A community radio station which provides crucial work experience for scores of volunteers is close to ending a two year search for a new permanent home.

Future Radio was previously based in Open in Norwich, however after the youth charity fell into liquidation at the start of the pandemic, it was left homeless.

Since then it has broadcast out of a combination of its previous base at Motum Road in Earlham - which is shares with the Future Education school, limiting when volunteers can use it - and out of the living rooms and bedrooms of its many volunteers.

But after a hunt for a suitable new home which has lasted the best part of two years, the station is preparing to move into a new base in a former police station on the edge of the city.

Providing it is granted planning permission and is able to raise sufficient funds, the station could complete a move to The Box community centre in Woodcock Road, Catton Grove, by the end of the year.

The building has been used as a community advice centre since 2014, having been vacated by Norfolk Constabulary in 2012.

And Christopher Remer, business development manager at Future, said that if the move gets the go-ahead it will continue to play an important role in the community through the station's work.

He said: "We're absolutely delighted to have a new place lined up as it has been a long old search since we moved out of Open.

"What I'm looking forward to most is being able to see all the faces of our many volunteers again - and not just through the screen of a computer."

The station has been broadcasting in Norfolk for more than a decade, having held a full broadcasting licence since 2005.

In this time it has given countless people the opportunity to have their voices heard on-air and learn broadcast skills - while also helping to launch the career of Ed Sheeran through its Next Big Thing competition.

Mr Remer added: "We had hoped to find somewhere in the city centre but there really was nowhere that offered as much as The Box in our budget there. We'll be able to have two studios in there and have so much extra space too - it's like the TARDIS in there."