Radio Phoenix FM Halifax

Phoenix FM in Halifax is a community radio service for Calderdale, made with the involvement of local volunteers. Its output gives musicians, comedians, poets and writers a platform alongside discussion of subjects such as housing, education, disability, employment and sport. The station's local identity comes from those contributors and the concerns they bring to the microphone, with music and speech sharing the programme rather than belonging to separate services.

The project developed through six temporary broadcasting periods before receiving a full community licence in December 2006. Training and participation have remained central to its work. Its education activities developed from the Empower Project for young people aged 16 to 25 into the Phoenix Radio Education Platform. This connection between broadcasting and learning gives residents ways to become programme makers as well as listeners.

One of its established specialist strands is Roving Folk, hosted by Ken Hudson. The programme combines traditional and contemporary folk recordings with information about artists appearing locally. Geoff Twentyman contributes a folk diary and David Kidman introduces new releases. Its published selections range from Steeleye Span, Planxty and Ewan MacColl to the Brothers Gillespie and the Furrow Collective, putting older repertoire beside more recent recordings.

Phoenix also creates projects connected with Halifax's cultural and social life. Its work has included an audio cinema trail and a Halifax board game developed to support reminiscence for people living with dementia. Together with the broadcasts, these activities show a station concerned with local stories, participation and shared memory. This is the Calderdale Phoenix FM, a separate service from the station of the same name in Essex.