COMMUNITY radio directors are preparing to go live next week after giving their studio at Youth and Community and Centre in Bradford on Avon a spruce up in time for the big launch.

The new station, West Wilts Radio, run by directors David Garwood and Simon McNeill-Ritchie, will go live on Wednesday November 27 after many months in the making.

The station will be broadcast online and on 87.7 DAB, so it can be picked up across town.

Members of the community have been encouraged to get involved with the presenting, and specialist items from poetry groups, the youth club and local chefs have been confirmed.

The Wiltshire Times will also have its own two hourly bulletin to keep listeners up to date on local weekly news, with reporters acting as newsreaders.

Over the past few months the team have been working to decorate the studio, including installing industry standard equipment and putting branding logos on the wall.

Mr Garwood is looking forward to the launch and is hopeful the station will become well known and popular in the community.

He said: “We have been working extremely hard in the run up to the launch, but the work isn’t over yet.

“We are really pleased to have so many people involved and we think the station will offer a real variety of content, there will be something for everyone.

“I was amazed that we were given our DAB frequency so quickly.

“That was a real achievement for us as we were expecting to just be online for the first year or so.

“There is now more technical work to be done on the equipment and we will be ready to go.”

Members of the public tried their hand at radio presenting when an open day was held at the West Wilts Radio station in August. Mr Garwood added: “The open day went really well and we had a really steady string of people come in throughout the day who all showed a lot of interest.

“There were also a lot of really great ideas for various radio shows.

“The youth club were also very pleased to see the studio and we have arranged to do some talks with them now the studio is finally finished, as there is still a fair amount of work to do.”

A launch party will be held at the studio to celebrate the station going live, once it is on air and fully operational.