AT NCB Radio, we’ve been broadcasting for nearly 15 years having launched on January 7, 2011 and it has to be said, that this summer has been among our favourites – as we’ve mentioned before, it has been a real pleasure to take part in the summer of events in Bodmin.

It got us thinking about the town where we began our journey and where several of our presentation team are based and if you’re reading this outside of Bodmin, you might have an impression that does not meet reality.

Bodmin has come on a long way in the last few years. Yes, it has its challenges like any place does whether that might be crime, poverty, anti-social behaviour and such forth. But look beyond that and it is a place with a real community heart.

Across the summer, for example there was something for the family every Saturday, completely free of charge.

It began with the Sports in the Park on the same day as the equally excellent Alstock music festival and continued with the KBSK fun day, the resounding success that was Bodmin Carnival, the Fusion X event at the skate park, circus skills at Narisa Lawn, the highly successful Wild Wonders animal encounter day and culminating with Movies in the Park. Well, church, for the weather tried to spoil the fun. Anyway.

There are also some excellent community groups in the town – whether that’s the aforementioned KBSK, the fantastic young people with additional needs that comprise Equally Abled, the Age Concern and Silver Surfers for the older members of the community, the MIKES Trust which was created by the family of Mike Allen after his death and much more. We’d be here all day if we listed them all.

Actually, we’ll give you one more too – the Bodmin Way organisation led by the town’s church which help some of the most vulnerable in our town each week and bring townsfolk together.

It is also a town where the community comes together in times of negativity – a good example being with the recent defacement of the St Lawrence’s war memorial with graffiti. Within hours on a day where it was absolutely throwing it down with rain, the town council along with members of the public and the esteemed former mayor of Bodmin, Andy Coppin were all working together to get rid of the defacement of the tribute to the war fallen which previously worked at St Lawrence’s Church.

A lot goes on in our town and one of our missions as NCB Radio going forward is to celebrate the community here and also elsewhere, which is why we’ve launched the ‘Bodmin and Beyond’ social media pages – there will also be a section on our new website when it’s built. Watch this space on that one.

Finally, a big welcome back to Tony P and Doreen McInnerny – after a brief break from the airwaves, their show on Saturday, September 20 (Show 501!) was a really enjoyable listen replete with top music and laughs. That bit of NCB will never change!