During the first lockdown one Knaresborough man and his cousin set up a new radio station to share their passion for DJing.
Andy Bolton from Knaresborough and Alex Render from Hull set up Locked Down Radio on Facebook in April 2020. Over the last 18 months they have moved to streaming on Mixcloud and hit 10,000 listeners in a week.
The pair had previously just played to family or put videos on Facebook but set up the radio station whilst they were stuck at home.
In the daytime Mr Bolton works as a high school teacher and Mr Render as a plumber but at night they stream live to hundreds of listeners as Rebs and Rendez.
The pair have now pulled together a rota with 30 international DJs. There are dance and house sets as well as themed nights such as Rock night.
Mr Bolton said:
“It was my cousin who set up the Facebook page after saying I should put my DJ videos out there. We got family involved at first then wanted to be a little more professional.
“We want to keep growing. We have loved everything we have done so far and are extremely proud of what we have achieved, we still don’t even know where this will take us, but we have some big ideas!”
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The pair said setting up Locked Down Radio has become a passion project for them and a way to bring the family together with a promotion team now on board the men are hoping to keep growing.
Their first live event will go ahead in Hull this weekend.
A website has now been launched with hopes of developing this to broadcast live on the site.