About Bere Island Community Radio
2024 will mark six years of Bere Island Community Radio broadcasting to Bere Island, Beara and Sheeps Head on FM Radio, as well as worldwide on our internet stream. By any standard this is a huge achievement by a small group of volunteer broadcasters mainly from the communities of Bere Island and the Beara Peninsula, most especially as no one had any previous experience in broadcasting. Our community radio has also benefited in the last four years with weekly reports, or segments, delivered by the Transition Year Students of Scoil Phobail Bhéara, and also students in Scoil Mhichil Naofa, our primary school here in Bere Island, both of which add greatly to our programming.
From small beginnings as a Partner in an EU Research Project with co-partner UCC, and 5 other EU countries, BICR has built its own audience in the best tradition of community radio broadcasting; from the community, by the community, for the community.
During Covid, BICR kept the communities of Bere Island, Beara and Sheeps Head informed, entertained and connected, most especially with the great Beara Diaspora, spread far and wide around the globe. It has also “toured” to several islands off the west coast of Ireland, broadcasting its Sunday show, Beara and Beyond, from those islands, connecting with them and bringing us all closer together. We have as well, broadcast from Festivals in Castletownbere, Allihies and Sheeps Head. BICR has also broadcast live GAA matches and entire All Islands GAA Football Competitions. In addition, BICR has delivered several workshops on community radio and, more recently, podcasting.
Recently, Bere Island Community Radio set up an Audience Feedback Survey. Since our audience is the reason we broadcast every week, we wanted to give all of them an opportunity to give us feedback, and to suggest ways we can make our community radio better for everyone. The feedback was anonymous and will form part of a new Plan for the next phase of our development. Watch this space for the next phase of BICR!
However, we depend largely on Volunteers, and if you would like to help out in any of the many areas that go into making the various broadcasts, do please contact us, we would love to hear from you.
About Bere Island
Bere Island lies at the entrance to Bantry Bay, creating a deep water harbour to Castletownbere, the largest white fish port in Ireland. The island is 11 kilometres, east to west long and 5 kilometres north south wide in size, with a population of just under 200.
The British military had a particular interest in the island in bygone years with the remains of many of the military fortifications still to be seen. You can take the ferry from Castletownbere Pier across to the western end of Bere Island or the ferry from the Pontoon to the eastern end.
CALL, TEXT OR WHATSAPP THE STATION
083 151 1100
