Two years ago I volunteered to help bring the Ulster-Scots Agencies community radio station to the Maghera area. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and throughout out two week transmission we were inundated with text messages, requests and local community event notification. In my opinion it showed a strong demand for more permanent community radio in Northern Ireland but as the law on copyright currently stands it is prohibitively expensive to get a licence from OFCOM which covers royalty expenses for music played over the air to the various music licensing bodies. The other thing that stood out for me was the deep vein of talent in the local community. Many of the artists allowed us to record them and some of the video is available on my Ulster-Scots YouTube channel 
One of my favourite discoveries was Leona Lees performing Dark is the colour
The other artist that caught my eye was John Burns of Burns Estate Agents (Maghera / Magherafelt). He performed Elvis and Roy Orbison and we were inundated by people with requests about where they could buy a CD. Well the wait is finally over as John Burns has released a charity CD in aid of local Cancer Charity - Charis
To give you a taster - here is the John Burns interview as broadcast by fUSe FM (organised by South Londonderry Ulster-Scots Association) in Maghera in August 2008.
For anyone interested in purchasing a CD please contact myself (alan at ulster-scots.co.uk) or Hugh Brownlow on 07716754995 .
We are hoping to bring fUSE FM back to Maghera / Mid-Ulster in the near future.
Ulster-Scots Online
Maghera - J Burns Interview Radio Fuse
Download now or listen on posterous
01-Maghera - J BURNS INTERVIEW RADIO FUSE.mp3 (18611 KB) Download now or listen on posterous
