A community radio station is sounding out a new audience across East Hampshire after making a digital leap.

Wey Valley Radio has nearly trebled its potential audience from around 25,000 to almost 67,000 after making its debut on DAB+ around a month ago.

The move means the station based in Alton can now be heard by tens of thousands of extra listeners in places afar as Bordon, The Tisteds and parts of the Meon Valley.

Wey Valley Radio is carried on the East Hampshire small-scale DAB multiplex, operated by Provincial DAB Ltd.

Listeners can either tune into 101.1 FM or listen online at weyvalleyradio.co.uk or turn on any DAB+ radio to hear.

David Way, one of the station’s original founders who still presents a mid-morning show, can’t believe how far WVR has come from its early 1990s beginnings.

“We first put Wey Valley Radio on air in 1991 on a temporary licence, with a lot of optimism, and were awarded a licence of our own the following year,” said David, who still presents a mid-morning show,

“To be here in 2026 - on FM, online, and now on DAB+ right across East Hampshire - is more than any of us imagined.

“What hasn’t changed is why we do it. This is Alton’s own station, made by people who live here.”

The expanded coverage follows a decision by Ofcom on 11 June 2026 to increase the multiplex’s approved coverage area from 38,000 to 66,995 adults - a rise of more than 70 per cent, and one of the biggest steps the station has taken since it returned to the airwaves in 2017.

Wey Valley Radio’s arrival on DAB caps a long and happy collaboration with its friends at Petersfield’s Shine Radio in a three-year effort to bring small-scale DAB to East Hampshire.