Wandsworth Radio is a local radio station based in Battersea, London, which broadcasts local news, sports, music and specialist shows. Its main audience is based in the London Borough of Wandsworth. The director is BBC Radio London presenter Jason Rosam.
History
The station went live in January 2015, with Martin Harris and Samantha Baines presenting the live launch show on 12 January 2015. The Mayor of Wandsworth Cllr Stuart Thom opened the station while a packed launch party was going on across the road from the studios. Radio presenter and journalist Jason Rosam started his career in community radio in his home town of Poole in Dorset in the mid 1990s. He went on to work at many commercial radio stations and has been at BBC Radio London as a news reader, reporter and presenter for the last 10 years. Jason noticed a number of community on-line radio services being set up in other parts of London and wanted to set up a station for Wandsworth as he’s lived in the borough for the past 15 years.
A meeting was held at the Battersea Arts Centre in May 2013 after Rosam published an advert for people who wanted to get involved. Over 60 people turned up to the first meeting brimming with programme ideas. Work then started on building on these ideas, finding a suitable studio space and raising funds to be able to pay for equipment.
In July 2014, a Crowdfunding campaign was launched with the aim of raising £3,000 for studio equipment and software.
The local community raised over £4,000. Wandsworth Radio were accepted for a Big Society Award from Wandsworth Council of £5,000. Local HIV Charity Wandsworth Oasis offered a space above their shop in Battersea Park Road for the studio. Volunteers then began fine tuning their programme ideas and were trained on the software and studio equipment.
During this process the Wandsworth Radio news team started producing a weekly podcast of local news and information. This was good practice for the nightly news programme Wandsworth Tonight.
The station's first official broadcast was on 12 January, 2015 and was available online or through popular mobile app Tunein.
Since launching Wandsworth Radio, over 250 people have volunteered as presenters or part of the news team, 3,000 people are tuning in every month to the programmes and the station has become an important feature in the local community. They have presented the main stage at the Get Active Wandsworth Festival' in King George’s Park and the Live at the Bandstand event in Battersea Park and they will continue providing presenters and live broadcasts from significant events in the community.
The station launched a project to celebrate the diversity of Wandsworth by highlighting residents who were born outside of the UK to mark the first anniversary broadcasting.
Breakfast Presenter James Ware gained notoriety in February 2016 for a stunt in which he dined at all 46 McDonald's in London in the same day.