Submit an Event

What to send, and what happens to it

Event announcements are read on the live broadcasts and listed on the events page. Anyone running a dance, festival, benefit or club anniversary is welcome to send the details in.

What to include

• Name of the event — as it should be read on air.
• Who is hosting — the club, parish, band or organisation behind it.
• Date and start time, and the finish time if there is one.
• Venue and town. The hall name and the town are what listeners need; a full street address is rarely read out on air.
• Bands playing, with set times if the line-up is fixed.
• Admission — free, at the door, advance tickets, or a benefit donation.
• Anything unusual — a food line, a raffle, a special guest, an anniversary being marked.

Timing

Send details as early as you can. Announcements carry best when they run for two or three weeks before the date, and the live Sunday and Saturday broadcasts are where most listeners will hear them. Anything submitted in the same week as the event will still be read where there is room, but it reaches a smaller audience.

A note on flyers

Flyers are useful for getting the details right, but they are designed for a noticeboard rather than for radio. If you send one, include the key facts as text as well — a host reading an announcement on air needs the name, the date, the venue town and the time, in that order, not a JPEG.

Events that fit the station's audience are listed free of charge. The station does not take a fee for announcements and does not sell listings.

Why announcements still work

It is reasonable to ask why a dance still needs a radio announcement when every hall has a social media page. The answer is the audience. A significant part of the polka audience is older, does not use social platforms, and finds out what is happening by listening — which makes a spoken announcement on a Sunday morning broadcast a more effective way to fill a hall than anything online.

The other half of the answer is trust. An event read out by a host the audience has listened to for years carries an implicit endorsement that a paid listing does not, and organisers know it. That is also why the station does not sell listings: the moment announcements are for sale, they stop meaning anything.