Nostalgic melodies and tunes float out on the radio waves, creating foot-tapping beats and smiles across the community.

If you have a “heart and soul for music” you may just be who Village Radio is looking for! Radio chair Evan Turbott says the 30-plus volunteer team at the station, which is based at The Historic Village on 17th Ave West, are aging gracefully and on the scout for radio-loving recruits.

The Village Radio focuses on playing “nostalgic music,” being songs that are 20 years or older.

Evan says the older volunteers like to play tunes from their generation – but age is not a factor when it comes to joining the volunteering ranks.

“I am very keen on seeing the radio move forward into the future and to do that we need younger people,” says Evan.

The Village Radio is after announcers, operators and engineers/technicians.

“Operators are people who actually put on the CDs and vinyl discs for announcers who aren’t able to do that for themselves. The engineers are the ones who fix faults with the old equipment because we broadcast them on old equipment deliberately.”

And the announcers – you guessed it – do the announcing.

“I think you have to have a knowledge of music, a love for music, a care for music, a feel for music, and a heart and a soul for music,” says Evan.

Committee member Ken Wadsworth says the radio station has a “lovely listening audience”.

“They phone in and they want requests and they’ll phone up and say: ‘Oh you’re playing some lovely music today...’ So we love that sort of thing.”

You can volunteer as much or as little as you like – whether that be two hours or seven hours a week. “We’d like to be interviewing people as soon as possible,” says Evan.

If you are interested in joining the team of volunteers at the Village Radio, email: info@villageradio.co.nz Or phone: 07 571 3710.