Radio station finds new home after 55 years

A community radio station has found a new home after it was asked to leave the hospital it served for more than 55 years.

In January, Apple FM, the only remaining community radio station in Taunton, was asked to move out of Musgrove Park Hospital in Somerset by this summer.

The Somerset NHS Foundation Trust cited changing patient needs and a growth in services.

Greg Perkins, the managing director of the station, said he and other volunteers are "very excited" to have found a new home at Ine's Cottage in the town centre, which they hope to be broadcasting from by "mid-year".

Perkins said he is "very excited" to have been offered the former gatehouse for Taunton Castle by Mambo's, which is attached to the listed building.

"Interestingly, we found that one of our founders, when we moved to FM, a guy called Phil Knighton, who sadly is no longer with us... his great-grandmother actually lived in Ine's Cottage," he added.

"So a lot of people are now sort of saying, Apple FM is coming home, which is extraordinary."

Taunton Hospital Radio first hit the airwaves in 1969, and rebranded to Apple FM in 2013.

Perkins said the Apple FM team had been "concerned" they would be unable to continue as a community radio station and would have to move online.

"The fact that we have found a location within Taunton town centre, and hosted in a wonderful building... we're very lucky," he added.

Now, the team is turning its attention to moving in, but Perkins said there is "a lot of work to be done".

"We're all volunteers so all this work has to be done in our evenings and weekends," he said.

"There is some clearing to be done and, obviously, we have to set up the studio.

"We have to move equipment into the building and we have to set up various electronic and audio parts of it."

Perkins added it should take the team "six or seven months" to be broadcasting from Apple FM's new home.

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