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05|09|05

Ofcom awards new FM commercial radio licence for Solent

Ofcom today announces the award of the new FM local commercial radio licence for the Solent region.

By the closing date of 5 May 2005, Ofcom received 14 applications for the Solent licence. After giving careful consideration to each of the applications submitted, the Ofcom Radio Licensing Committee has decided to award the licence to:

Original 106 FM Ltd, The New Boathouse, 136-142 Bramley Road, London W10 6SR
Contact: Peter Viner Tel: 0207 565 6600
E-mail: p.viner@canwest.com

Original 106 is 95% owned by CanWest MediaWorks UK Ltd (a wholly-owned subsidiary of CanWest Global Communications Corp) and Seven Broadcast Ltd (5%).

Original 106 will provide ‘Adult Alternative Radio’ – an album-led mix of music from a wide range of credible artists, designed to have particular appeal to adults aged 40-59, with 24-hour local news, quality presentation and significant meaningful speech at peaktimes.

The licence is for a service to cover most parts of south Hampshire, east Dorset, the Isle of Wight and the south-western corner of West Sussex. It has an adult population (aged 15+) of around 1,250,000. However, the exact coverage will be determined by the location of the transmission sites and other technical characteristics. The proposed frequencies are subject to international agreement on radio spectrum usage.

Ofcom expects Original 106 to begin broadcasting at the earliest opportunity and no later than two years from this award date.

Ofcom will publish a statement setting out the key determining factors for the award of this licence shortly.

The licence will be issued for a twelve year period.

Ends.

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