The origins of Brooklands Radio go right the way back to 1965 when Alan Timbrell and his friends set up a hospital radio service in Weybridge Hospital. Alan reassembled the team again in 2005 to celebrate that station's 40 years of broadcasting. Following on from those celebrations, Brooklands Radio was set up and it has grown from the enthusiasm of the small group of people in Surrey who believe a really local radio station will strengthen the sense of community and make their locality a better place. Their aim is to make it an entertaining, helpful, companionable and accessible station for those living in Surrey, many of which are mainly outside or on the fringe of the coverage of ILR stations serving London and the South-East.
The team has grown steadily and has already run three trial 28 day FM broadcasts licenced by OFCOM in 2006, 2007 and 2009 and in May 2015, it ran a trial DAB across the whole of Surrey for the month. Since 2009, the station has been broadcasting on the internet 24 hours a day and has its own free app and is available on most radio apps including TuneIn and on smart speakers.
From December 2018 Brooklands Radio has also been available on an OFCOM trial of DAB broadcasting for local and community radio with transmitters at Knaphill and Aldershot operated by British Forces Network and we can be heard on DAB radios across north-west Surrey and north-east Hampshire. OFCOM are planning permanent local DAB multiplex transmitters for the South-East and we aim to be available on multiplexes serving Surrey.
Since its inception Brooklands radio has been developing and implementing community programmes. Based at the heart of the community, in the busy centre of Weybridge, it is committed to being a voice for local people, providing education and training in all aspects of broadcasting, supporting local voluntary bodies and helping local businesses.
The station now has 40+ members who donate their time and resources to running the station from its two studios. Each member brings with them their own on-air personality and skills. This means that our programmes are not formatted within very tight speech and music parameters. As a result it allows for variety, entertainment and new ideas to flourish.
