THE country’s first pop-up radio station will launch in Warrington next week when Newlove FM hits the airwaves.

The community radio station is the inspiration of Newlove Warrington, a charity set up in November by the widow and daughters of murdered dad-of-three Garry Newlove to make the town a safer place as a legacy to Garry.

Newlove FM is the campaign’s first project and will run for two weeks from next Saturday on 87.7FM filling 336 hours of airtime, promising 80 per cent chat and 20 per cent music.

After receiving a radio licence from OFCOM, the radio project gained the backing of DJ Neil Fox on Noel Edmonds’s Sky TV show, Noel’s HQ and garnered the support of the original pioneer of Britain’s house music, DJ Graeme Park, who has volunteered to oversee the decks as programme controller.

With the continuous growing support of celebrity volunteers from soap stars to sporting heroes, Newlove FM has developed into one of the most exciting youth projects to come out of the region in recent months and will be producing some of the most unique and exclusive radio on the airwaves this summer.

Content includes interviews with celebrities and top politicians Gordon Brown and David Cameron, news bulletins from the Warrington Guardian reporting team, music from Warrington bands, plays, community information and much more.

Garry’s widow Helen said: “We launched the charity with the aim to make a real difference by speaking directly to the youth community.

“Music inspires, communicates and motivates and we identified it as the most effective route to reach young people.

“We never expected to progress this initiative so quickly and I would like to thank all the volunteers involved in this project.

“This is Garry’s legacy and I am determined to put my best into it and keep it going.”

Their eldest daughter Zoe, aged 20, will be co-hosting the breakfast show, following in the footsteps of her dad, a former part-time DJ whose passion was music.

Zoe added: “When we launched the charity, one of our aims was to establish a charity programme focusing on delivering an integrated music and youth education campaign.

“It is unbelievably satisfying to be already helping to deliver this aim to the community,”

The radio aims to support the main objectives of Newlove Warrington, which include increasing opportunities to inspire and interact with youngsters – the station’s programming has been developed by students at Chester University and youth groups will be co-hosting several shows.

Newlove FM will be offering young people and budding DJ’s a chance to broadcast on the station and following the end of the two week radio campaign, the bespoke portable equipment will be turned into a dedicated education programme for schools and colleges.