A COMMUNITY radio station in Thornbury has two reasons to celebrate after reaching a significant milestone and receiving backing from the town council. 

Thornbury Radio - which is run by South Glos Digital Community Interest Company - has been awarded £3,000 from Thornbury Town Council to help its expansion. 

The team is also celebrating after being officially given the green light by Ofcom through its small-scale DAB licence to expand in the region.

Its proposed coverage covers a large part of South Gloucestershire including, Yate and Almondsbury areas, along with the crossroads of the M4 and M5 corridors.

Thornbury Radio already covers 45,000 people in and around Thornbury and has 15 volunteers working together at the station. 

It is believed once new transmissions commence in 2024, the local station will be available to listeners on DAB as well as FM, smart speaker and online.

Nigel Lane, Director of SGDCIC said: “Thank you to Thornbury Town Council for this grant. 

“It will be used towards the set-up of a digital transmitter covering Thornbury and the surrounding area. 

“Our DAB transmissions will benefit listeners across South Gloucestershire by bringing them a wider choice of radio stations including a new way to listen to Thornbury Radio."

Recently, Thornbury mayor James Murray visited the studio in Castle Street meeting with presenters and hearing more about the community radio station.

Gazette Series: Members of Thornbury Radio Glyn Roylance (left) and Chris Criddle (right) with Thornbury mayor James Murray (middle)Members of Thornbury Radio Glyn Roylance (left) and Chris Criddle (right) with Thornbury mayor James Murray (middle) (Image: Thornbury Radio)

SGDCIC are continuing to raise the money needed to establish transmissions from two sites in South Gloucestershire. One site is near Thornbury and the other in Yate.

Small-scale DAB is an innovative technology that allows local commercial, community, and specialty music services to broadcast on terrestrial digital radio to a relatively small geographical area at a low cost.

This new Digital Radio network can host up to 20 stations. 

SGDCIC are looking for any radio service, local, regional, or national that might be interested in broadcasting to this area of South Gloucestershire. 

Radio stations that would be interested in covering this area on DAB can contact the group via dab@tmcic.org or at http://tmcic.org/dab