Broadcasting
Finalist in the 2025 Community Radio Awards
Arts & Creative Radio of the Year
Hayley is delighted to have been selected as a finalist for this year’s Community Radio Awards for her Halloween special Murder on the Mersey: Ghost in the Post.
Combining her presenting skills and classical music knowledge to create an immersive and emotionally rich programme, she brought a century-old Northenden murder back to life back underpinned by a sophisticated soundtrack of classical music to heighten emotion and reinforce drama.
Rather than sensationalise, she humanised the story by exploring the complexities of motive, context, and consequence. Her classical music expertise shaped the emotional arc: public-domain recordings of Schubert’s Piano Sonata D960 (Andante), Piano Trio D929 (Andante con moto), and “Unfinished” Symphony No. 8, plus Satie’s Gnossiennes, were woven in precisely where their moods amplified each scene.
WFM Director Colin Owen said, "Murder on the Mersey represents the best of what creative community radio can offer. It reclaims a forgotten local story and tells it in a way that is informative, engaging, and artistically rich. Hayley's unique blend of historical research, classical music and narrative craft shows how radio can still surprise and captivate. Moreover, this project demonstrates how radio can connect us, not only to each other, but to the stories hidden in our streets."
Soprano Hayley Swanton has an effervescent and intelligent broadcasting style. She weaves her wit, empathy, and personality into all her work and is proud to have self produced over 30 episodes of her signature show, Classical Escapades, for 97.2 Wythenshawe FM. This 60 minute programme is full of classical hits and hidden gems, inspired by her own career, current events, and the world in which we live. She enlivens audiences with her energetic and animated approach to classical music, appealing to both traditional and non traditional classical music audiences. Her motto is to bring Wythenshawe, the surrounding communities, and beyond their weekly fix of the not-so-boring classics!
She has also hosted a popular DriveTime show, keeping audiences entertained with her focus on lifestyle and wellbeing during their daily commute.
Listen up
Listen again to your favourite episodes of Classical Escapades. Like what you hear? You can listen live by tuning in to 97.2 Wythenshawe FM online, on your smart speaker, or on your radio.