Paul Griffiths
January Award
Paul is a super talented radio presenter and part of the team behind Wrexham’s Premier Radio Station.
Premier Radio was born during the first lockdown of the Covid pandemic as a tool to help with communication, give information, cope with stress, mental health, loneliness, and other issues, while people were in isolation. The station was set up by Paul and fellow presenter Mark Jones post lockdown and due to the overwhelming and heartwarming feedback they received, from listeners, politicians, councillors, and businesses they had realised that they needed to bring LOCAL Radio back to Wrexham. The station has grown, exceeding all expectations and they have now formed a not for profit, Community Interest Company (CIC) as a result. There is a vision and mandate for the station, which now has its own studio complex at Eagles Meadow Shopping Centre.
Paul has worked in a professional and media capacity for over 20+ years. He has worked for the local radio station and says he has seen the acquisition of it from various larger radio groups, witnessing firsthand how a majority of shows now come from studios in London or Bristol etc, taking a lot of the localness out of Wrexham’s stations, making them national brands, with advertising prices to match, that are unaffordable to small local high street businesses.
Premier Radio wishes to change this and not only aspires to become a local radio station for Wrexham, but an integrated part of the community. It is offering a platform for local people from our society, even those with no qualifications, prospects to get involved in radio/ media and learn new skills from presenting shows, editing, creative, news reading, news gathering, music management, journalism etc. They are gaining vital experience and training, that might be able to help their prospects, as well as encouraging more media trained local people for Wrexham’s digital future.
The station also aims to offer a more local cost-effective advertising opportunity to businesses to a more locally targeted audience (Wrexham) than being on an almost networked station, helping encourage and grow local business.
They are also committed to helping other social enterprises, business startups, charities, and organisations to reach a local audience and raise awareness, promoting their products, services, and events. All not for profit organisation or services, charities or something that will benefit our community WILL NEVER pay for advertising on the station and they hope to build lasting relationships with these services, so that they can continually help their cause and raise awareness of anything they do in the future. The station encourages and actively seeks anyone from such organisations to contact them studio@premier-radio.co.uk
The station would also like to promote the area, venues, local talent, performers, artists, and bands in our area and are proposing to be live from venues around Wrexham on a regular basis.
You can access the station on www.premier-radio.co.uk . On any smart speaker or device including Alexa, the Premier Radio App which is available via Apple or Android app stores, which also enables you to message the studio Live when DJ's are on air, plus all radio apps such as Radio Garden and My Tuner Radio plus many more
They are always looking for local people to get involved in the station, and currently have 35 volunteers.
Well done, Paul! “Helping put the Unity back into our community”.