Saint FM Community Radio Listen Again

James Fanthom and Dennis Leo Visted Saint FM to give an update on the ST Helena's Enedemic National Bird - The Wirebird population and plans to increase this to 1000 in the coming years

Liz Roberts and her partner Mark from Falklands Radio are currently visiting St Helena and popped into the Saint FM Studio on Monday 12th February and talked all things Falkland's Radio and much more

A timely visit given it is World Radio Day on the 13th February

Listen to the update from Ruth & Issy of Hugh James Solicitors on the Dr Sato / Sergio Compensation Scheme provided at Saint FM on 6th February 2024

The last official event for HRH The Duke of Edinburgh was to open St Helena Airport by unveiling a plague at the entrance of the airport on Friday 26th January. The Duke then left the island aboard an RAF C-17 Transport plane, (the biggest aircraft that has landed at the airport).

Listen here to the speeches made by at the ceremony

On the 24th January 2024 The Duke of Edingburgh was officlally welcomed to St Helena on the Grand Parade by His Excellency, Governer Nigel Phillips and Chief Minister Julie Thomas.

The Duke responded with a generous speech.

Here what was said right here.

Neal joined Sharon Wade in the Saint FM Studio on the penultimate day of his 5th Visit to St Helena.

Neal discusses the background on how he fell in love with St Helena and a St Helenian woman following his path from working for AIS on Ascension to his 5th Visit to St Helena from his home in Florida.

Note: You will hear references to music that is played during the interview, but these tracks have been edited out, so as to not infringe copyright.

Anaïs Toro-Engel the Communications Director from the Catamaran Energy Observer talks about the mission onboard with Vince Thompson.

In this Saint FM discussion, Tony Leo talks with David Price and his team about the Anti-social behaviour of young people in St Helena.

Why is this happening, how do we manage it?

Young people have great opportunities in this community organisations like New Horizons have been offering far more opportunities now over the last few months, including Friday and Saturday nights, and schools are doing surveys. Should the community have input to help us establish a solution?

Ministers discussion about decrease St Helena Population

Travel St Helena discussion on Saint FM Community Radio.

Christian von der Ropp was one of the individuals who played a big role in getting the fibre optic cable connected to St Helena. On the 1st of October, St Helena was connected to the Google Equanio cable and the residents of St Helena enjoyed reasonable internet speeds for the very first time. SURE St Helena the internet provider connected the internal network to the cable on Sunday. This conversation with Christian explains his thoughts to Mike Olsson on the history of the journey and his involvement in raising awareness and human rights. of having internet in remote communities

This song was written by Colette Braaf. Music composed by Alex Vanguard to celebrate King Charles III coronation.

The song is a tribute to King Charles III with love from the people of St Helena Island South Atlantic Ocean, where the song was produced and recorded.

This song is written and performed by St Helena artists Alex Vanguard and Colette Braaf.

The song is a tribute to those who have lost loved ones throughouttheir lifetime either through death or by separation. The reality being that everyone hurts.

Music/keyboards/synthesizers:

AlexVocals: Alex & Colette.

The song was recorded at Saint FM on Tuesday 4th April 2023

Before she departed on October 29th, 2022, Alyssa Fischer International Implementation Team Co-Leader for the Joint Nature Conservation Committee spoke to Sharon Wade.

The JNCC is the public body that advises the UK Government and devolved administrations on UK-wide and international biodiversity and nature conservation.

Alyssa spoke about the team's visit to Saint Helena to understand the Islands priorities in relation to biodiversity and nature conservation and how best the JNCC can support those.

In an interview with SURE South Atlantic's CEO, Alistair Beak mentioned that it's very uncertain times for SURE in St Helena.

However, he speaks about the current setup and the great infrastructure already in place in St Helena. Alistair shares his digital lifestyle experience and how he uses fast internet in an identical place where he lives in guernsey.

Alistair talks a little bit about the timeline challenges to install a new fibre network on St Helena he also outline’s the benefits of using the existing SURE network.

He talks highly of the twenty-three staff employed on St Helena and how they could be utilised in the future, he also mentions the submitted internet package proposal of unlimited connectivity speed of 20 to 30 megs to the internet on St Helena which might be possible for around £50 per month once the cable is connected.

Did you hear the interview? 

Share your views.

Last Friday a significant step forward in conjunction with the Fibre Optic project took place at Rupert’s Cable Landing Station.

On-site was SHG’s head of the cable Project Jerry Roberts and team member Lee-marc Yon along with Alcatel Submarine Networks Contractor and tester Marc Andre’ talking to Tammy Williams of Saint FM Community Radio.

Both Marc and Jerry signed the verification and commissioning document which is a sign-off on all test results and all acceptance test certificates.

The sign-off on these works means that St Helena has made another giant step in the lead-up to the Cable’s ‘Go-live date’

Listen to the very latest update on the Fibre Optic Cable project for St Helena which is expected to ‘Go live’ in the first quarter of 2023

Join Tammy Williams at Saint FM talking to the St Helena Government's Equiano Project Manager, Jeremy Roberts and Marc Andre the Engineer from Alcatel Submarine Networks who is currently on Saint Helena to undertake tasks in conjunction with the Fibre Optic Cable Project

The successful project is called 'Preparing for our Digital Destiny'.

Gareth Drabble (Chevening Alumni) along with Kerry Lane from the St Helena Governor's Office spoke to Tammy Williams at Saint FM Community Radio on the 19th August 2022 to talk more about this successful St Helena Chevening Alumni Project Bid for 2022–2023

His Excellency Governor Dr Philip Rushbrook will depart St Helena at the end of his term of office on Sunday, 19 June 2022.

Governor Rushbrook visited Saint FM one final time to share his experiences of life on St Helena.

A light hearted chat with Tammy Williams

The St Helena Government Ministers attended Saint FM on the afternoon of 28thApril 2022 to respond to the backbenchers concerns regarding security committee’s role in the new political system.

Prior to the main discussion & included in this podcast the Chief Minister & Chief Medical Officer announce changes to the Covid Quarantine and testing procedures for Fully Vaccinated persons from the next flight to St Helena and the rationale for those.

The discussion on Scrutiny hosted by Vince Thompson & Mike Olsson starts at 15 mins 56 secs.

Discussion around St Helena’s Minimum Wage starts at 1 hour, 8 mins, 17 secs.

All 6 Ministers Julie Thomas (Chief Minister), Jeffrey Ellick, Mark Brooks, Christine Scipio, and Martin Henry attended and participated.

Well worth a listen.

A group of 6 of St Helena's Legislative Councils Backbenchers visited Saint FM on Wednesday 27th April 2022 to discuss several issues.
The backbenchers were Dr Corinda Essex, Karl Thrower, Rob Midwinter, Ronald Coleman, Gilly Brooks, and Andrew Turner

The discussion was hosted by Vince Thompson & Mile Olsson.

During the discussion It has become apparent that the way ministers have used their power to decide what authority is given to the Scrutiny Committees could threaten the credibility of the newly created St Helena Ministerial System.

This is what Members of Legislative Council think about the Scrutiny Committees set up by the Ministers:

• The purpose of scrutiny committees is to hold ministers to account. Scrutiny involves, or should involve, investigation of the policies ministers introduces, the administration of Government they are accountable for and the effectiveness of the spending budgets they have allocated to each Government Department or Portfolio.
• Scrutiny Committees are, or should be, the flagship within the system of Government for transparency and accountability. After making changes to the Constitution to give more decision-making powers to the ministerial team, Scrutiny Committees are seen as the balancing authority given to other Members of Legislative Council.
• The whole purpose of Scrutiny Committees is to hold Ministers to account.

This is an interesting discussion, well worth a listen

The Friday morning Breakfast Show on Friday 18th March 2022 hosted by Tammy Williams welcomed three special guests.

Father David Musgraves of the Sacred Heart Catholic church, Julia Drozdowskij, citizen of Ukraine and locum primary school teacher and Gavin ‘Jack’ Thomas, Senior Manager and Public Guardian, and Acting Director of Children & Adults Social Care.

Friday 18th March establishes the launch of Safeguarding week which seeks to protect children and adults from exploitation on St Helena online, it was also a time to reflect on the children of Ukraine. According to UNICEF the Ukraine war is creating a child refugee every second. The radio program was to honour all children everywhere but in particular the children of Ukraine.

A heart felt discussion by the panel ending with a blessing by Father David.

Saint FM is proud to partner with all agencies on St Helena and around the world in protecting the rights of all children everywhere.

Join Tammy Williams as she talks to Acting Detective Inspector Liam Fuller and Rosie Flatman children’s safeguarding officer about this important topic.

Saint FM joins the campaign in protecting the community and in particular keeping our children safe online.

Safeguarding week is being launched on St Helena on Friday, 18 March 2022, with particular focus around online safety for both children and adults.

The internet is more accessible than it has ever been on St Helena and this will only continue with the Equiano Cable going live in the near future.

Throughout Safeguarding week, training sessions will take place around online safety of children and adults. A team of facilitators will also be conducting presentations to all four schools around keeping safe online.

Presentations will also be conducted for parents during three evening sessions.  Parents and wider family members are welcome to attend any of the evening sessions.

John Carnfeild the petition organiser visited Saint FM on the morning of the 23rd February 2022 to launch the petition.  You can listen to that interview with Tammy Williams here now

St Helena's Chief Minister Julie Thomas and Minister for Treasury Infrastructure and Sustainable Development Mark Brooks visited Saint FM to announce the decision on the proposed Delegate VIPP 4-5 Day visit live at 1415 GMT on Tuesday 8th February 2022.

The decision is a mutual agreement to work in facilitating this trip towards the end of 2022.

Listen to it here along with discussion on associated concerns around Quarantine in the coming months.

After nearly 100 days in office the Minister for Health Martin Henry talks to Tammy Williams about St Helena's healthcare system, challenges, complexities, and logistics.

The Minister answered questions about staff retention, doctors, the health budget, the health of the nation and strategies to improve the services.

Hear first-hand thoughts from the Minster himself on what he sees as the greatest challenges facing healthcare and remedies sought.

Vanessa Thomas -Williams joined Tammy Williams on the Breakfast Show of the 5th January 2022 to discuss her MBE award in this years New Years Honours List.

Vanessa talks humbly about the notification process of the award and her plans to receive the actual MBE, how she started off in conservation, her time at Kew Gardens and how she was seconded back to St Helena in 2008 to conserve the endangered endemic species On Island, including the support of George Benjamin in the early years with many anecdote's.  Then onto the type of work she has been conducting, including developing the next generation of conservationists.

In a new Saint FM experiment Sharon Wade was live on the Bridge on the afternoon of New Years Eve 2021 interviewing people many of who were queuing at the Bank.  Mike Olsson was the anchor in his Home Studio behind the Memorial Clock.

Sharon was able to capture many 'victims' and discussed very interesting subjects and for many a 1st time on the radio passing on their New Year wishes for Family & Friends on-Island overseas including those on Island for the Festive Period and their reflections of 2021.

Note: Music intermissions removed so just Saints speaking!

The 'Victims' were but not limited to:

Sylvia Henry

David 'Crocky'

Mark Cranfield

Keith Yon

Colin 'Mickey' Yon

Cllr Ronald Coleman

Llana Francis

Peter Thomas

Chief Of Police, David Price

Hayward Benjamin

Eric 'Tinny' Thomas

Anita Constantine

Trevor 'Brid' Stevens

Robert & Basil Young

Joy George

Peter ' Woman' & Charlene Young

Colin Plato

Roy, Coral, & Rayanne Thomas

Mia Henry

Sgt. Andy Burton

David Brookland

Patsy Brown

Chris 'Chrissy Sue' Henry

Brian Constantine

Andrew Williams

'Chef Roy'

JJ Buckley

Leroy Young

Michael 'Bimbo' Glanville

Mervyn Thomas

St Helena's Agriculture & Natural Resources Division (ARND) are producing Podcasts to increase the general awareness of Farming & Local produce providing tips and services available to the public from the Division.

In this edition Jonathon ' Joe' Hollins, the divisions Senior Vet, discusses the veterinary services available on the Island.

Ismail Mohammed joined Addie Thomas on the Now Show on December 9th to provide an Introduction to Islam.

Ismail Mohammed – St Helena's Head of Planning & Building Control joined Addie Thomas on the Now Show to talk about all things planning on St Helena.  This includes large and small projects submitted for planning permission and the delicate balance between protecting the environment and progress. 

Urs Steiner based in Switzerland runs a travel agency website called Ship & Train Travel.  

He talks to Addie Thomas on his current 5th visit to the Island since the 1980's and:

• The various aspects of getting to the Island in that period.
• The impact of the pandemic on his dedicated St Helena destination website and tourism in general.
• The business environment within the pandemic.
• Inward Investment on Island.

Prior to his departure back to South Africa on the next sailing of the MV Helena later this month, Father Allen Williams joined Sharon Wade on the Shine Show to talk about his time on St Helena.

Amongst other things Father Allen discussed:

• How he came to St Helena.
• Prayer Book Usage.
• Tailoring Sermons to St Helenian way of life.
• The values of the people of St Helena
• Next Steps.
• and parting message to people of St Helena.

On the morning of 1st November 2021 St Helena Chief Minister Julie Thomas Announced her Ministerial Portfolio Positions for the new St Helena Legislative Council.  Julie retained the Education, Skills and Employment Portfolio.

Her announcement is followed by interviews with the New Ministers in this order

Mark Brooks – Treasury, Infrastructure, & Sustainable Development Portfolio

Martin Henry – Health & Social Care Portfolio

Jeffery Ellick – Safety Security and Home Affairs Portfolio

Christine Scipio – Environment & Natural Resources Portfolio

His Excellency Governor Dr Philip Rushbrook spoke with Tammy Williams in the Latest of his regular updates on Thursday 28th October 2021

This Update included:

• Review of the recent General Election and roles within the new Ministerial Government and support for the new Councilors.
• Financial constraints & difficult decisions facing the Island of the coming months and years.
• Where can St Helena 'earn' More Money - either taxes or Inward Investment.
• Covid Quarantining - Political Decision.
• Booster Vaccinations.
• Ongoing Projects and how have been funded.
• Christmas Fayre at Planation House - last weekend of November

James Kellett, St Helena Airport Compliance Manager (Safety, Quality & Commnications) joined Addie Thomas on The Now Show (Thursday 28th October) to discuss St Helena Airport's current activity, challenges, opportunities and much more.

James has been on Island for 8 years and worked in numerous roles within the Airport environment.

Mikhail Harris talked to prospective candidates Jeffrey Ellick & Christine Scipio both running in this year’s General Election.

Tammy Williams talked to prospective candidate Russell Yon running in this year’s General Election.

Saint FM News editor Mike Olsson and the St Helena Independent newspaper editor Vince Thompson talked to prospective candidate Clint Beard running in this year’s General Election.

Saint FM News editor Mike Olsson and the St Helena Independent newspaper editor Vince Thompson talked to prospective candidate Russell Yon running in this year’s General Election.

Saint FM News editor Mike Olsson and the St Helena Independent newspaper editor Vince Thompson talked to prospective candidate Donald Thomas running in this year’s General Election.

Addie Thomas talks to Alex Mitham who has recently arrived on the island to take up his post as Director of the Safety, Security & Home Affairs Portfolio (SSHA)

Alex has spent time on Tristan De Cunha and the Falklands Islands in various roles.

Alex discusses his previous assignments and his aspirations for Saint Helena's (SSHA).

Tammy Williams talked to prospective candidate Damien Thomas running in this year’s General Election.