Liz Hardwick
Station Manager / Technician
Liz’s first few jobs were working in corner shops and off-licenses, which instilled the down-to-earth persona and understanding of hard graft. She first found her links with arts and media, volunteering as a Technical Assistant at the Chorley Summer Arts Festival and radio station in 2001. Volunteering a few years later for an RSL in Preston, she was soon asked back to freelance as Station Manager for the following broadcasts.
While completing her BSc(Hons) in Media Production and Technology at UCLAN, Liz carried on freelancing as a Digital Media Producer, working with a wide variety of clients ranging from Rolls Royce Plc. to most recently, Manchester Cornerhouse.
The last major project Liz ran before joining yOur Prescap, was with the young homeless community of Preston, for the local branch of the charity Barnardo’s. The project saw Liz supporting the service users of Barnardo’s to speak out about their struggles and stories while being homeless, and even to produce their own content for a promotional DVD, aimed at offering confidential guidance and support to service users being met with the assistance available through the charity for the first time.
As Liz was part of the initial team that started up Preston FM, she has had many amazing and memorable days; including the first RSL with just 20 volunteers, the 2nd and 3rd studio purchases, the 3 main station moves, the first day of full time broadcasting with a community radio license, volunteer events, and days when all the technology “just worked”, but most of all Liz’s best days at work would have to be “when you see a volunteer hit a milestone, that makes you think, yep this is why I do this job – it could be someone doing their first show live, someone telling you that the support has helped them get over their depression, or just seeing volunteers who you know wouldn’t normally talk in the street, standing around having a brew and a chat. We are a community group firstly, and it’s nice to see that community ethos is in everything we do”.
Liz’s ambitions for yOurPreston FM are to support more creative sound art content production, share content and network staff and volunteers with other community media, and for yOur Prescap to also turn it’s hand to digital video, television, music and media to provide a spectrum of training and volunteering opportunities.
Liz’s favourite river has to be the Leeds and Liverpool canal, as it runs right though lots of Lancashire towns, including Chorley, Liz’s home town. “I’ve spent many hours walking up and down it, and most of all it’s great because the canal’s even got a community of it’s own.”
