POP-UP RADIO SPREADS THE LOVE

THE popularity of the pop-up phenomenon has reached our Northern shores with the country’s 1st pop-up radio station due to be launched at the end of this month in Warrington.

Newlove FM is the brainchild of North-West based charity Newlove Warrington and will run for 2 weeks from 28 June 2009.  After being awarded a radio licence from OFCOM , the radio project gained the backing of DJ Neil Fox on Noel Edmonds’s Sky TV show, Noel’s HQ and soon established a cult status when the original pioneer of Britain’s house music, DJ Graeme Park, volunteered to control the decks as Programme Controller.

With the continuous growing support of celebrity volunteers from soap stars to sporting heroes, Newlove FM has developed into one of the most exciting youth projects to come out of the North West in recent months, and will be producing some of the most unique and exclusive radio on the airwaves this summer.

Newlove Warrington was established last November by Helen Newlove who lost her husband, Garry Newlove, in 2007 when he was brutally murdered by youths after confronting them about vandalism outside his Warrington home.

Helen Newlove said:- “We launched the charity late last year with the aim to make a real difference by speaking directly to the local youth community.  Music inspires, communicates and motivates and we identified it as the most effective route to reach young people.  We never expected to progress this initiative so quickly and I would like to thank all the volunteers involved in this project.”

The radio aims to support the main objectives of Newlove Warrington, which include offering opportunities to inspire and interact with young people in the region.  The programming of the station has been developed and supported by local students at Chester University and local youth groups will be invited to co-host several of the shows. 

All Garry’s daughters are integral to the success of the charity to date and Zoe Newlove, 20, will be co-hosting the breakfast show, following in the footsteps of her dad who was a part time DJ and had a great interest in music.

Zoe adds:- “When we launched the charity, one of our aims was to establish a charity programme focusing on delivering an integrated music and youth education campaign.  It is unbelievably satisfying to be already helping to deliver this aim to the community,”

Newlove FM will be offering young people and budding DJ’s a chance to broadcast on the station, and following the end of the 2 week radio campaign, the bespoke portable radio equipment will be incorporated by the charity into a dedicated education programme in schools and colleges.

World’s 1st computer game distance learning course gets industry backing

THE world’s 1st distance learning course, designed to train would be computer games designers and developers, has been launched by UK training specialist Train2Game (T2G).  The courses have been written by games industry professionals DR Studios and have received the backing of Tiga, the UK’s national association for games software developers, who will become the independent awarding and examination body for the distance learning courses for video games devised by Train2Game.

The new Train2Game courses enable students to achieve a Tiga Diploma in Games Development and Games Design and are the first ever computer games courses that allow trainees to study in their own time, at their own pace, at home or work.

The Train 2 Game courses are structured in easy to follow modules and cover a comprehensive itinerary of subjects; from technical and programming to modelling, design and marketing, that Train2Game claim is comparable with computer games university degree courses.  The courses are competitively priced at around £4,960, thereby potentially offering an affordable route into the games industry.

Richard Wilson, CEO of Tiga, said:- “The UK games development industry has some difficulties finding suitably qualified candidates to fill vacancies in their development studios.  A Tiga survey of game developers last year showed that 63 per cent of respondents had faced skills shortages over the previous 12 months.  Vacancies for programmers were particularly difficult to fill.

The new Train2Game courses are designed by the industry for the industry and are relevant to current industry needs.  Tiga members have an opportunity to provide input into the course content and the exam questions through the Tiga Examinations Committee.  We hope that this new industry-led initiative by Train2Game will increase the supply of well-trained, enthusiastic and employable new entrants into the industry.”

Train2Game claim that experienced games developers are now earning on average around £30,000 a year and maintain their courses will equip students with up to date knowledge and skills to enable them to move into the fast-moving computer games industry.  Train2Game’s Marketing Director, Mike Head, said:- “Leading computer games firms want young people with imagination and vision, who understand games and how to put them together.  That doesn’t always equate with academic success or university graduates, yet because a student hasn’t done too well at school or hasn't gone to college, it shouldn’t stop them breaking into something they really want to do and could potentially be very good at, such as games development.  We set up Train2Game to bridge that gap.”   For details visit:- www.train2game.com.