REACH Out radio is set to become Hereford's first community radio station with the aim of giving charities and small groups a platform to promote their services.

The station will be ran from Saxon Hall, off Hoarwithy Road, and organisers wants people of all ages to volunteer with contributions to the station on a topic of their choice.

Reach Out will be launched at a family fundraising event at Saxon Hall on September 16 between 11am and 5pm, which will also be an opportunity to discover more about the project.

The radio station which will be available 24 hours a day will initially be online based and through a mobile phone application.

Victoria Craig, centre manager at Saxon Hall, hopes that the station can become a 'one stop shop' for the community and charities to showcase their events.

This could include anything from a gardening club promoting themselves or somebody talking about their fundraising bike ride. The station hopes to have a wide appeal from eight-year-olds to those aged in their 90s.

The idea for the station came after 40 charities from across the city came together for a networking event last year.

A Reach Out facebook page is also being launched to work alongside the radio station.

It is hoped that the station will encourage those living in social isolation to get involved with the station.

Hereford Mayor, Sharon Michael said: "The local radio station will be a fantastic community asset, giving information and advice along with keeping people in touch with what's happening in the local community.

"With local people getting involved it's a great idea and one I'm sure we are all keen to support."

The station aims to be on the air by early 2018 once funding is in place for the project.

Ian Davies, from Like Radio, is supporting the project for the first 12 months said: "It will be a 24 hour station but the programme content will be during the daytime. We will train people to record, edit and make shows which will then be scheduled in.

"This could be anything from a rambler talking about his walks or somebody at a fete describing the events taking place. Anybody can just send in audio taken on their phone via email for somebody else to edit into a show."