Riduna Radio broadcasts from a former butcher's shop on a tiny island where the entire population barely fills a large concert venue. That an island of roughly 2,000 people supports two separate radio stations at once says something about how much Alderney's residents actually want a local voice on the airwaves, even when there's barely a market for one, let alone two.
Named for a Roman Guess
The station takes its name from Riduna, the Latin name ancient sources associated with the island, though historians admit there is no full certainty which Channel Island the Romans actually meant by it. Islanders are formally still called Ridunians as a result, a name plucked from centuries-old uncertainty and repurposed as a modern radio brand.
A Butcher's Shop Becomes a Studio
Riduna Radio went live at the end of May 2023, becoming Alderney's first exclusively online broadcaster, based out of the former butcher's shop at 4 Victoria Street in St Anne's, according to reporting from the Guernsey Press. Station manager Ian Taylor built the operation around a team of about a dozen volunteer presenters, several of whom had prior experience at Alderney's existing station, Quay FM, including weekend breakfast host Robert "Dougal" Bohan alongside Nic West, Jenny Rowley and Chris Harris.
Room for Two, on Purpose
Rather than positioning itself as a replacement for Quay FM, which broadcasts on 107.1 FM, Riduna Radio launched as a deliberately online-only alternative, with Taylor telling the Guernsey Press "we believe there is room for two stations in Alderney." Quay FM's own Debbie Lewis welcomed the arrival rather than treating it as competition, framing the second station as more choice for islanders rather than a threat to the first. That kind of cooperative reception between two stations serving the same 2,000 residents is unusual by mainland radio standards, where a rival launch usually reads as a fight over the same small pool of listeners.
Owned by the Island Itself
Riduna Radio built its funding model around direct community ownership, offering Alderney residents the chance to buy shares in the station through what it calls its "Islander" Share Membership. Combined with commercial advertising, that structure ties the station's survival directly to how many islanders choose to buy in, a funding approach closer to a community cooperative than a typical commercial broadcaster.
An Island With a Pirate Radio Habit
Alderney's relationship with unlicensed radio predates both of its current legitimate stations by nearly a century. In 1938, Alderney Radio Ltd operated illegally and was raided by the General Post Office, resulting in fines and confiscated equipment. The pattern resurfaced recently: an unlicensed broadcaster identifying itself as "Radio North Sea" or "Laser Radio" has been transmitting intermittently on a frequency close to Quay FM's own signal for two to three years, playing continuous 1970s pop with no presenters, according to Guernsey Press coverage of the ongoing issue. Officials have noted that unlicensed operators skip the Ofcom fees and copyright royalties that Riduna Radio and Quay FM both have to pay to stay legal.
A Small Island, Loud About Its Radio
For an island roughly three miles long, Alderney has an outsized appetite for local broadcasting, two licensed stations, a share-ownership model built around community buy-in, and a decades-long history of pirate signals trying to sneak onto the same small stretch of FM dial. Riduna Radio's bet, that a former butcher's shop and a dozen volunteers could add a second legitimate voice to that mix, appears to be paying off.