Wey Valley Radio now broadcasts from the Alton Assembly Rooms and reaches almost 67,000 people on DAB+. It wants presenters, newsreaders and engineers.

Alton’s community radio station has moved back into the middle of town. Wey Valley Radio now broadcasts from a new studio at the Alton Assembly Rooms on the High Street, and it is looking for volunteers to help run it.

Alton is about 12 miles north of Petersfield. The station’s signal now reaches well beyond the town.

A move back to where it started

Volunteers moved the station over the August bank holiday weekend. They switched its broadcast systems across to the Assembly Rooms on the night of Saturday 29 August, the station says. It stayed on air throughout.

The Town Mayor of Alton, Councillor Barbara Tansey, opened the studio on air on Friday 18 September. It was the station’s first live broadcast from its new home.

The building is not new to the station. Wey Valley Radio relaunched as a community station there in 2017. The Assembly Rooms are owned by Alton Town Council and managed by the charity Dementia-Friendly Alton.

The station credits three volunteer engineers, Thomas Way, Mike Sanders and David Simmons, with the move. Between them they relocated the studio, rebuilt the IT systems and built the new desk.

A presenter seated at a radio mixing desk with two women standing beside him, under a large blue Wey Valley Radio 101.1FM North East Hampshire sign in a small studio.
The official launch of Wey Valley Radio's new studio at the Alton Assembly Rooms. Photo: supplied by Wey Valley Radio.

Open doors and an MP on air

The public got its first look inside on Wednesday 23 September, during the Alton Volunteer Festival at the Assembly Rooms. Dementia-Friendly Alton and East Hampshire District Council organised the free drop-in day, and the council paid for it.

According to the station’s report of the day:

  • around 30 people toured the new studio
  • the station ran a stand alongside 22 other local groups
  • East Hampshire MP Damian Hinds visited and went on air with presenter David Way

“It is good to see Wey Valley Radio settled into its new home at the Assembly Rooms too, a station run by local volunteers for local people,” Mr Hinds said.

Now on DAB+ across East Hampshire

The new studio follows a bigger change in the summer. On 1 August the station announced it was on DAB+ across East Hampshire, carried on the small-scale East Hampshire multiplex run by Provincial DAB Ltd.

The station puts its potential audience at:

How you listen Potential audience
101.1 FM, around Alton about 25,000 people
DAB+, across the multiplex area 66,995 people

The station says the wider coverage followed an Ofcom decision on 11 June 2026 to raise the multiplex’s approved coverage from 38,000 to 66,995 adults. It reaches villages such as Farringdon and East Tisted and parts of Bordon.

Petersfield’s own community station, Shine Radio, worked with Wey Valley Radio on the three-year push for local DAB. The Petersfield and Liphook transmitters went live in January, the station says, before coverage was extended towards Alton and Selborne.

What it means for you

  • To listen, retune any DAB+ radio and look for “Wey Valley” in the station list. It is also on 101.1 FM and online at weyvalleyradio.uk. DAB is free and needs no internet connection.
  • To volunteer, you do not need any experience. The station says it needs presenters, and also help with news, events, social media and engineering. It is run entirely by just over 40 volunteers.
  • To get in touch, use the station’s contact page or email info@weyvalleyradio.uk.

“You don’t need any experience to volunteer with us,” said Chris Stone, a director and presenter at the station. “It was lovely we could show people round on the day, and anyone who missed it is very welcome to get in touch.”

Wey Valley Radio is not-for-profit. It relies on grants, donations and local advertising to stay on air.

For more to do around the district, see our things to do in Petersfield page.

Sources