About Us

Welcome to Outreach Radio – Your Truly Local Radio Station.

PART 1 – OUR FM BEGINNINGS

Our original broadcasts began in March 2020 as Lockdown 100.7 FM, under a temporary licence granted by OfCom to radio stations supporting local areas during the Coronavirus pandemic. At the end of the first nationwide lockdown in September 2020, we rebranded to Outreach Radio.

PART 2 – OUR JOURNEY TO DAB DIGITAL RADIO

In October 2020, OfCom granted our permanent commercial DAB licence, allowing us to broadcast across South Hampshire – a coverage area reaching a population of approx. 1.4 million.

PART 3 – THE RETURN OF FM

Due to the second nationwide Coronavirus lockdown, OfCom approved our next temporary Covid-19 FM licence which ran in parallel with our new DAB service, taking us through to August 2021.

PART 4 – OUTREACH DANCE, WINCHESTER DAB & FREEVIEW TVs

Following the success of “Club Lockdown” – Outreach Radio’s dance music radio shows, and utilising the new SS-DAB transmitter covering Winchester and surrounding areas, Outreach Radio spun off a sister station in September 2022 called Outreach Dance, bringing listeners the very best electronic dance music, from House, Techno & Trance, to Old Skool Rave, Jungle, Drum & Bass & Garage. 

Around the same time, a new UK-wide Digital TV service was launched, making Outreach Radio & Outreach Dance both available on Freeview channel 277 and on Amazon Fire TV sticks.

PART 5 – EXTENDED COVERAGE TO BASINGSTOKE, PORTSMOUTH & SURROUNDING AREAS

In the next phase of SS-DAB implementation in Hampshire, a new transmitter covering Basingstoke and surrounding areas took to the air in October 2022.  This provided Outreach Radio & Outreach Dance the opportunity to extend coverage into this area of North Hampshire, which is a key residential and business area and forms a key part of our local social and commuter route.

In January 2023, Outreach Dance also joined the Portsmouth DAB+ network, extending coverage across Portsmouth and surrounding areas.  This has provided access to the Outreach Dance service to listeners across another major population area of Hampshire.

PART 6 – EXTENDED COVERAGE TO SALISBURY & ALDERSHOT

Outreach Radio joined the Salisbury DAB+ network in March 2023, followed by the Aldershot DAB+ network in June 2023, making Outreach Radio & Outreach Dance available across all available DAB transmitters across Hampshire and immediate surrounding area commuter routes.

OUR COMPANY, INDUSTRY, ETHOS & VALUES

Over the last few years, all of the local & regional radio stations across our area have been taken over by major media corporations, re-branded, and set up to operate as quasi-national services operating from centralised locations in other parts of the country.

Outreach Radio is now the only remaining independent commercial radio station in Hampshire.

In most cases, the presenter-led shows are the same programmes nationwide, even though local jingles, ads, traffic reports, etc, can be heard, giving a somewhat false sense of being a local service.  You can check this out by simply tuning through the band until you hear the same programme/songs, then wait for the jingles & ads.

In order to meet local radio licence obligations, the bare minimum of local elements are carried by these broadcasters.  In our opinion, the centralised approach has an impact on the deeper service provided, and the local benefits capable of being provided by a local broadcaster.  Our view is that many of these radio stations sadly no longer represent the voice of the local areas that their original licences were designed to serve.

It has been suggested that small-scale/ultra-local Community Radio stations can plug this gap, and whilst this is true to a point, due to their smaller coverage area and limited budgets, many of these radio stations find it difficult to fund the technical resources or personnel required to provide a high-quality local service.

Outreach Radio was formed as a commercial regional radio service, designed to serve the geographic coverage area of Hampshire and surrounding areas.

If you would like to help or support Outreach Radio, please do not hesitate to contact us.  We’d love to hear from you, and hope you enjoy listening to Outreach Radio.

OUTREACH: an effort to bring services or information to people where they live or spend time (Cambridge English Dictionary)

OUTREACH: the activity of providing services to any population that might not otherwise have access to those services. (Wikipedia)

OUTREACH: often meant to fill in the gap in the services provided by mainstream (often governmental) services, and is often carried out by non-profit, nongovernmental organisations. (Wikipedia)

OUTREACH RADIO: a fantastic locally operated radio station founded in the Romsey, Eastleigh & Chandlers Ford area, and Reaching Out to Hampshire & surrounding areas. (Osman Sen-Chadun, Founder)