We’re now settled in our new home – Phoenix FM is broadcasting live from Brentwood’s premier sports and entertainment complex, the Brentwood Centre!

After about 12 months of planning we’ve set up in the newly-refurbished rooms which used to form Changing Rooms 5 and 6. The maintenance team at the centre have been hard at work over the last few weeks getting them shipshape with not a little help from our own volunteers who have been turning up every weekend with paintbrushes to make sure it looked great on the opening day.

It’s our second home as a full time station, having left the Baytree Centre after moving in five years ago, but we also had three more homes as a part time (RSL station) between 1996 and 2007 – firstly at the old Tourist Information centre at 14 Ongar Road (now the home of Brentwood Mind), then the Hermitage in Shenfield Road and finally Hutton Poplars Lodge in Rayleigh Road. We’ve got about twice the space of our old place – plus we’re much nearer all the events that take part there, so there should be even more on-air interviews with performers and sports teams.

On the day we had live music from Brentwood County High School junior choir, Ben Konstantinovic, Modovar, My Heroine and Missing Andy, and a visit from the Mayor at our party afterwards. You can see all the photos on our Facebook page.

Phoenix FM thanks to Brentwood Borough Council and the Brentwood Leisure Trust who provided the space and funding to make this happen.