New Street's proud wireless past could have the ideal tenant to cement its legacy – a radio station.

Bellway is in talks with Chelmsford Community Radio (CCR) over moving their operation there.

Hal MacLean, who is co-director of CCR with Matthew Eaves, said "Bellway has to place some community use in the site as part of their deal and we've been working with Chelmsford City Council and others since 2008 about what to do with various buildings in the city."

Initially there were plans for the 1912 building to be part community, part commercial, use.

It was also mooted to be the location of an international radio academy, with Chelmsford based stations BBC Essex and Heart moving in with CCR to provide a radio hub.

Hal, 49, said, "We were looking at working with the commercial radio stations in the city – we're not for profit – where we develop a relationship where we bring in new talent to launch their careers.

That has now changed, with a cosmetic firm thought to be looking at the property.

But with 45 volunteers and 75 hours of live programming a week, including the Essex Chronicle news team's Thursday morning broadcast, CCR has rapidly established itself in little over a year.

The online station, which has more than 1,000 regular listeners and an inexplicably strong following in Finland, is also in the process of applying for its FM licence.

Hal said, "We're looking to establish something right in the home of radio and you couldn't get much better than a radio station within metres of Marconi's original transmitting mast."

The above article appeared in the 19 June 2014 edition of the Essex Chronicle – www.essexchronicle.co.uk

Chelmsford Community Radio are a client of Viewpoint Business Services Limited – www.chelmsfordcommunityradio.com/