The WVR reunion in 2012
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Wey Valley Radio
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Alton Food Bank 15th anniversary 13 June 2026 Julie Cottrell
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Alton Food Bank 15th anniversary 13 June 2026 Julie Cottrell
Our story
Our story
More than thirty years of community radio in Alton
For over three decades, Wey Valley Radio has been the voice of Alton. From a single test broadcast one winter in 1991 to a 24-hour station heard on 101.1 FM, online and — very soon — on DAB, our story is really the story of a community that refused to let its local radio disappear. This is how it happened.
Featured listen
The Wey Valley Radio documentary
Made by Marcus Durham around the 2017 relaunch
1991–1992
Where it began
The idea took root in the late 1980s, when a small group set out to bring community radio to Alton and the surrounding area. It started, as the best community projects often do, with a borrowed room and a lot of determination. In 1991, that team made their very first test broadcast from the offices of the Alton Herald, as part of the Radio Cracker charity initiative.
After years of campaigning, an eight-year licence was won. In November 1992 the station took to the air as Wey Valley 102, broadcasting on 102 FM — at the time the smallest licensed radio station in the country, serving just 25,000 people across Alton and Four Marks.
“The best variety in the Wey Valley” — sung jingle
“101.6 and 102 FM Wey Valley Radio ” — spoken
The early years
A voice for the community
From the very start, the station threw itself into Alton life: outside broadcasts at the town and Bordon carnivals, the Round Table fireworks and Alton Show at Froyle, and a surprising run of star interviews, from Sally Gunnell and Roger Black to Mungo Jerry.
But it found its purpose in earnest within months of launching. When plans emerged to move the renowned orthopaedic unit from Alton's Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital to Basingstoke, the station's news team followed the campaign closely as the community rallied behind the newly formed Alton Health Group. The fight to keep the hospital was ultimately lost — but in covering it the way only a local station could, Wey Valley had shown exactly what community radio was for.
The fledgling station also leaned on the experience of the wider radio industry. County Sound's Mike Powell — later head of the UKRD Group — and his colleague Terry Mann gave generous advice and hands-on help in those early days, including with the licence application for Alton itself. With their backing, and later that of Radio Mercury, Wey Valley Radio was able to hit the ground running when it launched in November 1992. It was a relationship that would shape what came next.
1994-2010
The Delta Years
Success brought changes of ownership. In 1994, Mike Powell's UKRD Group acquired the station. In 1998 it was merged operationally with Delta Radio over in Haslemere, and the Wey Valley name gave way to Delta; by 2000 the Alton and Haslemere licences had been brought together into a single station serving a wide stretch of East Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex.
In June 2003, Tindle Newspapers came in as a major shareholder. Despite a small studio being kept at the Alton Herald offices, the town's Mill Lane studio closed after eleven years of local broadcasting, with production moving to Haslemere. By 2007 many of the much-loved community and specialist programmes had been dropped in favour of a more commercial format, to the open dismay of presenters and listeners. Finally, in June 2010, Delta was replaced by Kestrel FM and local production left the area altogether. After eighteen years on air, Alton was once again without a station to call its own.
“Best of yesterday and today” — Delta FM
“Better hits, more variety” — Delta FM
2010-2016
The long road back
But the people who had built the station hadn't gone anywhere. Quietly and stubbornly, the original founders kept the dream alive, determined to return truly local radio to the area — and to run it with the very same mindset that had prevailed at the beginning: programming made by the community, for the community, to entertain, inform and enhance the lives of people in the ever-expanding market town of Alton..
The breakthrough came on Wednesday 6 July 2016, when Ofcom awarded Wey Valley Radio a five-year community radio licence for Alton. With up to two years to begin broadcasting, and buoyed by the support they'd received, the team (led at that time by Jonathan Cohen and Paul Wisdom) set their sights on getting back on air well before the 25th anniversary of those first broadcasts in 1992. As founder and chairman David Way put it at the time:
“I would like to thank all the team who have made this possible — not only the current team, but everyone who has made a positive contribution to Wey Valley Radio from its beginning.”
June 2017
Back on air
On a Thursday morning in late June 2017, after a seven-year silence, Wey Valley Radio returned to the airwaves — this time on 101.1 FM. The launch, held at Alton's Assembly Rooms with town mayor Dean Phillips, opened with the very same song that had started it all back in 1992: Starship's 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now'.
Set up as a not-for-profit and run principally by volunteers, the station was once again made by the community, for the community: a mainstream mix of music and local news by day, specialist and speech programmes by night.
We now broadcast from 37 The High Street after moving in June 2024.
Some things stay the same though. Just as in the 1990s, it remains a place to learn. Many who trained and took part in the early years went on to careers in radio and the media, while many more will always have fond memories of their involvement with the station through the 1990s and 2000s. It's our intention to keep radio an integral part of community life here — entertaining and informing, while giving local people the chance to get involved and to train in media for themselves.
Anniversary listen
Wey Valley Radio is Celebrating
A 2018 anniversary package, produced by Marcus Durham
2025-2026
The next chapter: DAB
The newest part of our story brings things full circle. Together with Radio Haslemere and Petersfield's Shine Radio, we've helped secure a small-scale DAB licence for East Hampshire — much the same area Delta once covered.
Wey Valley Radio is already on DAB in Petersfield and Liphook. The final piece of the puzzle is the transmitter for Alton itself, which is awaiting Ofcom approval and is expected to switch on shortly. Once it does, the station will be heard across most of East Hampshire on DAB (Block 8A) — making sure Wey Valley Radio is there on all the devices today's listeners love to use.
Through the years — in pictures
A slideshow of photographs from across the station's history — the more the merrier.
Be part of the next chapter
More than thirty years on, the mission hasn't changed: to be your voice in Alton. Whether you'd like to present a show, lend a hand behind the scenes, or simply listen along, there's a place for you here.
Text: 07565 244101
Studio: 01420 260001
E-Mail: [email protected]
Help keep your community on air
Wey Valley Radio is run entirely by volunteers and stays on air thanks to donations, grants and local advertising. Every gift helps keep Alton’s voice broadcasting.
Proud members & fully licensed
