Rick and Steve is here courtesy of Channel 4 and it’s a must watch. There are some short clips on the website, just click here.

This Sunday 31st August at the Edge, Soho, FYI will be recording Bringing Sex-E Back, a no-holds-barred look at sex education in the UK and how it affects young LGBTs.

So what’s the big deal about sex-e? Well, how’s about this for starters.

The state of sexual health amongst young people generally is worrying. There are an estimated 20,000 HIV positive people in the UK who don’t know they’ve got HIV. In the last 10 years, the number of people infected with Chlamydia has increased by 206% (source: NHS), and 2/3 of Chlamydia cases occur in people aged 16-24, but these are the least likely people to access services (NBC Sex Education Forum Report)

Here at FYI, we think that’s something worth discussing. We’ll be talking about:

1) What schools and the voluntary sector offer young people in terms of sex-e
2) What barriers there are to young people in accessing SRE
3) How those barriers affect young LGBT people particularly, e.g. the focus in much sex-e on avoiding pregnancy and penile penetration, and the lack of information on sexual orientation.

Special guest speakers include Chris Gibbons, Senior Education Officer at Stonewall, Simon Corden, who runs the NRG services at Terrence Higgins Trust, and Sue Sanders, co-chair of School’s OUT.

On top of all that, we’re bringing you some of the freshest, sexiest sounds from the web for your aural pleasure.

Want to get involved? Come along to The Edge at 2pm and be part of the discussion.

See you there.

Ray C

Up until 3am with Tim working on the mobile studio last night. We are nearly there and really have to be with our first recording on Sunday. There are so many cables that I’m having nightmares of being attacked by the darn things.

It’s proving a useful experience though, I haven’t put together a studio for a couple of years - and this will be the first fully mobile studio which is exciting. Our shows are preped and everyone is pooping themselves, most of all me-  will we get an audience, will the technology work, will the guests turn up, might I be sat there alone as everyone deserts me?

All these questions yet to be answered. We will also have more content on the site soon - Jess Waluga took some glamourous photos of us last night. Tim has nearly finished some funky jingles, Jess P has been putting together our schedule for recording and meetings - which we will of course post. We have a MySpace, a Facebook Group and a few events you can sign up too.

Ray is talking Sex this weekend and Ellie has something queer for us to read!

FYI RADIO has been awarded £4,000 from The European Youth in Action programme as part of its Youth Initiative scheme.

The podcast, which launched in May 2007 as a live show on Resonance FM and a downloadable podcast for Pride London has used the money to overhaul its website and develop user-generated content.

The European Youth in Action programme is run in the UK by the British Council and supports young people (15-30 years old) creating and managing innovative projects at local level with community focus.

FYI Radio is a show looking at Queer Alternative Culture, Music and Politics hosting live acoustic artists including NME Award nominees, entertainers, entrepreneurs and volunteers in the gay and surrounding alternative youth community. The radio station and podcasts has a worldwide audience using Facebook, MySpace and blogging to generate discussion and be heard.

The podcast has produced two series and a number of exclusive episodes; series one – FYI, series two FYI Culture. The next series will take it to a live audience discussing current affairs with up-and-coming and new guests.

FYI Radio receives 1,500 listeners every week with many of its guests being associated with queer alternative music or are LGBT performance artists.

Marina Gautier, project officer for Youth in Action, British Council. “We see this is a really innovative programme which we feel has potential to grow. Multimedia project is a great way using new technologies to reach young people.

Radio Ryan, director: “This money is really going to help the show – in the new series we hope to bring a live audience to the recordings. FYI is a great platform for new artists and we’re looking forward to finding out the views and thoughts of young queer Londoners.”

The programme is looking for people under 30 to participate as part of the show’s audience and guests, be it a band, artist, politician, volunteer, designer, entrepreneur or activist.

Furthermore, individuals and groups can produce their own podcasts to be submitted as part of the online radio streaming output to be launched in September. The launch in the autumn will announce key influencers and media supporters of the project and provide a three-month programme schedule.

FYI Radio aims to be completely user-generated – move over You Tube, bugger off Facebook groups; radio will kill the internet star!

For more information: info@smallpod.co.uk