Features / ShoutOutRadio
15 years of ShoutOut Radio
ShoutOut Radio provides a vital positive platform for queer voices, often excluded or negatively framed by mainstream media.
Listened to by 100,000 people every week, it is broadcast every Thursday at 8pm on Bristol Community FM.
To celebrate 15 years of crucial coverage of LGBTQ+ news, Bristol24/7 met with ShoutOut veterans Andy Shilton, a founding member, and Steffi Barnett, who has been with the show for over a decade.
Andy Shilton and Steffi Barnett are longstanding members of ShoutOut Radio – photo: Andy Shilton & Steffi Barnet
When ShoutOut started, community radio itself was a nascent concept.
Co-founder Andy explained: “There were no podcasts, it was very different. The word trans wasn’t really used or understood. Lots of minorities were underrepresented.”
ShoutOut Radio began just a year after BCFM was founded, one of the UK’s first licensed community radio stations. At the time, there were no LGBTQ-specific radio shows.
“We pitched it to BCFM, who said LGBT+ issues were covered through their other shows,” Andy recalled.
“However, we did not see that a group of mostly straight, white, cisgender men could fully understand the queer community’s stories.”
This gap in representation continues today, with mainstream media’s focus on LGBT+ issues currently remaining narrowly focused on trans issues – frequently with a negative slant.
It can be difficult for authentic queer stories to gain traction in mainstream media unless they portray community members as either victims of homophobic attacks or villains.
ShoutOut Radio fills this vital void by covering topical issues like Hepatitis C outbreaks in Bristol, sharing crucial information about HIV testing and addressing mental health issues for the queer community.
“Where mainstream media doesn’t have the desire to cover it,” Andy said, “ShoutOut Radio has always focused on what’s actually happening for the LGBT+ community.”
Andy recalled a letter from a trans woman who had been on the brink of taking her own life when she happened to hear the show in the background.
He said: “We were covering trans issues and people coming to terms with their transness. She sat and listened to it. Having no idea what transness was or what it meant, she identified with it.
“As a result of listening to the show, she transitioned and openly said she might not be here if it hadn’t been for hearing us discuss it in that moment.”
The station’s impact reaches across generations. A few years ago, a man in the final stages of a terminal illness reached out from his hospital bed, asking for a member of the team to visit him.
“We sent one of our former members, who was registered formally and legally,” said Andy.
“She went to go and see him and thanked him for listening to the show and asked what made him reach out.
“He said he’d lost his two sons and his wife. He was in the last few weeks of his life.
“He said he’d never told anyone before, but he needed to tell someone before he died that he was gay. He then passed away sadly a few days later.”
The station’s reach extends beyond Bristol’s borders.
Steffi recalled a particularly harrowing interview with a group of gay men and trans youth who had fled state-sanctioned violence in Uganda. It remains the only time she has ever cried on air.
She said: “No matter how bad you think your life is, there’s always someone experiencing worse.
“As a community, we don’t stop at a border, the LGBT+ community is international.”
The show often teams up with Bristol Pride for live festival coverage – photo: Rob Browne
ShoutOut Radio was born from the vision of Terry Starr, who was then joined by Mary Milton who approached BCFM and assembled the initial radio team.
Since then, the show has grown from a local project to a regional powerhouse.
This is significant, especially when considering the team were originally told nobody wanted an LGBT+ specific radio show.
Today, ShoutOut’s coverage around Bristol and beyond shows the desire for a community radio show specifically for the LGBT+ community.
“We are an outreach,” Steffi explained. “If we can reach someone who’s hiding in their bed, under their blanket, terrified of coming out, we are a lifeline.
“It’s a way of showing queer people that they’re not the only person like them.”
When the team started the show, they never imagined that ShoutOut would become the blueprint for other BCFM producers on how to build and maintain a successful community show.
Andy said: “On our tenth birthday, it hit me how significant our impact had been. We reached out to everyone who had worked with us over the years.
“We had special shows for the tenth birthday, and wanted our workers from the past and present to share their highlights. I thought it would be a focus on favourite interviews.”
“So many of them told us that ShoutOut was lifesaving for them. We have a friendly and welcoming group of people.
“It has helped to build a lot of people’s confidence as they progress into various careers. The range of people we’ve had has sprawled across race, genders and age. It wasn’t just a radio show, it was a sense of community.”
A crowning achievement for the team was Bristol Pride’s tenth birthday, where ShoutOut coordinated a historic broadcast uniting ten community stations across the Bristol region.
This earned them a Bronze BBC Gillard award and a broadcast slot on BBC Bristol and BBC Somerset. Steffi said this was a very special moment for her.
ShoutOut also hosts the biannual ShoutOut Awards, where LGBT+ community members are recognised for their contributions to the queer community.
The last award to be given is the ‘hero or heroine of the year’, which Andy and Steffi said usually ends in tears.
While the station has aspirations, Andy said it is hard to predict the future for ShoutOut. They have received sponsorship from Yugo Students, which has alleviated some financial pressure.
Speaking about the next chapter, Andy said: “We’ve always had the desire to see the next generation come through and modernise it.
“None of us are getting any younger. We want to get ready for the youngsters and see where it goes. We’re launching a new website to try and keep up with how people consume content.
“We love radio, but that doesn’t mean someone 16 to 25 does. When we launched the podcast episodes, there was a huge growth in engagement.”
Steffi added that ShoutOut needs new contributors to keep content fresh and continue pushing the show forward.
Andy said that the focus remains on what content the audiences want – covering everything from navigating university life and sexual health testing to the latest in LGBT+ nightlife.
Andy said: “In a time where certain anti-LGBT voices are being vocal, it’s important we as a community are vocal back.
“We are always looking for people to get involved. Whether that’s through being on the show, sharing your stories or providing feedback – talk to us.”
ShoutOut Radio broadcasts weekly at 8pm on BCFM. You can follow them on Instagram @shoutout_radio
This article originally appeared in Bristol24/7’s March/ April 2026 magazine
Main photo: ShoutOut Radio
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