The following announcement has today been issued by the BBC and SUSY Radio:

3rd March, 2014

Susy Radio and BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey have been working together across the two counties to enable the sharing of local news between BBC Local Radio and Susy Radio.

This new partnership will provide all three radio stations with better coverage of local news stories within the Susy Radio area. The collaboration has been through a development period of around 12 months, where trial news was shared with the correct accreditation in both directions, which has paved the way to a successful agreement being reached.

Both Mark Carter, Assistant Managing Editor, BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey and Neil Munday, Director and Chairman, Susy Radio have been proactive in negotiations and have forged an extremely successful working relationship which has led to BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey offering news training to the Susy Radio News team at the BBC Sussex studios in Brighton.

Susy Radio`s Neil Munday commented “I am extremely pleased by the working relationship now established and this will certainly benefit the communities that Susy Radio serve and also benefit the wider community audience covered by both BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey. I am very pleased that the BBC have recognised the community broadcasting that Susy Radio is providing and are willing to work with us and assist training our news team in modern journalism methods and techniques to improve scripts and legal knowledge in broadcasting news.”

Mark Carter, BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey said: “BBC local radio is very keen to support the development of community ventures such as Susy Radio. These are stations at the heart of the communities they serve. They are also training grounds for those keen to explore a career in radio. By working more closely together, I’m sure we can mutually benefit from the sharing of news stories and we may even find our next broadcast journalist or presenter too.”