Stephen Kearney is the man behind Radio Dart and the Café Lounge.
Dartmouth’s only radio station was established 18 months ago.
Stephen explained: “It’s an Internet radio station with an eclectic mix of music covering all genres including folk, country, classical and blues. We also run interviews with musicians and other local people. It’s more about the music than a news station, apart from a monthly What the Papers Say slot with the Dartmouth Chronicle. But that may all deve
stephen kearney
lop in the fullness of time.
“It’s a positive radio station, with a positive outlook that promotes Dartmou
th as a happy and vibrant place. I set it up because I love music and wanted to develop my interest. Internet radio is a great platform for promoting the arts in Dartmouth and beyond, and a fantastic online extension of Facebook and Twitter.
“We’ve had a lot of interest from different parts of the UK and around the world, and tens of thousands of listeners tuned in last year. Dartmouth is such a stunning place geographically, and we are told it’s nice for people working in offices in Soho to tune in and see the pictures from down here and then come to visit us.”
Radio Dart links to Stephen’s other music project, the Café Lounge, on Higher Street, which opened in May 2014. It is under refurbishment and when it reopens the focus will be on wine, coffee, nibbles and music – live and recorded - and a space to relax and talk about music, the arts and politics too.
Stephen said: “We want to encourage people with talent to come and play in a nice, chilled out space. It’ll be a mixture of good local musicians and some big names. It has the potential to build on the music festival all year round. There’s a lively music scene in the Dart valley, which is gradually developing. And there’s definitely an interesting country/ Americana/ blues/blue-grass link to the southwest. We could be the home for a flourishing music scene – the Nashville of the UK!
“Sasha McVeigh has played at the lounge, and is scheduled to play again. Alan West and Steve Black are booked, and conversations have begun with James Lascelles of the Steve Harley Cockney Rebel band. Rhino from Status Quo has promised to play too with his son’s band if we can organise the venue.”
Stephen is a musician and singer himself, playing a little guitar and harmonica. His life-long love of music started as a young chorister in the Elgar’s church choir, in Worcester, at the age of seven. He played in rhythm and blues and pop bands in the 1970s, and had a bit of a wild time as a roadie with AC/DC, Thin Lizzy and Barclay James Harvest, with whom he: “Learnt a lot and had a lot of fun!”
He added: “I was always interested in music and drama, and loved all that kind of thing. But then I had to go and get a real job!
“I’m a big fan of old blues legends such as John Mayall, Muddy Waters and RL Burnside, and rock such as Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, and 1970s bands including Bowie and Queen.”
Stephen started down the trainee manager route with WH Smith but his passion was more for the countryside. He worked on dairy farms in school holidays, and ran a pony trekking centre in Wales with friends for a couple of years.
He attended Harper Adams agricultural college then, in the 1980s, became a commodity broker, but felt the “hard-nosed cut-throat corporate life” was for not him.
He has a daughter from his first marriage and is now married to Julia, who has five grown up children including Dominic, who has Downs Syndrome, lives in town, and works at the Café Lounge.
Stephen and Julia set up Action to Regenerate Community Trust (RE:generate).
He said: “It was the time of Thatcher’s Britain, when there was “no such thing as society” and the city streets were on fire. I could see very clearly that the work I was doing in the City, and the current model of capitalism, was not sustainable.
“We set up the Regenerate charity to start listening to communities and build businesses, enterprises and voluntary projects based on people’s interests and visions for their futures. We adopted an agenda that started with the people in communities, rather than the ones set up by governments and multi-nationals who adopt a top down approach.”
In 1999 the trust was one of the founding directors of the UK Youth Parliament, and helped secure £126 million of millennium funding for UnLtd - to support social entrepreneurs.
Stephen and Julia then set about working on politician’s accountability, a subject close to Stephen’s heart, as he was a Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate in Henley, Boris Johnson’s constituency before he became Mayor of London. He is a candidate for Tiverton and Honiton in the upcoming May election where he is developing a pioneering approach to the role of MP.
He added: “Regenerate’s expertise in community engagement led to us becoming a senior partner of the National Community Organising Programme, which aims to make politicians more accountable and effective in their constituencies and shift power to local communities. So I felt it was important to apply it in my civic life.”
“Politicians are hamstrung by a system that doesn’t work for ordinary people, and has failed society. MPs are often just papering over cracks and people are fed up. UKIP is then filling a power vacuum created by peoples’ own fears and a lack of real leadership at the grassroots.
“MPs need to become facilitators for their communities, rather than puppets for the multi-nationals. They need to vote for their communities best interests, rather than the whips in Parliament.
“Society is in such a mess, and young people especially are often not properly supported or engaged. The arts are a key way to wake people up to their responsibility to society and young people can more easily get involved. We found that when we set up the UK Youth Parliament using the arts.”
And young people are, for Stephen, potentially a large part of the Radio Dart and Café Lounge scene, with plans afoot to work with the arts council to provide events and facilities for young musicians.
Stephen and Julia moved to Dartmouth in 2007, and initially lived on a boat.
Julia’s brother is Chris Olsen, who ran Yachts of Dartmouth, and she’d always wanted a boat down here.
Stephen added: “I’ve always been interested in boats too, and had a narrow boat in the Midlands. It was that, and Julia’s passion for sailing, that brought us to Dartmouth.
“It’s such a peaceful existence here, so relaxing, and so many great places to walk, rest and think.”
Stephen and Julia have another visionary project on the boil. They are seeking funding to berth the tall ship Kaskelot, in the harbour, to act as ambassador for Sail Trade, an entrepreneurial project to bring more business and jobs to the town.
Stephen said: “I do not apologise for being visionary and invite anyone for coffee in the Café Lounge to talk about Sail Trade and any other visionary ideas that could have an impact on long-term development in the town.
“We’ve already made Radio Dart and the Café Lounge vision a reality so would love to do more. We want to be pioneering, and encourage the next generation to be entrepreneurial, stay in Devon and be pioneering too.”
For more information see www.radiodart.net and www.sailtrade.co.uk and www.peoplepioneers.org ,
First published in By The Dart March 2015