Hucknall man is bringing community radio back to the town's airwaves with Torkard FM

Radio enthusiast Ashley Bettridge is hoping to get a brand new Hucknall-based station exclusively for the town up and running within the next month.

Hucknall hasn’t had it’s own radio station since the demise of WHAM Radio in the 1990s.

But Ashley, who is also a part-time DJ, believes now is the time to get Hucknall back on the air with Torkard FM.

He said: “Steve Jenner ran WHAM back in the 90s and I’ve spoken to him about starting this again.

"I’m a mobile club DJ anyway and I’ve always wanted to have my own radio station and and I’ve already got things in the works with this.

"I’ve spoken to David Heathcote, who used to be a presenter on WHAM, and he thinks this will be a good idea.

"I want to get it out there into the community that this is a thing that is going to happen and I hope to start around mid-March.”

Initially, Ashley will be producing the output on his own.

He continued: “I can’t do 12 hours a day, every day, but I hope to initially do a morning show, a couple of music quizzes to get people involved and go from there.

"It will be very much social media-based too, I’ll be putting a couple of posts out there each day to get people getting involved with requests and comments for topics for the day.

"I hope to do things like news, weather and travel updates too.

"My main aim is to get businesses like cafes and charity shops playing the station throughout the day so more local people will hear it."

The station will based on Portland Road and Ashley says the range of his signal is two-and-a-half miles, meaning he will be able to reach the whole of Hucknall, plus a little bit more.

He continued: “It’s going to be on FM but I don’t what frequency yet, that’s still be sorted.

"But I’m really confident about it, everyone I’ve spoken about this thinks it’s a great idea and will be really good for Hucknall.

"I think it will be a good thing for local businesses too and I’m looking to advertise across Hucknall and Bulwell and give local businesses a platform to advertise from.”