As she laid her next record on the turntable, the radio host told listeners they were being treated to a rare Finnish rallying cry against corporate greed and climate breakdown.

Using her network of European contacts, Angharad Denby had got her hands on one of only 100 vinyl copies of Ecdysis by Unearthly Rites, a sought-after item on the underground metal scene.

While keen to expound on the musical merits of heavy metal to a somewhat sceptical journalist, the 63-year-old DJ is not limited by genre. “I’ve played music by elephants, by whales, I’ve played songs backwards and I’ve played songs from Polish children’s TV,” she said.

Angharad Denby, a volunteer presenter, broadcasts her show at the All FM community radio station in Manchester.

Angharad Denby presenting her show

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Denby’s rule seems to be the more esoteric, the better. The hosts of the show just before hers took a very different tack, chaining Christmas hits and chatting about roast dinners. An hour of African proverbs and afrobeats was to follow.

An afternoon at Manchester’s All FM radio is like travelling through space and time. Broadcasting from an old library in Levenshulme, an up-and-coming neighbourhood in the south of the city, the station prides itself on the diversity of its hosts and their interests.

Depending on the time of day, listeners tuning in might find themselves immersed in a show about Iranian feminist politics, musical theatre, blues or life as a carer. There are programmes in a dozen languages including Polish, Mandarin, Spanish, Punjabi and Urdu.

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True to its motto, “by the community, for the community”, the station trains its volunteers — from pensioners to students and people with disabilities — in the art of broadcasting before letting them loose on the mic.

Levenshulme Old Library in Manchester, a red brick building with colorful window decorations and a bicycle rack.

All FM is based in Levenshulme Old Library

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It has twice been named Station of the Year at the National Community Radio Awards and in 2020 was given a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

Ed Connole, the station’s director, believes it is about empowering those on the sidelines. “We often work with people who are classed as hard to reach,” he said. “We don’t tell them what music to play, or what to say. Here no one is interrupting you or telling you to be quiet. We essentially give them a blank canvas.”

Director Ed Connole posing in front of Christmas decorations and a radio studio at All FM.

Ed Connole

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For Denby, who has Asperger’s and has struggled with confidence, taking to the airwaves provides an opportunity to connect with people. “I’ve always been a bit of a loner, because I can’t read body language,” she said. “Here, I’m talking to God knows how many thousands of people out there, but it’s just me on my own. That’s a much more manageable thing. If I was doing this in an auditorium, I’d panic.”

The station features professional broadcasters, such as Jacob Quarm, 32, a foreign correspondent from Ghana who spends half his year in the UK. His show serves the large diaspora community in Manchester with music and news from Africa.

Presenter Jacob Quarm sits at a radio station desk with headphones and a microphone.

Jacob Quarm

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Martin and Annette Logan do the same for their Irish listeners. The pair, who fell in love across the mixing desk, have been regaling audiences on both sides of the Irish sea with traditional folk music for more than two decades. Tuning into their programme — where hundreds of messages pour in with news of wedding anniversaries, birthdays and deaths — is to become convinced that there is no one in Ireland they do not know.

“Everybody loves this show because they hear all the news, what’s happening, who’s died, what’s going on anywhere,” Mrs Logan, who greets regular listeners like old friends, said.

That sense of intimacy is what Connole strives for when building the station’s schedule. He sees the line-up not just as a series of shows, but as a living “audio tapestry” that reflects the city’s complex identity.

Over the years, the station has provided a platform to everyone from Ukrainian refugees seeking a sense of home, to people battling addiction and looking to re-enter the workforce. “It comes down to a self-confidence thing,” Connole said. “If you can make someone believe their voice matters, the next stage is that they matter.”