ALTON looks set to see the revival of its own Wey Valley community radio station following the awarding by Ofcom of a licence to broadcast to the town and the surrounding villages for five years.

Wey Valley Radio is one of six new licences to be granted to serve communities in areas such as Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester and Alton.

Spearheaded by well-known broadcaster David Way, who has been the driver over the past two-and-a-half decades for bringing community radio to the town, the aim is to be on air before the 25th anniversary in November next year of the launch of the original station.

To be led by Mr Way, who is acting as managing director and chairman, WVR (Alton) Ltd has been set up as a not-for-profit company run principally by volunteers.

Membership of WVR (Alton) Ltd will be open to all members of the target community and will be run by and for the benefit of the community.

The Wey Valley Radio team first broadcast from the Herald office in Alton as part of the Radio Cracker RSL in 1991.

Wey Valley Radio launched on FM in November 1992 and was successfully run in the spirit of a community station by My Way, first as Wey Valley Radio and then as Delta Radio, a small-scale independent commercial station.

Following the closure of Delta Radio in 2010, members of the original team have worked together and broadcast online in preparation for the current licence application.

Mr Way said: “We are delighted that Ofcom have awarded a licence to broadcast to Alton for a period of five years .We have two years to commence the service and a great deal of work and planning will be needed before then and it’s hoped that, with the massive support we have received so far and hope for in the future, the goal will be achieved before the 25th anniversary of the first Wey Valley Radio broadcast in 1992.

“There are currently no radio services targeted directly at the majority of Alton residents and dedicated to providing local news, information and entertainment for this community.”

And he added: “As in the past, we hope to provide a service involving as many of the unique community of our town as possible.”

To be broadcast from a location within the GU34 area and on the FM frequency, during weekdays (7am to 7pm), the service will play a mainstream selection of popular music ranging from the 1960s to the present day, interspersed with local news and information, while programmes at the weekend, during public holidays and after 7pm are expected to focus more on specialist music, speech programming (such as in depth local news, discussions and plays) or other material of interest to the local community.

With a minimum of six hours per day to feature original, locally produced material broadcast live, the aim will be “to give voice to all residents of Alton and the surrounding areas” and to actively encourage listener participation.

“At least half of our presenters, office and production staff will be volunteers or trainees from the local community and the station is expected to act as a local training centre,” said Mr Way.

The board of directors includes Paul Wisdom and Sandra Bambling, and the staff team will include a station manager, technical manager and training manager, as well as a sales and administration team.

There will also be a steering committee comprising volunteers and trainee staff who will collect and collate feedback from the public, listeners, volunteers and trainees and feed back to the board.

Former presenters already on board include Paul Le Feuvre, Johnathan Cohen, BBC’s Mark Carter, Chas Byrne, Julie Cottrell, Lorna O’Keefe, Rick Davies,m Paul Wisdom, Darren The Badger Reddick, andVernon Pearce.

Mr Way added: “I would like to thank all the team who have made this possible again, not only the current team but everyone who has made a positive contribution to Wey Valley Radio from its beginnings.”