Oldham Community Radio

Oldham Community Radio serves the varied communities of the Oldham borough through programmes aimed at different interests and audiences. Based in the Spindles shopping centre, it is a volunteer-led, not-for-profit service. Its approach gives particular subjects their own regular strands, allowing people to seek out programmes that speak to their experiences rather than expecting one uniform format throughout the day.

Oldham Today is a weekday news and magazine programme bringing together local interviews, stories and features. Ian Wolstenholme also produces Oldham Today Rewound, which provides selected conversations and longer versions of material beyond the original broadcast. This gives local guests room to explain their work and allows stories to be heard with more context than the daily programme can always accommodate.

The programme collection includes visits to community events and cultural activities around the borough. Examples include conversations at the Scouthead and Austerlands Motor Show, coverage of Whit Friday band celebrations in Lees and a schools singing event in Alexandra Park. Other editions have explored Oldham's rugby heritage and spoken with students and tutors during results-day celebrations at Hulme Grammar School. These are accounts of local people taking part in local life.

Music also has substantial dedicated space. The station's recorded programme archive includes folk, blues, classical, reggae, progressive rock and sixties selections, alongside strands such as Friday Filter and Break a Leg. That breadth complements the magazine programmes and interviews. Opportunities for people to become involved in community broadcasting underpin the service, linking its varied output with a practical aim of widening participation and listener choice in Oldham.