What Radio City 1386AM does

Radio City 1386AM (legal name: Radio City Swansea) is a privately operated community radio station licensed to broadcast on the 1386AM frequency from Neath in South Wales, United Kingdom. Founded around 1966 and operating continuously for over 47 years, the station originated as a hospital radio service for inpatients at local Health Board (now Swansea Bay UHB) hospitals and transitioned in 2012 to a full community radio station. Its flagship audiences are hospital patients in South Wales, Swansea-area residents, and visually impaired sports fans; the station delivers award-winning live commentary for Swansea City FC and Ospreys Rugby matches from the Liberty Stadium, alongside general music, news, and community programming.

The station's product surface rests on conventional broadcast infrastructure (1386AM transmitter, Shoutcast streaming server at protostar.shoutca.st) extended through dedicated iOS and Android mobile applications, a TuneIn platform listing, and YouTube-based sports content distribution (including Dropbox-hosted replay content). Core offerings include the 1386AM broadcast itself, online streaming, the mobile application, and a dedicated sports commentary service covering football and rugby with accessibility-focused audio description at the stadium.

The business model is a hybrid of local advertising (an "Advertise on City" sales page is maintained) and a community-supporters donation program (linked via a Lotto Abertawe cause page), supplemented by value-in-kind contributions from volunteers. Pricing is not publicly disclosed. The organization is volunteer-led under long-tenured Chairman Hywel Benjamin and operates with 11-50 employees; no external equity or institutional investment has been identified. The customer base spans individual listeners, local SMB advertisers, sports partners (Swansea City FC, Ospreys, Swans TV), and charitable supporters, with partnership-style relationships rather than large-enterprise commercial contracts.

Name

Radio City 1386AM

Legal name

Radio City Swansea

Website

https://radiocity1386am.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1966

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Radio City 1386AM is a community radio station in Neath, Wales, broadcasting on 1386AM to Swansea-area listeners, hospital patients, and visually impaired sports fans, with live commentary for Swansea City FC and Ospreys Rugby at Liberty Stadium.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Radio Broadcasting

NAICS

Radio Broadcasting Stations (51611)

SIC

Radio Broadcasting Stations (4832)

akta.pro primary industry

Community/Low-Power Nonprofit Radio (LPFM/Community Radio) (MPABADAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Internet Radio & Streaming Broadcast Stations (Simulcast/Online-only) (MPAIAEAE)

Keywords

• Community radio broadcasting
• Hospital radio services
• Live sports commentary
• AM radio station
• Local news programming

Headquarters

HQ city

Neath

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Advertising: The station has a dedicated 'Advertise on City' page indicating advertising is a revenue stream for local businesses to advertise on the radio station
2. Donations and Supporters: Community supporters program where individuals and organizations support the radio station financially

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Radio City 1386AM is a community radio station broadcasting on the 1386AM frequency in the Swansea/Neath area of Wales. It delivers music, news, and sports programming to local listeners, hospital patients, staff and visitors of Swansea Bay UHB Hospitals, and provides award-winning live sports commentary covering Swansea City FC and Ospreys Rugby from Liberty Stadium, including audio description services for visually impaired fans.

Product overview

Radio City 1386AM is a community radio station based in Swansea, Wales, operating as a unified broadcast service. The station provides traditional AM radio broadcasting on 1386AM frequency combined with modern digital distribution through online streaming and mobile applications. Key offerings include live sports commentary (Swansea City FC and Ospreys rugby), hospital radio services, and specialized programming. The station transitioned from a hospital radio service to a full radio station in 2012.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Radio City 1386AM Broadcast Community radio station broadcasting on 1386AM frequency in the Swansea area, serving local communities and hospital patients with music, news, and sports programming.
• Online Streaming Service Live audio streaming of radio broadcasts via Shoutcast web player, accessible globally to listeners outside the 1386AM coverage area.
• Radio City Mobile App Mobile application for iOS and Android devices that allows listeners to tune in to Radio City 1386AM on the go.
• Radio City Sports Coverage Live sports commentary and analysis service covering Swansea City FC and Ospreys rugby fixtures from Liberty Stadium, including audio description for visually impaired listeners at the stadium and on radio.

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Swansea City FCcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRadio City provides live sports commentary for all Swansea City FC home matches from Liberty Stadium. The station also provides commentary for Swans TV, the club's official television service.
• Ospreys RugbycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRadio City covers Ospreys rugby fixtures from Liberty Stadium as part of their sports broadcasting service.
• Swansea Sports TrustminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCommunity partner supporting Radio City's activities and initiatives.
• Liberty StadiumcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBroadcasting venue for Swansea City FC and Ospreys Rugby matches.
• Glantawe (Swansea Valley) LionsminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCommunity organization featured on 'What's on in the area' page for local events promotion.
• Live Radio UKminorGTM or Marketing PartnerListed on LiveRadioUK.com directory for discoverability of UK radio stations.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Celtic Music Radio: UK community radio station with a cultural/music-format focus. Comparable in scale and distribution model (AM/online streaming), but with a more specialized music niche rather than hospital radio and sports commentary.

Broad incumbents

• Heart Wales: Major commercial radio station serving Swansea and South Wales, successor to the historic Swansea Sound. Competes for the same local advertising market and sports audience, but with significantly broader reach and corporate backing from Global Radio.
• Nation Radio Wales: Welsh commercial radio network owned by Nation Broadcasting, covering South and West Wales on FM and DAB. Competes for the same local advertisers and listeners across Wales, with substantially greater scale and budgets.
• BBC Radio Wales: Public broadcaster covering Wales with news, music, and sports programming. Competes for the same Welsh-language listenership and local sports commentary audience, but at much larger scale and with public funding.
• Hits Radio (Bauer Media): National CHR commercial radio network owned by Bauer Media. While not a community peer, it competes for the same listener demographics and regional advertising dollars in Wales, illustrating the scale differential that community operators face.

Direct peers

• Radio Cardiff: Cardiff-based community radio station offering a directly comparable model of small-scale, volunteer-driven local broadcasting with online streaming. Similar size, format, and operational constraints as Radio City 1386AM.
• Radio Tircoed: A community radio station serving the Swansea area, providing a directly comparable format, scale, and operating model. Notably, a member of Radio City's team previously worked at Radio Tircoed as Programme Controller.
• GTFM: Community radio station based in Pontypridd serving Rhondda Cynon Taf. Closely comparable South Wales community radio operation with similar volunteer model, local-advertising revenue, and online streaming distribution.

Others

• Hospital Broadcasting Association: UK-wide umbrella organization for hospital radio stations, of which Radio City is a member. It is the closest peer from a 'hospital radio' mission standpoint and provides a network of comparable operators and best-practice infrastructure.

Regional players

• Radio Pembrokeshire: Community radio station serving Pembrokeshire in Wales. Comparable volunteer-driven community broadcasting model and local-advertising revenue approach, but operates in a different region and does not directly overlap with Radio City's Swansea-area audience.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/RadioCity1386AM
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC
• Facebookfacebook.com/RadioCity1386am

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Radio City 1386AM