About Us

Outreach Radio is an Ofcom licensed regional commercial and community radio organisation with a genuinely local heart. Serving Hampshire, the South Coast and the Isle of Wight, we combine the reach and professionalism of a commercial broadcaster with the personality, accessibility and community connection of a truly local radio station.

Outreach began during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 as “Lockdown FM”, created to keep local people connected during an unprecedented time. Following overwhelming support from listeners, charities and local businesses, the station evolved into a permanent local broadcasting service.

Today, our network has grown to five unique radio services, delivering locally produced content, news, community information and entertainment to distinct audiences across the region.

Across our five stations, we broadcast on:

102.5 FM . 1557 AM . DAB+ . Online . Smart Speakers . Outreach Player App

Together, our stations serve a combined coverage of approximately 2 million people, providing local and regional businesses, charities, organisations, events and music to a highly engaged local audience.

Operating from studios in Chandler’s Ford and West End, Southampton, we have created a platform where local voices can be heard, local stories can be shared and audiences connected with in a meaningful way.

We are…
Your Truly Local Radio Station

Outreach Radio, our flagship radio station, is a “Hot AC” (Adult Contemporary) radio station with music from the 80’s, 90’s & 00’s to present day, backed with local information and updates. We are very proud to proclaim that Outreach Radio broadcasts more than 97% original content created by our own local radio presenters, supported by a dedicated team of staff and volunteers.

We run live acoustic sessions called After 8 at The Loft, hosted by Charlotte Neal, providing musicians from across Hampshire and the South, a platform to debut their latest catalogue with an exclusive, in-studio broadcast performance.

Our Five Stations

Building on the success of Outreach Radio’s weekend dance music programmes, classical music programmes and live broadcasts, as well as the continued audience growth across its gold and modern music output, four additional stations were subsequently spun off to create a dedicated radio service, with each station offering its own distinct musical focus and demographic, supported by over 30 presenters, and, in turn, providing businesses and charities with greater opportunities to reach and engage with audiences through advertising.

This has all been made possible by industry expert, Founder and Managing Director of Outreach Radio, Osman Sen-Chadun. Best known as Oz or DJ Oz, he spent his corporate career in the broadcast sector working on new technology and engineering the mass-scale digital future for the UK’s biggest TV and radio channels. Outreach Radio is what happens when that exact high-level expertise is pointed back at a hometown radio station.

Our Mission – Keeping Local Radio Local!

Since the consolidation of big corporate networks caused many local stations to shut down or merge, Outreach Radio and it’s sister stations (Outreach Gold, Outreach Extra, Outreach Dance and Outreach Classical) have successfully stepped into that vacuum to provide a truly authentic local and commercial voice for Hampshire, the South Coast and the Isle of Wight. Over the last several years, corporate mergers forced classic heritage stations like Wave 105, Sam FM, and The Breeze to shut down or turn into national streams, dramatically changing the local radio landscape. This has led to local studio closures, staff dismissed and all local programming discontinued.

For young people interested in radio broadcasting, media or journalism, this has significantly reduced the opportunities to gain valuable work experience and, importantly, the potential career pathways into commercial radio employment. It is crucial that radio stations such as Outreach Radio play a role in providing training, work experience and employment opportunities, and ensure that we are a radio station that genuinely serves local people and businesses, and to the best of our abilities.

With all of the local radio stations across our region now taken over by major media corporations, re-branded, and “converted” to national services from centralised locations in other parts of the country, Outreach Radio and its sister stations are now the only locally-based regional commercial and community broadcaster serving all of Hampshire, the South Coast and the Isle of Wight.

We have built a highly competitive, massive footprint across our region, pulling a highly concentrated and an incredibly loyal proportion of the local county population. Outreach Radio fills a perfect middle ground: county-wide reach with a hometown feel.

Whilst we are a not-for-profit company, we depend entirely on revenues from advertising and sponsorship to sustain our service. If you are interested in advertising or supporting Outreach Radio, please do not hesitate to contact us.