A REDHILL-BASED radio station is set to broadcast on Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) from next year.

Redstone FM aims to provide a mix of music and chat across East Surrey. But while organisers hope the station will appeal to a wide cross section of the community, it also hopes to offer opportunities to visually impaired people, and those with other disabilities, by allowing them to produce and present their own radio programmes.

Speaking to the Surrey Mirror at the launch of the station at Reigate and Banstead Town Hall, radio consultant Des Shepherd, training manager for Redstone FM, said: "We are not a commercial company.

"We're a social enterprise and many of our members are blind or partially sighted or have other physical disabilities, and one of the things we are able to do is to give them the opportunity to produce and present radio programmes, through training.

"With DAB, you can buy DAB radios. We'll also be online. The radio station itself is for people living in East Surrey. People listening are not going to know the presenter is sitting there with a guide dog at his feet. Radio, in that respect, is a great leveller.

"So what we are doing is offering that opportunity to people – but by necessity we are going to have a lot of other people involved because when you have a lot of people who are visually impaired, they need sighted assistance in terms of reading the computer and things like that.

"For every visually impaired person we have as a volunteer, we've probably got two sighted people, plus we are looking to do programs for young people in the evenings.

"We hope to be on air early next year."

Ambulance worker Nigel Fitzmaurice, 48, of New Causeway, Reigate, is a presenter and board director of Redstone FM.

He added: "Redstone FM was a restricted service licence station for the Redhill area based in Redhill and Merstham. It started broadcasting in 2005, and we're now looking at a switch to digital and relaunch.

"On the presentation side of things we're starting with a blank canvass and obviously working our way to where we are going to be. We do need volunteers, obviously – from reporters to studio help, right up to presenting."

Anyone wanting to get involved should e-mail info@redstone.fm or go to www.redstone.fm