From the inception of Bexhill Radio we’ve always been about community. It is the singular thing that drives us and although presenters may come and presenters may go being in the heart of Bexhill is always our priority.

Bexhill Radio was first set up as an educational tool with a mind to help youngsters with mental health, confidence and low self esteem issues. After considerable investment in time and money we were ready to roll out the presentations to various councils, education trusts and sponsors when Covid19 struck. The work and investment simply disappeared overnight as social distancing and work from home was introduced, contacts were put on hold and presentations binned.

Although luckily our mainstay employment initially classified us as key workers the tweaks hit hard & investment given to the radio was sorely missed as the bills piled up and inbound income reduced.

After a long chat it was decided that working to a game plan we would find presenters and introduce an online local community station to Bexhill that was free, a good quality and something that would fit into the heart of the community. What we didn’t expect was the suspicious nature of various influential individuals and the hard work in selling it to local business. We were lucky to find a few presenters fairly quickly and introduced the likes of Alphabet Street who are still growing strong today and were broadcasting 8 hours a day to a very minimal audience. Local business showed a lack of interest and the local community even moreso but we kept on.

After a chance conversation Will P’ joined Bexhill Radio and from here things changed very quickly. Soon our advertising through social media took hold and we were able to introduce more presenters. Will P’ introduced more presenters and DJs to Bexhill Radio and now we were broadcasting for 16 hours a day with large portions being live. Our figures were slowly rising as we found new avenues of advertising and Bexhill Radio went from a small community station into a bit bigger National station that was gaining new interest on a daily basis. We were introducing new ideas, creating fundraisers and highlighting National issues that were topical at the time. Everything that should should have been embraced locally was now being embraced Nationally. The interest in Bexhill Radio hit a new height when Jim Davidson came on Bexhill Radio for an interview which saw a whole new audience appear and all of a sudden local interest took an upturn.

Our listener-ship around this time was, at most, a few hundred per month but increasing steadily. We we’re now having regular interviews with local politicians joining us for interviews. Christine Bayliss has been on the station several times and Huw Merryman actually took time to discuss local issues. Local business was now coming on board and we managed to secure a long term program featuring Hastings Academy Performing Arts.

Towards the middle of 2022 we were now experiencing a Global interest and monthly figures in their thousands and growing each month. Unfortunately we lost one or two popular presenters but where doors close windows open and new presenters come in and open new opportunities. We reached a new height of 40,000 listeners for the month of December and had a massive surge of interest in Canada and The USA. It was around this time that Will P’ showed his true allegiance to Bexhill Radio by commissioning and funding our very own app. The app is now the most important tool for Bexhill Radio and proved to be an instant success.

The month of January 2023 saw 213,954 listeners tune in to Bexhill Radio and over 1 million hits on our website.

We had truly gone Global in every sense of the word and all done without advertising or any form of income.  While our numbers have now stabilized at around 100,000 listeners per month our website is still enjoying very high usage.

Without the participation of previous presenters such as Rob Andrews, Jeff Barker, Bazza J, Liz Snape, The Man & Mr. Wright, Francis Saunders, Jessica Fliescher, Marco C and Jasmine Thackrall we most certainly wouldn’t be where we are today.