A slice of Queen's Park airwaves will be taken over by young people next week as Avenues FM gets a licence.
Avenues FM, based at Avenues Youth Project in Third Avenue, was granted a temporary radio licence and can be heard by tuning into 87.7FM for the next month.
Shows planned for the station include debates on knife and gun crime, sexual health and alcohol abuse, as well as DJs playing music.
One of the presenters is Dernel Gabriel (pictured), 21, of the Mozart Estate, in Third Avenue, who recently became a trainee youth worker at Avenues.
She will be interviewing people from Westminster Council's Uncut project, which is aimed at discouraging young people from carrying knives.
"There has been a stigma about young people and knife crime in recent years," she said. "Avenues Youth Project is surrounded by houses, and there are a lot of people who think that because there are lots of young people coming here, there will also be trouble.
"We want to use the radio show to break down those barriers, and show that young people are actually doing something positive.
"Also, we'll talk about the fact that young people are scared about knife crime too, because there's always a fear that it could be one of your friends or a member of your family that's killed or injured."
Avenues FM has been given a temporary slot in February for the last few years, but presenters hope to be given a permanent frequency in the future.
Ms Gabriel, who has presented shows in previous years, said: "It would be great to have a show all year round. We're trying to get more people in the community involved, not just young people from the youth club.I'm not really nervous when I'm presenting, because nobody can see you. I just really enjoy doing it because we had lots of people ringing in to say they were affected by what we were talking about."
Ms Gabriel's show can be heard from 2pm-4pm on Mondays.
Tune into 87.7FM from Monday, February 2, to hear Avenues FM. To get involved, call Avenues FM on 020 8969 9552 or see www.avenuesfm.com
