Wythenshawe FM (WFM)

The area once known as the biggest council estate in Europe - housing some 80,000 people - Wythenshawe has proved a perfect location in which to test community radio. When its first ever radio station hit the airwaves in May 2000, the presenters sometimes found themselves mobbed by a wildly animated crowd.

"It was like being in a cage - occasionally we had to pull the shutters down because of the sometimes over-enthusiastic response," laughs Radio Regen's founder Phil Korbel. Initially licensed for just three days, Wythenshawe FM hoped to get noticed by broadcasting live and in public, in this case from the Forum Theatre's box office. It worked. "It gave people from the area a buzz just to know they had their own radio station," says Wythenshawe resident, former Radio Regen trainee and Programme Organiser Jason Kenyon.

The station built on its success by transmitting visibly in the community during two subsequent RSL broadcasts in 2001, one of which was honoured by a visit from then Broadcast Minister Janet Anderson. She was clearly impressed by community radio's possibilities after seeing it in action and went on to push through the community radio legislation.

WFM was granted one of only 15 Access Radio Pilot licences nationwide, taking to the airwaves in 2002. It now has a permanent studio located in the Civic Centre shopping precinct and aims to help regenerate the area by giving it a voice and building up the skills and confidence of local residents.

Built as a garden city in the 1930s, Wythenshawe is a largely white, working class area on Manchester's outskirts that has been starved of opportunity. Its Benchill ward is officially the most disadvantaged in the country with half the residents having no qualifications; high levels of unemployment, crime and one-parent families; and extremely poor health levels.

According to Benchill-born volunteer Les Watson, who presents The Breakfast Show, the station had positive side effects from the outset. "When Wythenshawe FM first started, the streets cleared. Instead of hanging around shops and car parks, youths were ringing us up asking to be involved in shows, asking for shout-outs to various crews, enjoying the tunes the DJs were playing rather than causing trouble and mayhem." "What I've seen at the station is volunteers becoming newly confident. It's very beneficial: the skills they've acquired are quite tremendous."

Programme Organiser Jason Kenyon, having seen hundreds of volunteers come through WFM's doors and who began as a trainee himself, agrees that it has been a success in opening up possibilities for individuals. "It's about giving people more choices in life and then letting them make up their own mind. Hopefully, Wythenshawe FM can show people there are more doors to go through and paths to take - which they choose is then up to them".

Partnerships with health, welfare and housing organisations have made WFM a useful source of local information. In the process, it is also clearly promoting fresh community pride. In a pioneering experiment, tenants of the Willow Park Housing Trust, both young and old, were given radio training and encouraged to report on their lives.

In this way, WFM encouraged a new community pride. Volunteer Support Worker Darren Jenkinson says that in the beginning trainees were very quick to put Wythenshawe down. "Now we're gradually finding volunteers more proud of the area they come from. They see the station as being a part of raising its profile, therefore making it a better place to live."