A Celebratory look back at Unity 101’s 2014

A Celebratory look back at Unity 101’s 2014

As 2014 draws to a close, we're taking time to reflect on what we've achieved over the year. Here's just some of our successes:

• covered a range of community events – including Art at the Heart Festival, the Southampton Adult Learner Awards and the Asian Welfare & Cultural Association (AWCA) Awards – interviewing local people enjoying local events.
• covered a range of entertainment events, including PSP Southampton Boat Show, the Southampton & Eastleigh Melas.
• supported a number of new businesses – including Italian Creams, Alauddin Sweets, Roosters Piri Piri – reporting live from their grand openings and interviewing business owners and staff.
• interviewed big name sports personalities – including Chris Jordan, the all rounder for England.
• interviewed big name stars in Bollywood, Indian film and music, including Zakir Hussain.
• interviewed many Brit Asian performers including Jaz Dhami, Naveen Kundra, Tasha Tah, Swami and Fogi Gill.
• worked in partnership with ITV News Meridian to give our volunteers more opportunities in the media.
• worked in partnership with BBC South to give our volunteers more opportunities in the media.

A month by month overview of 2014

January

• We celebrated Unity 101's 8th Anniversary at a lavish awards ceremony at the Novotel.
• We organised a tribute concert for the late Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, one of the biggest names in Pakistani music.

February

• Unity 101 was nominated for the National Diversity Award: Community Organisation for Race, Faith & Religion.
• Unity 101 designed and built a 5th radio studio as part of our extending radio opportunities to local schools and colleges. This time at Oasis Academy Mayfield, where we also trained staff and students in radio broadcasting.

March

• Following a city-wide call out for young people, aged 13-17, to start Unity 101’s first ever programme for young people, six teens were trained in all aspects of radio broadcasting, and formed the Youth 101 team.

April

• Our Youth 101 presenters completed their training and broadcast their first ever radio show packed with fun and entertainment for Southampton’s teenagers.
• Unity 101 reported live from Southampton Sikh community’s Vaisakhi celebrations, held at Southampton Civic Centre.
• We launched a special monthly programme called One Community, Many Stories where elders from the city's diverse communities shared their stories.
• We reintroduced Unity 101’s Bengali radio programme, with two new presenters, Shree and Abanti.

May 

• Unity 101 was the official media sponsor of Southampton’s first ever Asian Wedding Showcase, held at the De’vere Grand Harbour Hotel.
• Approximately 20 Unity 101 volunteers attended Ofcom Broadcast Code Compliance training ran by the Community Media Association, the Media Trust and Ofcom.

June

• Project & Station Manager, Ram Kalyan Kelly, took part in Southampton’s annual Peace Walk – an event he joins each year.
• All Unity 101 volunteers were re-trained on Ofcom’s Broadcast Code and Unity 101’s Code of Conduct in preparation for more live interviews by phone, on Skype and studio guests.

July

• Unity 101 launched a project called Creative Skills To Employment, which trained 12 local unemployed people in radio broadcasting to improve their employability skills, literacy, numeracy and IT skills.
• Alongside Hampshire Fire & Rescue, Sanjha Restaurant and Badi Mirchi Restaurant, Unity 101 broke the Guinness World Record for baking the largest naan bread.

August

• Unity 101 was shortlisted for the National Diversity Award.

September

• We launched our brand new Unity 101 website, designed and developed by our IT Manager, Matt Auckland

October

• We developed and built a portable radio studio for easier outside broadcasts.
• We covered a number of events from Southampton’s Black History Month calendar.

November

• Project & Station Manager, Ram Kalyan Kelly, celebrated his birthday with Unity 101 volunteers.
• Unity 101 sponsored the city’s second Asian Wedding Fair, held at the De’vere Grand Harbour Hotel.

December

• We introduced a new way for people to listen to Unity 101 live when we started broadcasting via our Youtube channel.
• 8th December was the 9th anniversary of the day Unity 101 was awarded its full time licence from Ofcom.