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Waterlooville goes Flash as town gets its own radio station

The Waterlooville area is going to have its own spot on the FM dial from
Saturday, as The Flash radio station launches a community radio service from a transmitter located high in the town centre. The Flash, which celebrates the talents of local bands and the live music scene, originally came on air as an internet station back in 2012, and then launched a DAB service to the Portsmouth area in 2015.

Station founder Martin Kirby said “It all started with an idea in my head and 2 hours on a Sunday via a dodgy internet connection and a basic studio in my bedroom, but the growth of the station is down to the dedicated team who joined me later and the touching support we have had from our listeners and the local artists we feature”.

The Flash was awarded the Waterlooville licence last summer and the funds for the FM broadcast equipment came from very kind donations, including an amount from the token scheme at Tesco Extra in Havant, and a grant from Councillor Jackie Branson. The studio’s are based at The Apex Centre in Havant, thanks to support from Park Community School, and the broadcasts are also supported by Waterlooville Library.

The station can presently be heard with test broadcasts on 104.3 FM, and will launch at 12.00 noon this Saturday. The not for profit Community station has a team of over 30 volunteer presenters who cannot wait to go live to Waterlooville and the surrounding areas, and not only promote the local music scene but also spotlight everything that is positive in the local area.

GRAND TOTAL RAISED AT THE END OF ‘THE FLASH FUND FOR FM’ APPEAL – £4889.27

Thanks to your very generous support and kind donations we
not only achieved our goal but passed it by £889.27p.
Thank you so much for all the support you have given. We are
now broadcasting on 104.3FM and we could not have achieved
it without you. Every penny will go towards paying off the
remaining invoices for the installation and added overheads for
the FM service during the first month or so. Now the search is
on for local advertisers to help pay our FM costs from this point
forward.

THANK YOU FOR MAKING FM COME TRUE!

Wednesday 19th June was a fantastic day, as all the support we have had, and all the work we have done, led to the dawn of a new chapter in the life of The station that was born as Flash 1512 back in July 2012. 7 years later and we are almost ready to launch a full time service on FM from Waterlooville, and we could not have got to this point without the tremendous support we have had for our ‘Fund For FM’ appeal.
Although we are only now in the process of paying off invoices for the FM transmission equipment and the installation costs, I am very pleased to reveal that the entire system is now installed at the transmitter site in Waterlooville town centre, and ready for the big switch on.
I must thank Alan Beech (Sunday presenter Big Al) and his colleague Wallace from Commtronix Ltd for their 6 hours of hard work on the roof of Waterlooville Library. 

We plan to commence full test transmissions on 104.3 FM at lunchtime on Thursday 27th June and expect to operate engineering music tests for a couple of weeks before launching the new service at midday on Saturday 13th July. A great deal of work will need be carried out at our Havant studio in preparation for the launch of our FM service, so for this reason our regular programmes on DAB and internet will be suspended from 9.00pm on Sunday 30th June and until the relaunch at midday on Saturday 13th July. You will however still enjoy Real Music on these platforms while this work takes place and we will keep you informed on our progress.
These are exciting times and I know our regular listeners will be patient with us while we prepare for the next chapter in the life of YOUR radio station.