On Monday18th September, Calne's own radio station - Eartunes Radio - will be bringing you two brand new programmes - Breakfast Club with Ade Stickley and Daytimes with Dave Mac, as the station launches a fresh new look, underlining their commitment to put the 'heart' back into local radio.
In 2009, the future of local commercial radio was changed dramatically when Global Radio began buying up many independent local stations including Wiltshire's GWR and rebranding them as part of the Heart network. Over the years, Heart Radio made more changes to their own programmes by regionalising and nationalising them.
In 2022, local radio took another battering when the BBC announced cutbacks with major changes to their local stations - including BBC Radio Wiltshire - saying that the majority of output would be shared between stations or across the entire network and local programming for most stations will be limited to 6am to 2pm on weekdays only.
These changes have left community radio stations such as Calne's very own Eartunes Radio, to pick up the pieces and try to save what is left of the original concept of local radio.
Eartunes Station Manager, Chris Wilson-Ash commented: "Eartunes have been broadcasting digitally to Calne and beyond since 2009 and we are committed to putting the 'heart' back into local radio.
"For some, local radio is a lifeline and their only access to the outside world."
Eartunes Radio have recently invested a substantial amount of money to refresh the station with a fresh look and sound, which includes new logos, jingles, and shows. Not all of the output on Eartunes is local, such as the Airplay40 Chart Show, however many of the shows on Eartunes are presented live from their studios in Carlton Business Centre, by a team of dedicated volunteers who live and work in the town.
An hourly national news service is provided by IRN (Sky News) with local news bulletins provided by Calne News and aired on the station as and when the news breaks. There are also regular traffic updates throughout the day to help you dodge the daily Calne roadworks.
Being fully digital, Eartunes Radio is not on conventional FM or DAB Radio, however you can listen online at www.eartunes.radio, on a smart speaker, mobile app or radio players such as TuneIn.
If you haven't tuned in to your town's own radio station yet, why not tune in on Monday 18th September as the team launch their new schedule with Ade Stickley bringing you The Breakfast Club from 7am , followed by Dave Mac for Daytimes from 9am.
Chris added: "With over 40,000 music tracks from the 60’s right up to the present day, you are very unlikely
to hear the same song play more than once in a day !"
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