A new Belfast radio station broadcasting from a 10-by-12-foot record shop has attracted 11,000 listeners in its first month, with over a hundred people lining up to do shows after the BBC slashed local music programming.

Radio Starr began broadcasting from Starr Records, based at the Oh Yeah! Music Centre in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter in early November.

Sinead Green, one of the female-led radio station’s co-founders told the Irish News that the station was formed to fill a gap in the market after the BBC cut local music programming.

Earlier this year, BBC Radio Ulster’s long‑running Across the Line new music programme was shelved, drawing criticism from some quarters that locally‑focused music opportunities were being sidelined.

Ms Green says there are a lot of things that make Radio Starr different from other broadcasters in Belfast.

“It is one of, in fact I think it’s the only, record shop radio station hybrid on the island. It runs from a footprint of 10 by 12 foot, so it’s really tiny on top of being a hybrid shop,” she said.

“What makes the output different for us is that it’s female-led, and our commitment is to showcase and platform underrepresented voices within Belfast and the wider arts community in Northern Ireland.

“We are also committed to being female-led, with 50-plus per cent of our output from female, global majority or underrepresented voices.”

Ms Green says that the idea for the radio station, which broadcasts shows currently from Wednesday to Sunday each week with continuous music at other times, came from a sense of duty to the city’s arts scene.

“With the amount of funding cuts the arts have suffered, especially in Northern Ireland, it felt like something we felt obliged to do, to provide some kind of platform,” she said.

“It felt like somebody needed to do this. There was a massive gap there as the city has so many creative and talented people. We don’t have any budget. We don’t get any funding. We pay for everything ourselves.

“There is now a lot less local music programming on BBC Radio Ulster, which used to be the lifeblood of emerging talents, so we are saying to artists to come and use our platform instead.”

She says that despite only being on air for a number of weeks that the station has also been hugely successful with listeners across the globe.

“We have listeners in Japan and the Faroe Islands — all these really strange places. The amount of hosts, DJs, artists and bands coming through is phenomenal. I cannot keep up with the amount of submissions I’m getting,“ she said.

“We had 11,000 listeners in our first month. For a first month, that’s up there with established stations.”

And now people are lining up to take part and get their voices heard on the station, with many from across the UK, Ireland, and Europe wanting to have their voices heard on the Belfast station.

“At the minute we have regular 148 presenters. Some are weekly, some fortnightly, some monthly,” she said.

“I have hosts coming from Dublin, a guy from Nottingham got in touch. Another guy from London who edits Spotify playlists asked to do a show. I’ve even had people from Estonia contact me asking for a show, I’m hearing daily from across Europe. People want to make a connection to Belfast and they also want to hear what Belfast has to say.

“We’re not discerning in terms of what we think editorially or culturally should be listened to. We just want to platform voices.

“We have jazz, soul and funk, and a licensed sex therapist from Australia coming on. In January we’re working with Black Moon, a group for adults with learning disabilities through the Black Box. They’ll have a monthly rotating DJ host.

“Because we’re not a commercial station, we don’t have to subscribe to anyone else’s idea of what we should be. There’s a bit of freedom with it.

“We want it to be Belfast-made and born community radio, but arts-focused, and so we want to get a real cross-section of people living here or from here.

“I suppose in a lot of ways we want it to be a little dream factory and really show what is possible here.”

To listen to Radio Starr or to find out more, go to https://www.radiostarr.co.uk