With so many noises competing for attention these days it’s difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff but a radio station that has only been around less than a year may well have found a formula that does exactly that. Black Deer Radio was created by a small team determined to develop the brand created for the very successful festival and to bring Americana music to a mainstream audience thus creating a platform for both established acts and those coming up from the grassroots of the UK music industry whilst also providing hours of mighty fine listening. It is available in all the app stores, CarPlay, etc., and appears to be completely user-friendly whether on your device or PC.
So how did this radio station seemingly designed with visitors to this website in mind come about?
Gill Tee, co-creator of the Black Deer Festival and Radio explains: “When the idea of starting a festival of Americana back in 2017 became a reality with our first Black Deer Festival in 2018, it was always with the mindset that it would not stop at a festival, but become a trusted brand with an ethos that could translate into other ideas to showcase the wonderful world of Americana! Radio always seemed to be a natural progression. Chris Russell-Fish and I had already talked at length about this as our next step to take the brand forward. I had a 12-year history working in radio, so for me to be able to join my old world with the new seemed like a no-brainer. My colleague from my Capital Radio days, Neil Fox, had been to Black Deer a few times and absolutely loved it. Introducing Neil to Chris, we talked together about how we could take the next steps to make the idea of having our own radio station a reality. With a top-class team, the station is going brilliantly and is an exciting part of Black Deer’s future. This, along with the success of the Black Deer Live shows, is just the beginning. We have lots more ideas to develop other Black Deer strands. Watch this space!! “
BD Managing Director Chris Russell-Fish states: “From the launch of the station last summer (2024), our aspiration has always been clear – to become the ‘Home of Americana Music’ – in all its forms, engaging across the entire genre, with other music events/festivals, promoters, venues and most importantly, artists. As our radio slogan states – ‘Americana Music, Easy to Love, Hard to Define’ – provides us the privilege to work with a wide variety of artists, wherever they find themselves in that definition. If you listen to our daily “Hangin’ Out with… ” interview sessions, everyone has their own perspective and story to tell, which I believe gives our radio station, a unique opportunity to inform at a very personal and individual level. This is demonstrated, amazingly, by our listening figures which now include many other territories. Our station provides a platform for many emerging artists (not just through the Black Deer Live Events shows at grassroots venues), by ensuring their music, interviews, and gigs form an important part of the station content, along with of course, very well-known artists – which encompasses our ethos of expanding the awareness of the Americana genre, and supporting artists tell their stories to ever increasing new listeners.”
Great to have this radio station. Anyone know how you can find out what its music policy is? Is it just continuous music? I can see DJs listed, but only for several days ago. When does Keith do his news roundup?
Hi Peter
Glad you’re enjoying.
Currently the music plays 24/7 interrupted by occasional ads and features as well as music news every two hours
Neil does a show on Saturday mornings which also features three more detailed music news stories every hour.
The plan is to expand in every direction over the next year with more shows, artist interviews, live gigs etc.
Thanks. I’m enjoying hearing the music, but I also appreciate that the song title and name of the artist is shown. I find it frustrating listening to some radio stations on DAB where they don’t do this