Oxford's only community radio station is to return to the airwaves for a month-long stint.

OX4 FM has been granted a Restricted Service Licence (RSL) to broadcast 24 hours a day from March 1-28.

It will be the third time the station has been given permission to send out a radio transmission to 40,000 homes and businesses in Oxford.

Normally OX4 FM is only available through its website www.ox4fm.net, but during March, it will be available on 87.9 FM.

Organisers see the month-long RSL as a precursor to an application to radio regulator Ofcom for a full-time, five-year FM radio licence.

OX4 FM co-director David Norland, who lives in Evenlode Tower, Blackbird Leys, said: "The RSL will be a chance for all of the presenters to practise, and it is a chance for everyone in Oxford to get a taste for what we are planning.

"We are largely music-based, but in previous RSLs, we have had a discussion programme every da.

"We are trying to feature as much locally produced music as possible."

OX4 FM was set up more than two years ago by a group of people in Blackbird Leys to provide a voice for their community.

It currently has a team of 60 volunteers who staff its temporary base at Cowley Community Centre in Barns Road.

Presenters on the station play all types of urban music, including garage, R 'n' B, hip hop and African streetbeats, and there are two weekly programmes run entirely by younger teenagers called Time To Blaze and Elements Of Surprise.

Jotha Rule, 23-year-old presenter of the Natural Elements urban music show, said: "It is always great to be back on FM. The phones are always going. On the Internet, people tune in, but there is not that actual involvement.

"I am looking forward to having that energy back in the studio.

"The best thing is I get to play songs by my own band and other local acts that deserve radio play but would not normally get it."

Dan Gill, 38, from Blackbird Leys, who presents the drivetime show, said: "OX4 FM is going to make a hell of a difference. It is what the community wants to hear in OX4. It gives the people a voice."

Mr Norland, 33, said the March RSL would cost the station £7,000 in Ofcom and Performing Right Society fees.

Local musicians will help play a fundraising event at Oxford Brookes Student Union to launch the RSL on Saturday, March 1.