Winchester Radio

Hospital radio came to Winchester, over 50 years ago, in October 1968, down a Post Office land-line from the Southampton studio of the newly-renamed Southampton and Winchester Hospital Broadcasting Association. Then, in 1984, the group of volunteers based in Winchester were able to spin-out an independent, local service, Winchester Hospital Radio. The service was set up as, and remains, an independent charity, now re-registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, Winchester Radio. The charity has always been entirely run by volunteers.

Following a strategic review of the future of the charity, we concluded that we could best serve our beneficiaries by helping and encouraging Wintonians to live a healthy, active, engaged life for longer, with the aim of keeping them out of hospital and/or needing social care, rather than solely entertaining people when they are in hospital. Not only would this new community radio service directly benefit the local community, it would enable us to improve and sustain the hospital radio service for the Royal Hampshire County Hospital.
In 2015, we made a successful application to Ofcom for an FM community radio licence covering the historic city of Winchester, its residential suburbs, and the immediately surrounding villages.The service launched in March 2019, and we can now be heard across the city on 94.7FM, online via our website and on mobile devices via the UK Radioplayer app. In September 2022, "small-scale" DAB digital radio came to Winchester, and Winchester Radio can now also be heard across a somewhat wider area centred on Winchester, but also including Alresford.

For more details about our plans, and to volunteer, please visit our website below.