Unmade Radio, starts on Monday

Once, pirate radio conjured images of broadcasting from tower blocks, one step ahead of the authorities trying to close them down. But times have changed, and online broadcasting means it is much easier to set up a legitimate station.

Despite one of its founder's roots in pirate radio, Unmade Radio aspires to the lofty goals of being ‘inclusive, reactive and always progressive.’ And its mission statement continues: ‘The sound will be new, forward-thinking, alternative or rare, but never none of the above.’

Broadcasting out of Victory Business Centre in Fratton, the fledgling station already boasts shows covering a dizzying array of styles, from jazz to hip-hop, indie, world and a broad gamut of electronic music – and doesn’t stop there, there will also be shows dedicated to mindfulness, meditation, spoken word and poetry.

But whatever the sounds, there is one common thread – a passion for the subject matter and a desire to help the community.

The station is the brainchild of Nathan Beattie, 31, and Molly Penney, 26.

Nathan played grime and garage records on pirate radio as a teenager in his hometown of Wolverhampton before moving south.

‘I did that for about four years and I loved it so much, it's always been close to my heart to be involved in radio again – it's a burning passion of mine.

‘Although it was a pirate, it really brought the community together and it supported local businesses and gave people a platform.

‘Down here, they have had pirate stations in the past, but none of them have kept going for whatever reason. And then the main radio stations like Wave, they do their thing, but they don't have the same voice for alternative music. I think there’s a niche for what we want to do. This has been something I've been thinking about for a long time.’

Nathan and Molly got together about a year ago, and it was her who gave Nathan the push to act on his dream.

Conversely, he got her into DJing.

‘Lockdown has given me a lot of time to practice,’ says Molly, ‘and he's been a really good tutor. I only actually DJed outside of the house for the first time in October at the We Create Market, so that was a bit scary. I've always been involved in music in different ways, but from a very different route, from the classical side – like in choirs, or playing classical guitar or violin. As I got older I've definitely found that progressive electronic music is where my love lies.’

While only online for now, the team behind Unmade intend to apply for a DAB licence further down the line.

‘I was really against an online station at first,’ say Nathan. ‘I quite like the ease of locking into FM and people can just stumble across it, but after doing a lot of research, we found we can have an app for Android and an app for iPhones, so we're going to have that and that increases the ease of access.

‘There's licensing involved with DAB and quite a hefty application form.

‘You still need a PRS and PPL licence to broadcast music, but it's a lot cheaper then the DAB route.’

Molly adds: ‘And it's easier to get a DAB licence if they see you've been doing community outreach things with the station.’

The community side is very important to the pair – they model themselves partly on Rinse FM, the London-based dance music station, which originally operated as a pirate station for many years.

‘They do a lot of work for their community in London, says Molly. ‘The more legitimate the route you go down, the more public outreach we can do with formal institutions, like education establishment and with other employers – it gives you that gravitas rather than being a bit shady!’

Nathan explains the reason behind their ethos: ‘My degree is in sociology and criminology, but my dissertation was actually on the holistic impact of music on young people, and the closure of youth clubs and how the community really misses youth clubs and music – together they steer teenagers away from crime and things like that. It's something quite close to my heart.

‘We just think that music has such a positive impact on communities and bringing people together.’

With Molly a Portsmouth native, and Nathan having lived here now for several years, both love the city.

‘It's really nice to be able to make something happen in the place I love most,’ says Molly.

Nathan adds: ‘And it's such a unique place, and there's such a lot of talent here, and I think it's important - with radio you can sort of make something from nothing. All you need is eager people to be involved, and there's so many eager people here.

Molly says: ‘We just want people to have something they're really passionate about and want to share. We want to be a platform for that.’

They’re also keen to reach beyond their own tastes, as Nathan says: ‘I like garage and house and electronic music, but it's important to us for the station to be representative of Portsmouth. If it's not, then it's not a community radio station, is it?

‘In Portsmouth and Southsea there's lots of varied little subcultures – some people are really into pysch-rock, and there's a techno thing, we want it to be as broad as possible, but that's not our doing, that's just us putting the net out there and saying: “What are you into? Would you like a show?”’

Molly says: ‘Because we don't have a large marketing budget, we rely so much on word of mouth and people telling friends and recommending it, so far that's been really successful, with someone saying: “Oh do you know this person? They'd love to be involved...”

After several months of laying the groundwork, the station made its public debut at the October WeCreate market on the former Debenhams site in Southsea. They returned there for the December market as well.

Molly recalls: ‘It was the first time out with the brand we wanted to gauge people's reception, see if people would be interested. It went really well and we had lots of people come over and asking about it and were curious.

‘That was nice and quite validating – until then it had literally just existed as a concept in our living rom and kitchen, then to see it as this tangible, real thing was a bit mad.’

Behind the scenes, the pair have had a working group of friends, colleagues and fellow DJs helping them out.

‘We wouldn't have been able to do this without other people pulling together and helping us – we've had that community spirit from the get-go.’

Councillor Steve Pitt, in charge of leisure and culture matters for Portsmouth City Council has been one of those key early supporters.

Cllr Pitt says: ‘They want to showcase what could be broadly described as alternative types of music, and as we come out of the pandemic, hopefully, in 2021 and we try to get the live music scene going again, having a radio station that's committed and dedicated to showcasing different genres will help some of those local bands to gain exposure who desperately need to get out there and make a noise again.

‘It's a real eclectic mish-mash for anyone who likes anything other than what's on the normal pop charts, which is most people I tend to find!

‘It is exciting and the sort of thing Express have done bits of over the years, but to have a whole station devoted to it is great.’

The aim is to broadcast 24 hours a day, but to begin with will be 4pm-midnight weekdays and 8am-midnight on weekends.

Go to unmaderadio.com or find them here on Instagram and Facebook.

Other community radio stations in our area

* Angel Radio bills itself as ‘the home of pure nostalgia’ and broadcasts out of Market Parade in Havant on 89.3FM, DAB and at angelradio.co.uk.

* Express FM operates out of Portsmouth’s city centre, with programming ‘that celebrates life in South East Hampshire’. They can be found on 93.7FM, DAB and expressfm.com.

* The Flash is on 104.3FM, DAB and at theflashonair.co.uk. Started in 2012, it is run entirely by volunteers, promoting the talents of local unsigned bands, musicians, and singer-songwriters in the greater Portsmouth area.

* The Fort Radio focuses on ‘House, techno, drum & bass, soul, funk, jazz, hard-house, trance’, and can be found on facebook.com/OfficialFortRadio or go to thefortradio.co.uk.