SHANE KEANEand DANIEL RODGERSof Carrick-on-Shannon Community School on their own radio station

THE 2TY3 radio station has been set up by the Transition Years of Carrick-on-Shannon Community School in Co Leitrim. The station began in the form of half-hour lunchtime shows, with such titles as Infferred FM, Lunchtalk, Radio Nowhere, 4 CENTand Wireless. They were a huge success, with many of the local businesses showing interest in advertising to the student population. As a result of the good feedback from students and teachers alike, the Transition Year students decided to set their sights on bigger and better things – streaming live over the internet.

The TY project of streaming over the internet entered its final stage of production in early March. With the the date for the launch night set for the second week in March, the Transition Year class had to make one final push to make sure that this ambitious project worked.

The entire class, and their hard-working teachers, had their work cut out for them over those past few weeks. Many within the school had been sceptical that this project would even make it past the development stage, let alone be a working radio station. But a massive group effort has led to a, thus far, promising project.

2TY3 began at the start of the school year when Peter Nyland was appointed the Media Studies teacher and Joe Bambrick the IT teacher. Over the next few months he began to teach the Transition Year group the basics of presenting and mixing desk work, which allowed the class to produce their daily radio shows – still being broadcast to the school and now over the internet.

Soon after, the Transition Year group decided that they would present shows on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday after school from five until seven. Each day’s time will be divided between two hour-long shows.

Tuesdays will be Wireless and Radio Nowhere, on Wednesdays listeners will be treated with the shows 5CJest and Radiowaves and, finally, on Thursdays will be a show by one of the school’s teachers, Mr Woods, followed by Infferred FM. Each show will be different, appealing to as many audiences as possible. Infferred FM will be a request show with listeners being able to request songs through the studio e-mail address 2TY3studio@gmail.com. Wireless will be a show focusing on rock music while also giving an outlet for local talent to perform. Radio Nowhere will be a talk show with a focus on sport while Radiowaves and 5CJest will be a mix between talk and music.

The launch night was on Thursday March 12th, and entertainment was provided by a band called Sugarush, made up of former students of the school.

If you would like to listen to us simply go to www.carrickcs.ie and follow the links.