A COMMUNITY radio station that announced plans to fold last month will return to the airwaves after being offered a temporary base.

Vitalize – which officially opened in June this year – was set up with a £5,000 Big Lottery Fund grant and support from Communities First.

The station, described as the “Voice of Torfaen”, offered training opportunities in radio, while also shining a light on both national and regional news.

After recently announcing plans to close due to funding issues, station manager Dan Williams has now revealed the team will be moving to Newport after receiving help from the managing director of Newport City Radio (NCR), Ian Lamsdale.

This includes using a room in the radio’s base in Commercial Street, Newport, with a view of to moving back to Torfaen in the future.

Mr Williams, who has past links to NCR, said: “I’m just amazed and in awe.

“I never expected it from anyone. Vitalize has always been my vision and something I believe in and it’s great to see someone believe in it and give me an opportunity to make it work.”

“There has always been something lacking for the general community” in Torfaen and that if someone “has a passion for radio they should be able to do it”.

“We want to provide an opportunity for them so they can progress further in the future and use it as a platform to work their way up in the industry,” he added

NCR MD Mr Lamsdale said he decided to help Vitalize Radio because of his love for community radio.

“To lose Vitalize was a shame and I know how much passion Dan has got for radio as I have known him for years. I thought it was a waste,” he said.

With a spare room at NCR, he said “it made sense” to embrace the Vitalize team and provide them with IT training, grant application advice and “connections” in Cwmbran to help find them a new property.

Mr Lamsdale added that while NCR has to get Dan Mr Williams back to Torfaen “as quickly as possible” the station could be back on the air from Newport by next Tuesday.

NCR began life as Urban Circle Radio in 2007 and now has around 50 volunteers at any one time producing a broad range of of radio and blogs.

For more information on both stations, visit: newportcityradio.org or search ‘Vitalize Radio’ on Facebook.