Home > About Ofcom > Corporate Structure and Governance > Radio licensing committee > Notes of RLC meetings > 5th January 2006

07|03|06

Notes 19th Meeting 5th January 2006

Chairman’s Introduction

1. The Chairman welcomed Members to the 19 th meeting of the Radio Licensing Committee. All members were present throughout. Other Ofcom colleagues were also present throughout or attended for part of the meeting:

Minutes of the previous Meeting

2. The minutes of the Radio Licensing Committee Meeting held on 5 th December 2005 were agreed as an accurate record.

Matters Arising

3. The Committee was updated on the frequency planning work currently underway for community radio services in the Greater London area.

4. The Committee noted that radio broadcasting services have always been planned on the basis of stereo reception. However, current frequency planning work indicated that the Committee might not be able to license many viable Community radio licences if these were to broadcast in stereo, as the coverage achieved in many cases would be negligible. Therefore, planning engineers had begun to look at all possible frequency variations, including the option of requiring some services to broadcast in mono.

5. After a full and careful discussion, the Committee resolved that it was in the best interests of community radio to investigate fully and to identify all transmission options (including requiring the use of mono rather than stereo) such that the maximum number of applicants could be licensed. It was resolved that colleagues should investigate the legal and technical issues involved and return with recommendations at the 9 February meeting.

Local commercial radio licence award: Warwick

6. After a full and careful discussion of each licence application, and having regard in particular to the factors set out in section 105 of the Broadcasting Act 1990 and section 314 of the Communications Act 2003, the Committee awarded the licence to 2Day FM Ltd, wholly owned by the CN Group Ltd. The announcement regarding the winning licence application would be made on the same day and a statement explaining the factors which led to its decision was scheduled to be published in due course.

Applications for Plymouth local commercial radio licence.

7. The Radio Licensing Committee discussed the five applications received for the Plymouth licence. The Committee was scheduled to make its final decision at the 9 th March 2006 meeting.

Community Radio licence awards: Various areas (Batch 4)

8. After a full discussion of ten applications for various areas and having regard in particular to the factors set out in section 105 of the Broadcasting Act 1990 (as modified by the Community Radio Order 2004), the Committee awarded a licence to the following applicant:

Forest FM (Verwood, Dorset)

9. The Committee will consider further the nine other applications at a later date when further frequency details become available.

Output Regulation (Monitoring).

10. The Radio Licensing Committee discussed a paper on Ofcom’s intentions and the processes involved to move from input regulation to output regulation in accordance with the Radio Review Phases 1 and 2. The Committee noted that the paper would be brought back to the Radio Licensing Committee together with test case reports for further decision before publication in March 2006.

AOB

11. There was no any other business.

Date of next meeting

12. To be held on Thursday 9 February 2006 in London.

March 2006

Back to top