About Us

We are Kennet Community Radio, broadcasting 24/7/365 on 106.7 FM to Newbury and Thatcham. We are currently looking to extend our coverage to include Hungerford.

Formed in October 2012 as a not-for-profit, volunteer-led organisation, we were awarded a full-time FM Community Radio broadcasting licence by Ofcom in 2016 and we have been broadcasting on FM since March 2018.

Our main studios are in central Newbury, courtesy of Greenham Trust.

We also have an occasional pop-up studio in Newbury’s Kennet Centre and we attend public and private events and do outside broadcasts from events around West Berkshire.

What is community radio?

Community radio sits alongside BBC and commercial radio as the third sector of UK radio broadcasting.

Unlike commercial stations (which exist to make profits for shareholders) and BBC stations (which serve national and regional audiences), community radio stations are not-for-profit organisations run by volunteers to serve a specific local community. We’re required by our Ofcom licence to deliver “social gain” – tangible benefits to our listeners and the wider community – through locally-relevant programming, support for local organisations, training opportunities, and by giving voice to people and issues that might not otherwise be heard on mainstream radio.

Every community radio station is different, shaped by the volunteers who run it and the community it serves, but we all share a commitment to being truly local, accessible, and accountable to our listeners.

Donations – how we are funded

As a non-profit volunteer-led community (not commercial) radio station, we rely on a mix of funding sources to keep broadcasting. These include donations from listeners, grants from charitable trusts, fundraising activities, and some income from on-air advertising and sponsorship.

All surplus income must be reinvested in the station – we cannot distribute profits to shareholders or individuals. This ensures that every pound we receive goes directly into improving our service to the community.

Community support is vital. Donations and grants from our listeners and local organisations form the foundation of our funding, enabling us to maintain our independence, invest in equipment and training, and continue delivering the diverse, locally-focused programming that makes us different from commercial radio.

Social Gain – our community commitment

We are required to provide social gain – that is, our audience and wider community must be better off for the fact that we are broadcasting. The main ways we do this include:

Providing a platform for local charities and voluntary organisations to share the amazing work they do, helping them to recruit volunteers and signposting listeners to support services
Facilitating discussion and the expression of local opinion
Providing training in radio production and media skills to people in our community, particularly those who might not otherwise have access to such opportunities
Promoting better understanding of our local community and strengthening community ties

These licence conditions are put in place by Ofcom to ensure that a community radio station like ours delivers genuine benefit to the local area and remains distinct from commercial radio.

Debit Card, Credit Card, PayPal

You can donate with a Debit Card, a Credit Card or a PayPal payment by clicking on this button:

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Bank Transfer or Standing Order

You can donate by Bank Transfer or Standing Order directly to our bank:

Account Name: Kennet Community Radio
Sort Code: 09-01-28
Account Number: 36369518

Please will you separately email donation [at] kennetradio.com with the details so that we can identify your donation when it arrives in our bank account? Thank you.

We are very grateful to the local businesses and organisations that support us – please support them, to help them carry on supporting us.

Get involved

We are very much a part of the West Berkshire community and through our 70-strong team of local volunteers we involve our community in the operation and management of Kennet Radio. If you’d like to join our team and get involved with Kennet Radio, we’d love to hear from you – there’s always lots to do!

Presenters

If you’re looking for info about Kennet Radio’s presenters, you can find it here.

The legal stuff

For full details, go here: www.kennetradio.com/the-legal-stuff/