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Swindon 105.5

Swindon 105.5
Swindon 105.5 station Logo
Broadcast area Swindon
Slogan Daring to be different...
Frequency 105.5 MHz
First air date 15 March 2008
Format Community Radio
Owner Community Radio Swindon
Website www.swindon1055.com

Swindon 105.5 is a community radio station for Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The station provides at least an hour's programming a week for every major music genre as well as features about local people, events and organisations in Swindon. The station manager is former BBC and GWR FM presenter, Shirley Ludford. Aside from Ludford being paid part-time, the station is run by volunteers. The station obtains its funding from grants, donations, fundraising events and training courses.

The original project was founded in 2004 by Ian Rowe, Johnny Robinson, Richard Grace and Greg Stevens, who were all presenters at Swindon FM at the time, along with Shirley Ludford, a former employee of both BBC Radio Wiltshire and GWR FM. Ludford was subsequently appointed Station Manager of the project.

Prior to the launch of the full-time station, Swindon Community Broadcasting, a RSL (Restricted Service Licence) station, was set up in order to discover whether a community radio station could work in the area. Broadcasts took place from The Bulldog pub in Swindon. After positive feedback about the station's success throughout the four-week broadcast it was decided the project would proceed to the next step and apply for a full-time Community Radio Licence from Ofcom.

In 2006, two groups applied for the community radio licence for the Swindon area: Swindon FM Community Radio, which had run a local DAB only service in Swindon since 2002, and Community Radio Swindon, broadcasting as Swindon 105.5. Ofcom decided in favour of Community Radio Swindon and the station was awarded its licence in February 2007. The vast majority of Swindon FM's presenters moved to Community Radio Swindon, creating an unofficial merger.

The station's first studio was at the County Ground, home of Swindon Town F.C., and was for a short time shared with ITV Thames Valley. The inaugural show on 15 March 2008 was presented by Ludford with a former broadcasting colleague from BBC Radio Swindon, Peter Heaton-Jones. The station’s first officially played song was the 1964 Martha & The Vandellas single – Dancing in the Street. The original music database was developed by the station's Head of Music and co-founder, Johnny Robinson. The first regular show to air was The Johnny Robinson Show at 7-9 pm on Saturday 15 March. Robinson was apparently "tired and shattered" after helping with preparations for the launch, and had gone without sleep for 36 hours before presenting the show.


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