Reform RadioReform Radio

Three friends — Jemma, Rachel and Sam — self-funded a pilot in 2013 that put five unemployed young people behind a microphone, then realised they needed a station to broadcast it on. Reform went live in May 2014 from the basement of the share house where they met, pausing for the washing machine upstairs and paying DJs in home-cooked meals. It outgrew that room within a year, took over Coronation Street's old dubbing suite at Old Granada Studios, and later moved into the oldest warehouse in Manchester.

The schedule belongs to the people it trains, so slots turn over as each intake comes through, and it leans house, soul and hip-hop, with disco and funk from party crews like Disco Mums on the monthly Out Since Friday. Off air it is an Arts Council portfolio organisation and a production house making audio for BBC Radio 6 Music and the BBC Sounds Audio Lab.