Hats off to Chris Phillips and his intrepid team of volunteers for successfully providing Wycombe with a broadcast radio station for four weeks over Christmas.

After the demise in 2009 of Mix 107, which had evolved from Swan FM and its earlier AM existence as 1170, Wycombe has not had a dedicated radio station that serves the whole community in the way those stations had tried to do. There is Awaaz 107.4 that serves the local Asian community and BBC Three Counties that transmits over a much wider area than Wycombe, but it would be excellent to have a single point of reference for both the receiving and transmitting of really local news and information and, for those few weeks, Wycombe Sound provided that for us. I was asked to come in during its last week and was impressed by the commitment of the volunteers who had identified a need and done all the hard work in setting up and operating the station over the short Christmas period. Another four-week stint is due apparently in July.

It really is a no-brainer. The only stumbling block to providing a regular service is, of course, finance. And the finances will hopefully arrive when local business and institutions realise there is a market for a local station. The only local station that I have access to is Marlow FM, which I cannot receive at home but always tune into as I drive through Marlow, particularly when there are weather or road issues I need an update on.

A permanent Wycombe-based and Wycombe-serving radio station would be a godsend.

It appears an application to Ofcom will be made towards the end of this year. I would urge readers to support this initiative and reward both the hard work and imagination of the Wycombe Community Radio Company in reviving something that most people would agree should never have been allowed to disappear from the airwaves.

The benefits could be considerable, whether it be from giving local politicians and local government the opportunity to be heard by the public on a more regular basis and, even more important, vice versa – or from advertising job opportunities and community needs and initiatives.

The best of luck to Chris Phillips and his team.