Ofcom awards seven new community radio licences

Ofcom today announces the award of seven new community radio licences.

Community radio is a new tier of radio which complements the mix of services already provided by the BBC and commercial radio sectors. Community radio services typically cover a small geographical area and are provided on a not-for-profit basis focusing on the delivery of specific social benefits to enrich a particular geographical community or a community of interest.

Ofcom has awarded community radio licences in the following areas in Scotland and Northern Ireland:

Stonehaven and the Mearns, South Aberdeenshire
St Boswells, Borders
Dunoon, Argyll
Glasgow
Barrhead, East Renfrewshire
Lisburn
Belfast

The new community radio licensees in each of these areas are:

Mearns FM (Stonehaven and the Mearns, South Aberdeenshire)
Contact: C harles Sands, 11 Allardice Street, Stonehaven AB39 2BS
Tel: 07711 207357
E-mail: info@mearnsfm.co.uk Website: www.mearnsfm.co.uk

Mearns FM will serve the people of the Mearns, which is a distinct cultural area of south Aberdeenshire. It will be a socially inclusive station and channel of communication for the region.

Brick FM (Newtown St Boswells and St Boswells, Borders)
Contact: David Elliott, 23 Forthill Avenue, Jedburgh TD8 6HJ. Tel: 01835 863623

A community radio service for Newtown St Boswells and St Boswells with a particular focus on local sports information and the involvement of young people.

Dunoon Community Radio (Dunoon, Argyll)
Contact: Victor Thomas, Bottom Flat, Tower House, 7A Hanover Street, Dunoon PA23 7AB
Tel: 01369 703201 or 07833 667739 E-mail: Vickilfin@aol.com

Dunoon Community Radio will be managed, operated and maintained by people from the local community, some participating in the radio activities as individuals others from groups or associations, local schools etc. Their contribution, skills and local knowledge will help produce community programmes and encourage listener participation.

Celtic Music AM (Glasgow)
Contact: Robert McWilliam, 153 Queen Street, Glasgow G1 3BJ
Tel: 0141 812 7570 or 07980 953107 Email: info@celticmusicradio.org.uk
Website: www.celticmusicradio.org.uk

Celtic Music AM will provide a strong cultural voice for contemporary and traditional Scottish music and song, and is aimed at Glasgow’s practising artists of singer-songwriting within the Celtic genre of music and speech as well as the wider community that engages with such content.

Pulse FM (Barrhead, East Renfrewshire)
Contact: Nikki Morris, Pulse FM, c/o The Log-in, 158 Main Street, Barrhead G78 1SL
Tel: 07872 899411 Email: nikki.pulsefm@googlemail.com

Pulse FM will be a youth-led, community-focussed project offering training and volunteering opportunities for local people. It will celebrate the cultural diversity of Barrhead and the surrounding areas of East Renfrewshire, and give a voice to people who are seldom heard in mainstream broadcasting.

Lisburn City Radio
Contact: Muriel Tafts / Alistair Brown , Lisburn Institute of Further and Higher Education, 39 Castle Street, Lisburn BT27 4SU
Tel: 028 9262 6751/ 028 9262 6752 / 028 9267 7225 (college) Email: mtafts@liscol.ac.uk / abrown@liscol.ac.uk
Website: www.liscol.ac.uk

Lisburn City Radio will provide a service to the whole community of Lisburn. It will be hosted in the local college of further education and provide access to training and broadcasting in partnership with a range of community partners.

Belfast Student Radio
Contact: Darren Craig, 30 Stranmillis Gardens, Belfast BT9 5AS
Tel: 028 3025 7800 or 07882 619028 Email: belfaststudentradio@yahoo.com
Website: www.belfaststudentradio.com

Belfast Student Radio will be run by students and for students from Queens University, University of Ulster and Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education. It will aim to educate, inform, entertain and represent the entire student body of Belfast with student-produced output.

Licences are awarded for a five-year period.

A statement setting out the main determining factors for the award of the seven community radio licences set out above will be available shortly from the Ofcom website.

Ends.

Notes for Editors and CSEs

1. In addition to the licence awards detailed above, Ofcom considered one further application, but has decided not to award a licence to the following group:

Radio Asia, Glasgow

2. Applications for community radio licences are being invited on a region-by-region basis. Further details can be found on the Ofcom website at: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radio/ifi/rbl/commun_radio/

Ofcom awards seven new community radio licences

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