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05|09|05

Ofcom awards new FM commercial radio licence for Torbay

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

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

Palm FM Limited
Contact: Carolyne Jo Corben-Richards
Address: 82 Babbacombe Downs Road, Torquay, Devon, TQ1 3LU
Tel: 01803 310952 or 07968 338918
E-mail: cj@palm.fm

Palm FM is owned by the London Media Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sunrise Radio Limited, (60%) and Palm Radio Limited (40%). It will provide a full local service dedicated to listeners in Torbay combining a wide variety of classic and contemporary music together with high-quality, locally-produced news, detailed weather reports, comprehensive traffic and travel and a distinctive range of speech and information features focussed on matters of local interest and relevance.

The licence is for a service to cover Torbay and the surrounding area which may include Dartmouth, Newton Abbot, Teignmouth and Totnes. This area has an adult population (aged 15+) of around 200,000. However, the exact coverage will be determined by the location of the transmission site and other technical characteristics. The proposed frequency (106.8 MHz) is subject to international agreement on radio spectrum usage.

Ofcom expects Palm FM 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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