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13|04|06

Ofcom awards new FM commercial radio licence for North East England

Ofcom today announces the award of the new FM local commercial radio licence for North East England.

By the closing date of 8 December 2005, Ofcom received 13 applications for the North East England licence. After giving careful consideration to each of the applications submitted, the Ofcom Radio Licensing Committee has decided to award the licence to:

Saga 97.5 FM, Saga Radio House, Alder Court, Riverside Business Park, Nottingham, NG2 1RX.
Contact: Ron Coles   Telephone: 0115 943 5050  Email: ron.coles@saga.co.uk

Saga 97.5 FM is wholly-owned by Saga Group Limited. It will provide "easy, melodic, popular music from the past six decades and today, with news, information and lifestyle oriented speech, primarily targeting listeners in the North East region aged 50 and over."

The licence is for a service to cover the main Tyne & Wear and Teesside conurbations in North East England which have an adult population (aged 15+) of around 2,000,000. However, the exact coverage will be determined by the location of the transmission site and other technical characteristics.

Ofcom expects Saga 97.5 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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