MP Damian Hinds visits Wey Valley Radio as station opens its studio doors for Alton Volunteer Festival

Alton’s community radio station, Wey Valley Radio, welcomed MP for East Hampshire Damian Hinds to its new studios on Wednesday as it threw its doors open to the public for the Alton Volunteer Festival, and used the day to appeal for new volunteers to join the station.

The free drop-in festival ran from 10am to 3pm at the Alton Assembly Rooms. Organised by Dementia-Friendly Alton and East Hampshire District Council, and funded by the district council, it brought together local organisations looking for people to get involved.

Around 30 people took a tour of the station’s new studio during the day, and Wey Valley Radio also ran a stand at the festival alongside 22 other local groups.

The station also interviewed guests throughout the day, including Cllr Emily Young, East Hampshire District Councillor for Alton Westbrook and Hampshire County Councillor for Alton Town, along with representatives of Goldfinch Books, The King’s Arms youth charity, and the Department for Work and Pensions, which is organising the CLICK Jobs Fair with East Hampshire District Council at the Maltings, Alton, on Friday 25 September.

Wey Valley Radio is a not-for-profit station run entirely by just over 40 volunteers, and is still keen to hear from anyone who would like to join, on air or behind the scenes.

Chris Stone, director and presenter at Wey Valley Radio, said: “You don’t need any experience to volunteer with us. We need presenters, but we also need people who can help with news, events, social media, engineering and everything else that keeps a station on air. It was lovely we could show people round on the day, and anyone who missed it is very welcome to get in touch.”

Anyone interested in volunteering can get in touch via weyvalleyradio.uk/contact or [email protected].

Damian Hinds, MP for East Hampshire, said: “Alton is fortunate to have so many organisations that depend on people giving their time, and the Volunteer Festival is a brilliant way of bringing them together under one roof. As a patron of Dementia-Friendly Alton I know how much difference volunteers make, and I would encourage anyone who has been thinking about it to take that first step.”

He added:
“It is good to see Wey Valley Radio settled into its new home at the Assembly Rooms too, a station run by local volunteers for local people.”

At the festival, Mr Hinds also formally thanked June Fenn, a 92-year-old supporter of Dementia-Friendly Alton, who recently raised more than £1,000 each for Dementia-Friendly Alton and Dogs for Autism by doing a skydive.

A new home in the heart of Alton

The studio tours were the public’s first chance to see the station’s new base, which was officially opened by the Town Mayor of Alton, Councillor Barbara Tansey, on Friday 18 September.

Volunteers completed the move over the August bank holiday weekend, switching the station’s broadcast systems across to the High Street venue on the night of Saturday 29 August. It is the same building where Wey Valley Radio relaunched as a community radio station in 2017, and which featured in local newspaper coverage when Wey Valley 102 first went on air in 1992.

The Assembly Rooms are owned by Alton Town Council and managed by Dementia-Friendly Alton.