Broadcast deal will spread environmental message

Organic Energy is the lead sponsor of Kingston Green Radio, which has been granted a special licence to broadcast on FM in May.

The station is available 24 hours a day on the internet, but is also available on 87.9FM until May 25 on a special licence, to coincide with the Royal Borough of Kingston’s Paint the Town Green Festival.

Andy Boroughs, of Shrewsbury, is the managing director of Organic Energy. He said: “Kingston Green Radio is dedicated to highlighting the environmental challenges in our society, a commitment we are delighted to be supporting.

“Kingston Green Radio is run by a small volunteer organisation headed by Sam Hermitage, the station manager. Sam and I have worked together for more than 20 years on the Green Fields site at Glastonbury, and I’m pleased that we are in a position to offer backing to a brilliant community initiative.”

“As a company which also promotes sustainability and has provided our ÖkoFEN wood pellet boiler systems to many community heating projects, this sponsorship deal is a great fit for us.”

The sponsorship includes on-air opportunities for Welshpool-based Organic Energy to promote its renewables message as well as potential interviews and debates focused on sustainable heating technologies, including solar thermal, biomass boilers and PV.”

Mr Hermitage added: “We are really pleased to have received this backing from Organic Energy, a company which we know very well and which supports us also on our internet-streamed radio.

“Sponsoring a community radio station is beneficial for business, and given Organic Energy’s focus on renewable energy, it is a perfect lead sponsor for KGR.

“Although always with its eyes on the wider issues of the world, KGR’s primary purpose is to is to focus on Kingston. Not only looking in depth at the many activities, events and dates going on with PTTG, but also some of the challenges of the past and the future for our wonderful environmentally friendly borough.”

Programming on KGR, broadcasting from the Environment Centre in Kingston, will also feature interviews with local environmental experts, special guests and a mix of eclectic music classics and festival favourites. This is the fourth month-long FM licence for the radio, which has previously features guests and interviews with former director of the Soil Association Patrick Holden and environmentalist Brigit Strawbridge.

Organic Energy will be at the Environmental Centre on May 19, with the ÖkoFEN trailer containing a working wood pellet boiler, for the Green Open Day. The company would be delighted to meet with any potential installers as well as anyone interested in installing renewable technologies in their homes, businesses or organisations.

The Paint the Town Green Festival is a month of green-themed events and activities around the borough, putting environmental and sustainability issues firmly in the spotlight.