Radio Winchcombe

Radio Winchcombe is a community station for Winchcombe, Bishops Cleeve and surrounding parts of the Cotswolds. Established in 2005, it brings together local information, speech and music programmes made by a volunteer team. Its musical range includes current releases and specialist jazz, country, rock, folk, soul and blues, while news headlines place local stories alongside national and international events.

Phill Bird presents programmes with different musical approaches. Something a Little Bit Different combines his selections with guests discussing local issues or wellbeing. Something a Little Bit Vinyl invites people to bring records into the studio, including singles, albums and older shellac discs. His experience as a church organist also informs Pedals, Pipes and Pistons, a programme devoted to organ music.

Martha Richler, known as Marf, presents Night Train. The show moves between jazz, soul, pop, progressive rock and newer music, with particular attention to female musicians. Literature, poetry and philosophical quotations form part of its conversation. Interviews with musicians and a narrative running through each edition make it more than a sequence of unrelated records, with the later part of the programme becoming gentler in tone.

Beyond individual shows, Radio Winchcombe publicises local events and provides space for community organisations and charities. Volunteers contribute to presentation, production and the work needed to keep the service running. Its Cotswolds setting and the different interests of its contributors give the station a combination of neighbourhood information and personal music choices that changes across the week.