Peterborough’s Salaam Radio station to relaunch from new studio

Salaam Radio relaunches on February 22, broadcasting from a new studio and location, along with new shows and the return of popular favourites.

It has been a tumultuous twelve months for Salaam Radio, initially due to staffing issues and then the restrictions that the pandemic has brought, impacting on live shows and advertising revenues.

Run entirely by volunteers, Salaam Radio first started broadcasting in June 2016 based at the Allama Iqbal Community Centre on Cromwell Road.

The downtime on live shows due to lockdowns gave the volunteer management of the station some time to refocus and strategise on the station’s future.

Amir Suleman, volunteer Director, Station Manager and Presenter said: “We resolved our employment issues, with our only employed role for the station manager, by myself taking the role on voluntarily, to ensure consistency in the role and to significantly reduce our outgoings.

“We realised that not having an independent and larger space for the station was hampering our ability to provide our live shows to the community in a socially distanced way, hence the need to stop live shows during lockdowns.

“We also recognised that the small and restrictive space and lack of parking for presenters and guests was frustrating for all, so we decided to move to the Boongate area, to a much larger space and create a contemporary studio with upgraded equipment and disabled access.”

Throughout the pandemic there have been limited live shows broadcast, but the station has been broadcasting without interruption with recorded content and messaging from Public Health England, the local council and the NHS in both English and Urdu, as well as Urdu content provided by the BBC with key messaging relevant to the largely Asian community the station serves.

Peterborough MP, Paul Bristow said: “I am thrilled to support Salaam Radio as they embark on this new chapter. It’s encouraging we have such strong community radio stations in our City serving our diverse communities. I can’t wait to get back on the air with Amir grilling me on the ‘Ask your MP’ show!”

Amir added: “This new studio will enable us to provide additional Covid-19 and vaccination messaging to our listenership through our varied live programming and, crucially, be a channel for the community to share opinions and views as well as provide a welcome community connection for the isolated and vulnerable.”

Salaam Radio is available on 106.2FM, online at salaamradio.co.uk or via the TuneIn app for iOS and Android. All live shows are streamed live to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.