Providing Truly Local Media And A Community Radio Solution

The Sunflower Fm draws its name directly from the success of the Borough of Oadby & Wigston’s ‘Britain in Bloom’ award in the year of our founding. Since then The Sunflower emblem has become a recognised symbol by the local community. Leicestershire’s smallest Borough, Oadby & Wigston, features a diverse mix of people within a highly populated area which has been deprived of its own dedicated community media service for many years. The Sunflower consists of three organisations, The Sunflower Radio Ltd., The Sunflower Community Radio Association and On-Line which is created by our friends at Ambassador Multimedia. All three enteritis share the same goal, to develop a comprehensive news and information service. We believe that community radio is the most appropriate way to deliver vast and instant information to our area. The Sunflower is predominantly aimed at an adult audience of 16 to 60+ years. Our music output will reflect a variety of well-known chart hits from the '50’s to today' whilst our speech output will always be format information based. Our three main objectives are to provide a focused and positive community news and information service, provide a media training programme and to provide a support platform to assist other non-profit making groups whenever possible.

Thank you for visiting the home of The Sunflower, I sincerely hope you have enjoyed looking around the site and will continue to visit us in the future. In a relatively short time, The Sunflower's website has become very popular with the community. Between February 2007 and March 2008 we have received 182,840 hits of which we have received over 8,000 unique visitors to date. As we do not promote our services outside ‘The Sunflower Region’, it would be fair to say that over 95% of these hits and visitors are from residents and businesses based in the Borough and the surrounding villages. I am always keen to receive constructive comments from the community and with this in mind, feel free to get in touch. Even though I personally have over twenty years of broadcasting experience spanning across both local and national BBC and many Independent commercial radio stations, creating and developing a brand new community media service for the Borough of Oadby & Wigston, as well as producing an extremely comprehensive application to the Government regulator Ofcom has been a huge challenge. The Sunflower stands as my personal testament to a community which my family and decedents have lived and worked in for over four hundred years and my work pays honour to my Wife and Children who have supported me at all costs on this journey.

The Sunflower represents a legacy for the people of the Borough and the surrounding areas whilst providing a valued source of information, entertainment and social gain to thousands and thousands of people. The Sunflower is non-profit making and voluntary based. Unfortunately, The Sunflower is often mistaken as an organisation with mass resources and manpower. The Sunflower is essentially  a very expensive full-time hobby. The reason I do this is to develop something good and decent. The Sunflower is my personal opportunity to do my best and give something back, this is my commitment to the community. I extend my sincere thanks to my family and friends whom have always shown their belief and compassion to both myself and The Sunflower and I sincerely hope you are proud of all that has been achieved so far and that which is to come shortly.

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Click above on the links above to listen to an interview with David Harris Boulter CEO

The Sunflower provides community minded volunteers with a number of ways to get involved. Spaces are available each year for local people from our area to get involved with a variety of areas from marketing to broadcasting. Since our founding the Sunflower has provided a consistent education and training service which is a support mechanism to all of our volunteers. As well as developing our own in-house and out-house training programmes, many of these workshops are carried out in association with other local organisations such as Voluntary Action Oadby & Wigston, Church of England Schools and The Beauchamp College. Whichever part of the media you would like to get involved with, The Sunflower probably has something to offer you. If you are reliable, community minded and can commit to a couple of hours each week and would like to take part in a radio training workshop feel free to get in touch.

Ambassador Multimedia produces this website on behalf of The Sunflower On-Line and considers all press releases, positive community news and information of forthcoming events for publication. It is important to note that we work a month ahead of publication and the best way to submit your story is by email or by dropping a hard copy into Wigston Gallery, Frederick Street, Wigston. We encourage submissions to be accompanied with a relevant photograph. The person submitting the photograph must have copyright control authority to allow publication of the submitted photograph on this website, we will take your submission as full permission to allow our usage of any submitted photograph or journal and any liabilities incurred will remain that of the original submitter. Although we try to accommodate as much journal and audio on this website as possible, we are unable to make any guarantees of publication. This website is generally updated monthly though on occasion this duration may be shorter or longer periods.

Event Attendance

Whilst we make every effort to report from local events, due to our volunteer based status, attendance is subject to the availability of volunteers. We cannot guarantee event attendance on the basis of an invitation, unless the Event Organiser has pre-booked and completed payment for our Indoor or Outside PA events service (booking is subject to availability). Further details can be found on our 'Commerce Page'.

Charity & Non-Profit Publicity

We make every effort to promote charity and non-profit organisations and their fund-raising events. However, such organisations or events must be based within our core service area, Oadby, Wigston, South Wigston, Blaby town (see map above). Prior to publishing any event information, we reserve the right to see proof that an Event Organiser is legitimately working on behalf of a charity or non-profit organisation.

Fund-Raising, Donations & Freebie Services

Due to being a voluntary based, non-profit making, self-funded organisation ourselves, The Sunflower is not in a position to make financial contributions of any kind, be it services or real-term cash. The Sunflower is unable to 'give-away' to any organisation, any service which is featured on the 'Commerce Page'. During 2007, The Sunflower required nearly £8,000 to cover it's own annual running cost and expenses. Revenue generation is extremely important to the upkeep of this service. The Sunflower does not purchase un-solicited advertising from other media promotional services.

The Sunflower has gained recognition and support from many key community organisations and individuals. These include Leicestershire County Council, Oadby & Wigston Borough Council, Voluntary Action Oadby & Wigston, Leicestershire Constabulary, Vista Blind Organisation, The Country & Land Association and The Beauchamp College to mention just a few. The Sunflower Radio Ltd. has also developed a Focus Group which will take full effect upon our organisation being successfully awarded a five year community radio licence from the Governments communication regulator Ofcom. However, Focus Group members from your part of The Sunflower region are happy to represent your issues to The Sunflower now.