A RADIO station hoping to help Swindon's underprivileged communities has been given a licence to go on air for five years.

Swindon Community Radio impressed Ofcom with its test run and gathered enough support to be given long-term permission to broadcast.

Broadcaster Shirley Ludford, who has been the driving force behind the station's bid to get on the airwaves, said: "The whole idea behind it is being accessible and inclusive.

"We had to fill in a complicated application form explaining the programmes, finance, staffing, and explaining who the station was for.

"They did say they like our ethos, and said they had had a considerable number of letters from local community groups and businesses supporting us.

"Anyone can write to Ofcom and tell them what you think about it, and it shows a tremendous amount of support that so many people backed us even before we went live."

The station, currently based in Shirley's Liden home, had its first finance meeting yesterday to discuss ways of fundraising and getting grants, because it will not be allowed to play advertising.

The station's board of six, plus about 10 more advisers behind the scenes plan to hold a celebration and launch party later this month, then announce when they will be going on the air.

Before Swindon Community Radio can hit the town's airwaves, it will have to find a home for the studio.

"The great thing is that as a charity we are not competing with other media," said Shirley.

"This will be so much more about the community.

"We'll be working with schools and colleges and media students and everyone will get full training before they go on air.

"We have got lots of ideas and now we can hopefully put our ideas into practice.

"There is a lot to do now, because we couldn't really secure funding until we knew we had the licence, but it is very exciting."

Last year the charity was given a temporary licence to see whether people in the town would tune in.

"To get as much response as we did shows we were obviously meeting some sort of niche," said Shirley.

The station hopes to announce the date it will go live by the end of the month.