Switch Radio started out as Vale FM, a community radio station set up in 1995 by residents in the Castle Vale area of Birmingham, formerly one of the city's most deprived areas. Between 1995 and 2005 we made a number of achievements including:

• 17 temporary licence Vale FM broadcasts staged featuring over 3,000 hours of community speech content
• 5 weekend broadcasts staged in partnership with other organisations
• 400 involved people in broadcast volunteering
• 15 radio training courses run, benefiting over 230 unemployed people
• education projects with schools, youth and arts groups organised, involving over 150 young people

In 2006 we decided to change our trading name to Switch Radio so that we could target our services at the wider Birmingham and Solihull area.

To find out more about community radio, visit the Ofcom and Community Media Association sites.