LSR take heart from keeping the Faith

LSRfm programme recognised at award ceremony

By Victoria Gray

One of Leeds Student Radio’s weekly programmes has been specially recognised at a national awards ceremony.
    ‘Faith in the City’, broadcast every Sunday at 9pm, was presented with the Christian Broadcasting Council’s (CBC) Heart Award for Best Christian Speech Radio Programme on February 25.

Although the BBC won the overall award, the team were commended for their high quality of work and the pioneering of Christian broadcasting on student radio. The show was among the nominees specially recognised by the judges as it “really caught their heart”.  
    Anna Richardson, the show’s producer and presenter, said: “It is a fantastic honour for a student radio show to be recognised alongside more senior programmes, and I want to thank LSR for supporting us throughout our time on air, we feel truly blessed.”
    On the air since September 2008, ‘Faith in the City’ is a discussion based show addressing what faith means to students in Leeds today, hoping to attract listeners of any or no faith.
They aim to provide a space to faithfully and honestly express views on Christianity and thus break down stereotypes, and base their discussion topics around the premise that students rarely have a neutral forum to explore faith, something that could have a monumental effect on their lives.
    The CBC, a charitable body which aims to encourage the depth of the Christian Media Industry through equipping and promoting its membership, held its annual awards in London last month.
    Faith in the City’s team attended the day, which consisted of a debate in the House of Lords with Lord George Carey, an ex-Archbishop of Canterbury, and Baroness Caroline Cox, followed by the award ceremony in the evening, where they were presented with the award by Olive Snelling, CBC’s CEO.
    Snelling mentioned her delight with the strong message of the show, noting the closing gap between volunteer run programming and professionally produced material.