THE boss of Wycombe Sound has hailed its trial run a success as the station appeals for the support of listeners to secure a five-year licence.

The community radio station’s trial came to an end on Sunday after four weeks of programming, which ranged from interviews with community figures and business leaders to specialist music and sports shows.

Chris Phillips, 74, managing director of the not-for-profit Wycombe Community Radio company behind the station, said he was delighted with the reception it received from the community and as far afield as American and Australia.

He said: “It was a great success. We were based in Eden so we had people coming in all the time to say how much they enjoyed the programmes. The emails we’ve received have also been largely positive.

“What we said from the outset is everything we do has to be about Wycombe – so we had councillors, schools, businesses, police and fire service in to talk about what they were doing – and it was all very good.

“We also had someone in from the Wycombe Job Centre one breakfast show talking about vacancies at a Wetherspoons pub in town.

“By the time the person made their way to the job centre to open up, they had a queue of six people waiting to talk about the jobs and they all got one, that’s great.”

Mr Phillips thanked the estimated 150 people who took holiday or gave up their time for free to work for the radio station.

The former BBC Radio broadcaster is now urging residents to email the station with their support and suggestions before it applies for a five-year broadcasting licence from Ofcom.

He said: “We need people to email us and say what they thought of the programmes and the benefits the station brings to the town to support our application to Ofcom, it all adds weight.”

The station will have to wait until the second half of 2014 to apply for a licence after Ofcom put back the application dates for each region to keep pace with requests. The south-east is the final region on the list.

But Wycombe Sound is allowed to broadcast for another four-week period in July and December, and Mr Phillips hopes to have a licence in place to enable it to begin a five-year term from January 2015.

He also suggested Wycombe Sound could link up with fellow community radio station Marlow FM in the future.