In Conversation With...

Alan Timbrell

If you happen to tune into Brooklands Radio early on Saturday mornings you’ll hear the dulcet tones of Alan Timbrell, the station’s Chairman.

Interview with Mark Dowdney

When did you first become interested in radio? My love of radio was fired by the pirate stations of the Sixties so while still at school I joined the Radio Club and built Sinclair matchbox radios, so called because of their size and I got to learn about valves and transistors.

So when did you get into broadcasting?

At 16 my friend John Best and I founded a radio service at the old Weybridge Hospital. We collected requests on a Friday evening, then recorded the show at my home to go out over the hospital’s antiquated headphone system on Saturday afternoon. The requests would be for the likes of Jim Reeves, I Love you Because or Frank Sinatra My Way.

How did Brooklands Radio start?

In 2005 a group of us who were involved in the early days, decided to start a new local station. We obtained an OFCOM licence for 28 days to broadcast through FM radio. Brooklands Radio started on the internet and during my first day I spilled coffee on the sound mixer so we soon went off the air.

How many people run the station today?

We have about 50 volunteers, of all ages and abilities. Apart from them there are many roles behind the scenes such as engineering, dealing with licences, scheduling programmes and selling sponsorship or advertising. It costs us about £18,000-a-year to run the station of which membership fees cover 30 – 40% The rest comes from donations or advertising.

Tell us about the shows you present

All the presenters have their own specialities. Music varies from blues to classical, rock to folk. There’s also comedy plus local community information in the mix. We also have outside broadcasts. On one occasion we tried to cover the boat race. Actually, the presenter was doing it from his home watching it on TV whilst at the studio we mixed in river sounds including seagulls and ocean liner horns!

You don’t have reporters so how do you cover news?

We pay Sky News for its headlines which are sent to us via the internet. On Friday lunchtime we have a weekly local news review plus a daily Bulletin Board of local events.

Do you have a target audience?

Yes. We aim at the 45s and over. Apart from music we have specialist programmes such as Just Women, Meeting the Movers and Shakers in the Entertainment Business plus Poetry in Motion. Occasionally we get spots with local celebrities like Michael Aspel and Mike Read.

What area does Brooklands cover?

We stretch across Elmbridge including Woking and Aldershot plus North Surrey and West London. Our potential audience has grown from 200,000 listeners to 2.8 million across an area including Richmond, Twickenham, Kingston, Wimbledon and Wandsworth. We can even be picked up in Westminster!

Has broadcasting changed in your lifetime?

Hugely. A computer finds the music in an instant and between midnight and 6am everything is done by a computer. And you don’t need a radio to hear us, you can listen via the internet, or our app and through smart speakers and on-line at www.brooklandsradio.co.uk