BOOMERANG RADIO IN PETERBOROUGH

Photo: Bill Hensley by Ken Challenger

A new digital commercial radio station has begun broadcasting in Peterborough on DAB.

Boomerang Radio includes many familiar voices from local broadcasting with many years of on air experience across the city between them so you’ll recognise quite a few.

The full-time not-for-profit radio station broadcasts across Cambridgeshire, concentrating on Huntingdon, Peterborough, Cambridge, St Ives, Ramsey, Ely, and the surrounding towns and villages.

Among the presenting team are Pete Tee who spent time with WGMS and Gold, Gary Ball and Gavin Samways who both worked with Hereward FM and Lite FM, and Chris Tibbles and Jo Bailey who both worked with Lite FM and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

Managing Director and broadcaster Bill Hensley told ESP – “As well as the presenters that Peterborough will be familiar with, Boomerang will play quality familiar music – every song instantly recognisable and one that you can sing along to from 1960 to the early 2000s.”

Staffed by volunteers, Bill says the station intends to offer plenty of community involvement and wants to be seen as well as heard throughout Peterborough.

“We are going to be seen as well as heard. We want to be out and about amongst the people of Peterborough, whether that is getting requests in Cathedral Square or other parts of the city, attending fetes or events, or broadcasting live from businesses across the city.

“Boomerang Radio will be the local commercial radio station for the area. After the loss of Hereward Radio, the flagship radio station for the city, to the bigger corporate groups that rebranded and networked from London, and with the BBC reducing local output more and more, we want to fill that gap.

“Programming on Boomerang Radio is made locally with presenters that know the city, love the city, and live in the area,” Bill continued. “Those presenters, not just a promotions team, will be out and about meeting listeners and attending events. Although we are a commercial radio station, the community is at the heart of everything that we do. Even if we are just walking the dog through Ferry Meadows, stop us and say hello!”

Boomerang Radio has been broadcasting across Cambridgeshire since October but the dedicated Peterborough output has begun this week on DAB.

“Radio is a medium like no other,” says Bill. “It's a trusted medium and, for some, it's a friend. Where other radio stations have become a relay of a national broadcast, only broadcast local news and commercials on their local transmitter, we believe that Boomerang Radio can be the friend of those that live on their own. We can be the companion in the car with you travelling to or from work on our local roads. And we can bring the people of Peterborough and Cambridgeshire together, keeping them connected with local news, travel, and what's on information.”

Listen to Boomerang Radio on DAB, via the website, www.boomerangradio.co.uk, the mobile app (free from your app store), or just ask Alexa to ‘Enable Boomerang Radio UK’.