Local Radio Day returns this year ‘Celebrating the Sound’

Local Radio Day is back for the seventh annual celebration of the UK’s local radio industry on Friday 21 October.

The theme this year is ‘Celebrating the Sound’ to showcase the best of local radio and the efforts made by the industry to engage listeners and strengthen the communities it serves.

Organisers Dom Chambers, Maxine Stride and Natalie Randall are planning to launch a month-long pop-up station ‘Sound Radio UK’, featuring audio from local radio stations across the UK.

Five-minute compilations representing the stations that participate will feature on a 24/7 stream on the Local Radio Day website.

Local Radio Day was created in 2015 by UKRD and is now being managed by the charity Sound Vision.

Last year, over 250 radio stations including all BBC local stations were a part of the day. This year, the ‘Celebrating the Sound’ theme will also be supported by the Community Media Association, The Radio Academy, Local Radio Support and RadioToday as well as local radio stations across the UK.

Sound Vision CEO and Chair of the Community Media Association Dom Chambers said: “This year we are delighted to announce we are collaborating with the Local Media Network, led by John Dash. This partnership brings together the experience of our teams and links into community, commercial and BBC networks.

“As part of my radio tours, I’ve visited over 110 stations and counting, I get to see the full value to society and community life up and down the country. We need to be drawing attention to this, and Local Radio Day 2022 provides the perfect opportunity to showcase the power of local radio and what it means to the people.

“The industry is fast evolving, with the welcome return of small-scale commercial radio through the rollout of new DAB services and significant changes at the BBC, which is the longest serving sector of local radio in the UK. It is also inspiring to see community stations across the UK building their capacity to deliver quality radio, whilst delivering extensive value and enriching community life. This is a truly exciting time for local radio.”

John Dash, who spoke about Local Radio Day at the national Radio Festival recently, added: “This year we are doing something a little different and we want as many local stations to join in as possible.

“We are celebrating the true foundation of local radio – your fabulous work! All year you lovingly create amazing content, and we want to showcase that work on our pop-up station ‘Sound Radio UK’ for anyone who wishes to hear the best of local radio.”

You can find out more and sign up your station at the Local Radio Day website.