Sheerness is a modest town on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, but its local radio station has picked up recognition well beyond its size. Sheppey FM 92.2 started life as an internet-only stream in 2012, won an Ofcom community licence in 2016, and began broadcasting on 92.2 FM in April 2017. Since then it has grown into one of the most decorated small stations in the country, run entirely by Sheppey Matters, a health and wellbeing charity that has served the island since 1994.
Built by a Health Charity, Not a Broadcaster
Most local radio stations trace back to a media company. Sheppey FM traces back to a health charity. Sheppey Matters was founded in 1994 and has since raised the funds to build the island's Healthy Living Centre, and radio became one more tool in that mission rather than the point of it. The station operates out of the Sheppey Community Media Centre in Sheerness, alongside a community information point and meeting room, which means the studio sits inside the same building as the services it talks about on air.
Programming With a Purpose
That charity DNA shows up in the schedule. Alongside music, talk, and local news, the station has run shows tackling cancer awareness in partnership with Kent Cancer Alliance and the NHS, hosted roadshows and fundraising events across the island, and given airtime to youth programming and local creative projects. Volunteers of all ages and abilities present shows, and the training that goes into getting them on air is treated as seriously as the broadcasts themselves.
National Recognition for an Island Station
That training focus has not gone unnoticed. Sheppey FM was named National Community Radio Station of the Year at the 2023 Community Radio Awards, on top of a Community Impact Project of the Year win the same night, and it holds a Princess Royal Training Award for its inclusion model, a rare distinction for a station broadcasting to one island in the Thames Estuary. The station has also drawn funding from Ofcom's Community Radio Fund, support that keeps its training programmes running for residents who might not get broadcast experience anywhere else.
Why Tune In
Sheppey FM is not chasing a national audience or a specific music format. It is a station built around one place and the people who live there, mixing local music and talk with a genuine stake in the island's health and community life. For anyone curious what community radio looks like when it is run by people who have spent three decades investing in a single town, this is as good a place to start as any.