Radio Maria England is inviting listeners to donate radios to those who could not otherwise access the station, through a scheme sponsored by the Radio Maria International Family. Donors pay for small DAB radios which will be given to the housebound in Greater London and Cambridgeshire, where the Catholic station broadcasts through local networks. It is available nationally online.
The 24-hour station, founded in Cambridge 2019 by Dr Charles Wilson, opened a London studio last September at St Dominic’s Priory, the Rosary Shrine in Kentish Town, when Fr Toby Lees OP took over as its priest director.
Fr Toby told The Tablet that the station offered something “less angry, less coarse” and could help to “build a nourishing culture” in the Church.
“Surely we can offer something better than what’s out there?” he said, arguing that many people had an appetite for more thoughtful content than that offered by contemporary culture. He noted that the station appealed to people who might be turning away from BBC Radio 4.
Dr Wilson – an oncologist who listened to Radio Maria France while conducting radiotherapy, before founding the station in England – said that the station’s weekly audience figures stand at around 5,000, but reported fast growth in the past two years.
Radio Maria was founded in Italy in 1987 as a parish radio station, but expanded across the whole country over the next three years. There are now 77 Radio Maria stations across the world which record 500 million listeners. Each station is run independently under the Radio Maria World Family, with surplus donations to the most successful stations in continental Europe and Africa funding new ventures such as Radio Maria England.
The stations are prohibited from taking advertising and from supporting political positions. The notoriously partisan Radio Maryja Poland, which has been accused of anti-Semitism and disowned by much of the Polish Church, does not belong to the wider group.
Radio Maria England’s schedule comprises sacred music and liturgies broadcast from churches around England and Wales, as well as news bulletins, discussion programmes and phone-in shows. Its youth team, RMEY Faith Vibe, won the “most innovative” award at the national Young Audio Awards in March last year.
Fr Toby said that the station endeavoured to broadcast “whatever’s good, whatever’s the best, whether it's traddy or happy clappy”.
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