History of South Bucks Talking News

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Wycombe Talking Newspaper was founded in 1984, led by the first Chairman, Bob Gerhardt who was blind. The first issue was in March 1985, the recordings then provided on cassette tapes, followed by CDs and then the currently utilised USB sticks. Listener numbers peaked at over 200.

The lockdowns during the COVID pandemic created severe strain on activities, but through the sterling efforts of committee members and volunteers, we continued to publish the talking newspaper. Unfortunately, other local Talking Newspapers did not manage to survive this very demanding period; the services in Beaconsfield and Chesham & Amersham both closed down. We inherited listeners and some assets from Beaconsfield Talking Newspaper and some of the original team still produce the Beacon magazine articles which are included in our editions on a monthly basis.

We now are the only Talking Newspaper serving the southern parts of Buckinghamshire and we have listeners throughout this geographical area, so during 2024 we adopted the brand name of South Bucks Talking News to better reflect our coverage. We have been on a promotional drive to increase listener numbers, particularly in these newer areas for us, ever since.