This, for the very first time...

...is Love Salisbury.

Welcome to our new Love Salisbury website. A site which is provided by Salisbury's local radio station, the aptly named Salisbury Radio.

This is a website which is not dedicated to disc jockeys and the music they play, but to the people and area we serve. (Although we do apologise in advance for any photos of Craig Hicks that may crop up -Ed).

Salisbury Radio is the city's only local radio service. Whereas we are still finalising our installation into city centre studios, we are providing a 24 hour a day radio station that cares about our area.

That area is south Wiltshire and west Hampshire. When Salisbury Radio launches on DAB (Digital Radio) later this year, it will serve up to 200,000 people. People who live, work and play around the central, historic and beautiful city of New Sarum.

The Spirit of Salisbury.

When Salisbury Radio was conceived, we were all well aware of the power and influence that local radio has had on this city. The board is made up of people with many years' experience in owning and running radio stations and the majority of shareholders have been involved in local radio in Salisbury since it first appeared in September 1992.

We believe in and represent 'The Spirit of Salisbury'. However, that particular phrase is being reserved for something truly incredible that we are building for 2022. Please do watch this space.

We are not a massive corporate organisation, and we are definitely not an organisation where its content comes from elsewhere in the UK. The board, the management and the staff - even those disc jockeys you hear on the radio are all absolutely passionate about what happens - and what doesn't happen - in our area.

On these brand new webpages you will get access to a wide variety of information. As we currently do every hour on Salisbury Radio, we will give you 'The Way It Is'. We'll not only be reporting on as local news as it happens, but also give you information about our wonderful not-for-profit organisations. We'll list events and activities for the family to attend, we'll give you discounts at local businesses; we'll provide a single location for you to get 'useful and useable' information about the area in which you live, work or study.

So, why 'Love Salisbury'?

The days are very much gone of 'Salisbury FM'. People are now receiving traditional media across multiple platforms (digital radio, smart TV's, connected dashboards etc), but they still crave access to new and interesting information where the agenda hasn't been set by their digital providers. As the global trend for showbiz, celebrity and lifestyle information on a macro scale grows, we know that people still want to know what's happening just around the corner.

People also want to feel part of something; like they can get involved, have a voice and steer the conversation. We will enable this to happen. And we will do this through radio, online, social media, video, community development projects, local events and so much more.

Do not consider Salisbury Radio a radio station, consider it part of a greater ethos to support, promote and celebrate what's important locally. Love Salisbury has an emerging, distinctive and confident feel - whether that's providing local news, supporting local music events or showing its care and compassion when required.

We work to the word and the spirit of the government's broadcasting regulator, Office of Communications (Ofcom) in all that we do, whether online or on-air. This means that you will not get opinion, speculation or any form of bias. As a company we are committed to offering impartial, clear and concise information - we'll tell it 'The Way It Is'.

Any time, any place, anywhere.

We hope that over the coming months, you'll find our name, our bright colours and our passionate commitment to the area ubiquitous. We are proud to be a media partner for the impressive Salisbury Live music event in July. We are participating in fundraising efforts for the Salisbury Hospice Charity (we'll be outside the Guildhall on June 11th) and you'll see our bright pinky-purply logo get (legally!) splattered all over the city.

We believe that getting out and about is essential to our operation. From supporting events, hosting our own activities and just simply meeting people, we don't think we can be part of the fabric of the area if we just sit in an office. We will experience and represent the ebb and flow, the feeling and emotion of the city.

And of course our website here, our content on social media and our 24 hour a day radio station is always there for you. Salisbury Radio is currently available on smart speakers, through various apps and as we discovered this week, potentially on your TV. Soon you will hear Salisbury Radio on even more platforms, delivering our service to more and more people who enjoy 'Just Great Songs' and professional, meaningful and engaging radio hosts.

Bad news sells.

That's very true if you work for a paid for newspaper. However, we firmly believe that there is so much 'good stuff out there', it's underrepresented. Through all increasing numbers of Love Salisbury outlets, including Salisbury Radio, you will get a feel and sense, not only of locality, but also for all the incredible people, activities and organisations that are working to make our lives better.

We believe that radio is the original 'push media'. Radio tells you stuff you didn't know you needed to know. And we don't just wait for our phone to ring to get notified. We proactively go out and find those interesting pieces of information and share them with our audience, across all our available platforms.

As well as the standard news, weather and travel, we frequently promote events and activities around south Wiltshire and west Hampshire. We help to connect people with local charities and non-profit organisations with a charitable purpose (we call this Linkline). And we love talking about events and activities for families (this is FamilyLife). You'll also hear more in depth interviews with local people through our City Insider podcasts, features and programmes. (We thank Andy Maul from Maul's Wine and Cheese Bar for being our test guinea pig!)

As we grow and evolve, we hope you'll discover that there is a world of amazing things out there.

It's tough out there.

Don't we know it! It's hard enough starting a new business, and we did this during a global pandemic. And we really do appreciate that it's been hard for even the longest running company.

Everybody at Salisbury Radio harbours a sense of the necessity to support local businesses. We are funded primarily by our ability to grow an audience and deliver them marketing and advertising messages from our thousands of resilient and impressive local businesses. With this in mind, we prostrate ourselves for the benefit of local companies.

We believe that our efforts in growing our huge audience unveil themselves, ultimately for the benefit of the local economy. And man, we've all had it tough recently. We offer a huge range of marketing opportunities for local businesses, we don't just sell radio adverts.

For more information about using our services, please click here.

We love Salisbury.

If you love Salisbury, you'll love Love Salisbury. And, we thank you for taking the time to read through our words here.

As we said at the start, it's not all about us. It's all about you.

Whether it's giving you information about what's happening at the Playhouse, Porton's new community pub, a half price voucher at Studio 15 or hearing about Craig Hicks' cat, Barney, you'll uncover a new world of Salisbury and the surrounding area, right here.

With a potential audience of almost 200,000 people, please bear with us as we connect every bit of our growing operation together.

Like a new pair of shoes, we shall be breaking-in each of our enterprises and activities until they fit perfectly. So, we may squeak a little bit to start, and for that we beg your indulgence, but we are sure you'll like what we have to offer.

Welcome to Love Salisbury.