How the Community Radio Fund Helped Soar Sound Strengthen our Social Gain Work in Leicester
Soar Sound has submitted its final report to Ofcom on support received through the Community Radio Fund. The funding supported a community impact and business development role that helped the station turn community relationships, volunteer energy and programme ideas into practical on-air and off-air activity.
The report is being shared because public accountability is part of the Community Radio Fund process and Soar Sound’s commitment to open governance. This is an opportunity to explain what this support has meant for the station, its volunteers, and the communities Soar Sound serves.
What the Funding Made Possible
The funding helped Soar Sound strengthen our core social gain work that sits at the heart of community radio. Over the grant period, the station was able to put more structured time into:
- Developing community-focused programmes and interviews;
- Supporting volunteers and community reporters;
- Building relationships with civic, heritage, health, care, education and voluntary-sector partners;
- Recording and publishing local voices that are often under-represented;
- Improving the station’s evidence base for future funding, licensing and partnership work.
The grant also helped the station generate additional direct income through grant funding and advertising sales during the funded period. That income did not make the role fully self-funding within the grant period, but it represented a strong step towards long-term sustainability and helped show how social gain, partnership work and income development can support each other.
Social Gain in Practice
For Soar Sound, social gain means more than broadcasting. It means helping people hear each other, making local information easier to share, and creating routes for people to take part in civic life.
During the funded period, this included work around arts, heritage, carers, wellbeing, community events, local services and cross-community discussion. The station’s Spotlight strands and event-based reporting gave space to Leicester residents, volunteers, community groups and public-interest organisations.
The work also supported the statutory purposes of community radio: serving underserved voices, enabling discussion and expression of opinion, offering training and participation for people not employed by the station, and strengthening links across the community.
Volunteers and Community Reporting
The grant helped Soar Sound move volunteer activity onto a more organised footing. Volunteers and contributors gained practical experience in interviewing, audio recording, editing, photography, public engagement and ethical community reporting.
That matters because a community station is strongest when it is not only broadcasting to a place, but helping people within that place develop the confidence and skills to tell their own stories.
Partnerships and Civic Capacity
The funding also helped Soar Sound build and sustain relationships with organisations working in areas such as adult social care, heritage, education, creative health, local events and voluntary-sector support.
This work sits in a wider Leicester context. Following the 2022 violence in Leicester, the Better Together report highlighted the need for trusted local channels, civic dialogue, misinformation resilience and secular spaces where people can meet beyond narrow identity frames. Community radio has a practical role to play in that civic infrastructure. It can create space for listening, explanation, community reporting and shared local identity.
Why Reach Still Matters
The final report also records a continuing constraint: limited broadcast coverage. The station has shown that it can deliver social gain, develop volunteers, work with partners and create public-interest local content. The next challenge is reach.
Wider reach would allow Soar Sound to serve more people, make its community reporting more visible, strengthen the case for future funding and partnerships, and provide a stronger evidence base should future community radio licensing opportunities become available.
Looking Ahead
Ofcom’s follow-up on the report recognised the value delivered through the funded role and the positive impact of the grant. The station is grateful for the Community Radio Fund support and for the work of volunteers, contributors and partners who helped turn that support into practical local benefit.
The next stage is to build on that foundation: clearer evidence of social gain, stronger volunteer pathways, deeper partnerships, and a continued commitment to serving Leicester as an inclusive, civic, place-based community radio station.