Radio Broadcast Update May 2011

Published 07|06|11

Commercial Radio
Community Radio

Commercial Radio

Licences issued in this period

Licence Type	Licensee	Service Name/description
Local DSP*	Festival Church Trust Ltd	Mountain FM / A music and speech service. The music will be a mixture of uplifting music from the 60s to date. The speech will be a mixture of news, information, events, job opportunities, charity and community organisations and social services and other help and advice.
Local DSP*	Radio Manx Ltd	Radio TT / A service dedicated to the Isle of Man TT Festival featuring practice and full race commentaries around the world famous 37.75 mile circuit. Radio TT delivers blow by blow accounts of all the action taking place on the Isle of Man throughout the Festival together with interviews with all the leading participants and outside broadcasts from the myriad of supporting events taking part across the island during TT fortnight.

*Digital Sound Programme Service

Licence re-advertisements

Declarations of intent

None invited this month.

Re-awards

Ofcom has today published reasons for the re-award of the local commercial radio licence for Bath to Celador Radio (South West) Ltd.

Ofcom has today announced that it has re-awarded the following local FM commercial radio licences to the current licensees.The licences have been re-awarded for a period of seven years under Ofcom's 'fast-track' process, as set out in published guidelines:

Area	Current Licensee
Bristol	Tomahawk Radio Ltd
Winchester	Play Radio Ltd

Analogue station Format Changes

Each station has as part of its licence a 'Format', which outlines the essential nature of the service and details any specific expectations of that service.
Any changes to a Format can only be made by following the correct procedure and with the appropriate permission from Ofcom.

Andover & Newbury
Published 01|06|11

The Coast
Published 02|06|11

Content Sampling Reports

Ofcom ensures that an individual station is meeting its Format requirements by listening to that station's output - a process which we refer to as 'content sampling'. The sampling of a particular station may be prompted by a complaint concerning a Format-related issue, or may be entirely routine.

Touch FM
Published 03|06|11

DAB station Format Changes

Ofcom reached the following decisions regarding requests for digital multiplex licence changes this month:

Change	Multiplex
Addition of Mountain FM	South Wales and Severn Estuary
Reduction in bit rate of Rock Radio and Real Radio	South Wales and Severn Estuary
Reduction in bit rate of Rock Radio	North East
Replacement of existing Capital service with a simulcast of Capital FM South Coast	Bournemouth

Community Radio

Community Radio Third Round of Licensing

On 1 April 2011, Ofcom announced the holding a new round of licensing for community radio: http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/radio/community/thirdround/thirdround-guidance.pdf
Applications for new licences are being invited on a region by region basis, starting with Region 1 - Wales and south west England. The deadline for receipt of applications from this region is 5pm on Thursday 21 July 2011.

Further information about how to apply can be found on Ofcom's website at: http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radio-broadcast-licensing/community-radio/apply-for-licence/

Licences issued in this period

Service Name	Licensee	Location
AHBS Community Radio	AHBS Community Radio Limited	Ashford, Kent
Marlow FM	Marlow FM Limited	Marlow, Buckinghamshire

Services which have ceased to be licensed (handed back or revoked) in this period

The following services are no longer licensed:

Service Name	Licensee	Location	Type of service	Reason
RXFM	Rother Arts and Media Company Limited	Rye, East Sussex	Community Radio	Surrendered

Licence extensions granted in this period

A five year extension has been granted to the following:

Service name	Licensee	Location	New expiry date
Black Diamond FM	Midlothian Community Media Association	East and central Midlothian	28-Mar-2017
BRFM Bridge Radio	BRFM Bridge Radio Limited	Isle of Sheppey	29-Oct-2016
Chorley FM	Chorley FM	Chorley, Lancashire	23-Nov-2016
Castledown Radio	Castledown Radio Limited	Tidworth, Wiltshire	3-Nov-2016
Radio Asian Fever	Radio Asian Fever CIC	Harehills and Chapeltown, Leeds	28-Feb-2017

Licence transfers in this period

Service Name	Location	New Licensee
Wythenshawe FM	Wythenshawe, Manchester	WFM Community Media

Key commitments changes

Each station has as part of its licence 'Key Commitments' which outline the essential nature of the service and details any specific expectations of that service.

Any changes to the key commitments can only be made by following the correct procedure and with the appropriate permission from Ofcom.

Bay Radio
Published 03|06|10