Magpie's Folk Cafe reaches 300

First airing 21 December 2014, Patrick Moss's Magpie's Folk Cafe began going out monthly, with Patrick wondering if he would have enough material even for a monthly show focused on local folk music. However from the very first show, Patrick was approached by unsigned artists and he soon realised that there was a wealth of talent in the local area. Switching to fortnightly and later weekly, the artists featured are mostly within a 30 miles radius from Frome.

Now about 10 years later, Patrick has been celebrating the 300th edition of the show. with special musician guests in the studio Sue Harding, Sara Vian, Brad Conyer, and Pete Vincent.

Part of Patrick's motivation for the show is using community radio as a great platform for music & social justice. "Folk is what I know and can talk about" said Patrick. Folk songs tell stories and Patrick doesn't just play the music but finds out about the story behind the songs. Patrick proudly talks of the successes and awards that artists appearing on his show have, and of the show’s following among artists.

The weekly show offers an hour of folk music, every Sunday between 7-8pm. Currently it is a mix of selected repeats and new shows with some guest presenters lined up.

Previous shows, as with most of FromeFM's output, can be listened anytime on MixCloud from the programme page.
‍https://www.frome.fm/programmes/magpies-folk-cafe

Patrick has also hosts Robins Nest, currently on sabbatical, a show for Football in Frome. The monthly show has been running roughly monthly for the past 5 years. https://www.frome.fm/programmes/the-robins-nest

There are several other still broadcasting shows that have notched up a similar number of editions, more about them another time.

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