Radio Authority publishes assessment of Regional Licence Award for West Midlands

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22 October 2003

Radio Authority publishes assessment of Regional Licence Award for West Midlands

The Radio Authority has today (22 October) published the details of its assessment of the new regional licence award for the West Midlands. The Authority awarded the licence to Kerrang! Radio on 2 October 2003.

A copy of the full assessment is attached.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The Radio Authority is responsible for licensing and regulating Independent Radio in accordance with the statutory requirements of the Broadcasting Acts 1990 and 1996. It plans frequencies, awards licences, regulates programming and advertising, and plays an active role in the discussion and formulation of policies which affect the Independent Radio industry and its listeners.

2. Towards the end of this year, the Radio Authority will cease to exist, and its responsibilities for licensing and regulating independent radio will pass to Ofcom, the new converged regulator for the communications sector. See the Ofcom transitional website at www.ofcom.org.uk for more details.

Local Licence Award: West Midlands Assessment of Successful Application by Kerrang! Radio

Applications were invited on 30 January 2003. By the closing date of 13 May 2003, eleven applications were received, as follows:

Capital Disney (Capital Radio [West Midlands] Ltd.)

105.2 Jazz FM (Jazz FM West Midlands Ltd.)

105.2 Jump FM (Absolute Radio West Midlands Ltd.)

Kerrang! Radio (Kerrang! Radio [West Midlands] Ltd.)

Newstalk 105.2 FM (Newstalk 105.2 FM Ltd.)

FM 105.2 The Storm (The Storm [West Midlands] Ltd.)

Sunrise Radio (Sunrise Radio [Midlands] Ltd.)

3C (3C West Midlands Ltd.)

Virgin 105.2 FM (Virgin Radio West Midlands Ltd.)

WBC (WBC Radio Ltd.)

WMMR (West Midlands Music Radio Ltd.)

The licence was awarded to Kerrang! Radio to run for a licence term from the date the service commences broadcasting.

Assessment of the winning application

The high standard of many of the applications submitted for this licence award resulted in a closely contested decision. After lengthy consideration, Members concluded that overall, Kerrang! Radio's proposals put it ahead of the other contestants.

In terms of broadening choice, the station was aimed at catering for the tastes and interests of young men, a section of the population that research had shown to be relatively underserved by local commercial radio in the coverage area concerned.

Members considered that Emap, the sole owner of Kerrang! Radio, was extremely well placed to establish and maintain the proposed service. The station has already established an audience as an audio service on TV digital platforms and the popularity of its magazine counterpart Kerrang! provides it with high profile branding and numerous opportunities for cross promotion, which should assist the service in establishing itself in the West Midlands region.

Kerrang! Radio offers a niche music format with a comprehensive news and information service for the rock community in the West Midlands, including a commitment to provide its audience with a diversity of youth-orientated genres in daytime, as well as off-peak specialist output. The service has also made a commitment that 50% of music output in daytime will be less than 6 months old. Specialist evening programming will include live sequences from rock clubs in the region, a local talent show featuring established and unsigned bands with pre-recorded live sets from local gigs and new rock talent from across the world. Members took the view that, for what was primarily a niche music station, Kerrang! Radio offered interesting and innovative speech proposals. Speech output will comprise 20% of output overall and will include a breakfast show consisting of 75% speech during weekdays, an all-speech late show called Vox and a Saturday afternoon comedy and football show which will have 40% speech content. The service will have a comprehensive news schedule of hourly bulletins throughout weekday daytimes and until lunchtimes at weekends, plus extended fifteen-minute news bulletin at 18.00 each weekday, increased to 30 minutes on Friday.

In Members' view the composition of Kerrang! Radio's board demonstrated that the group had strong links to the area it was proposing to serve. Its activities in the area over the last two years have included running a trial broadcast from Birmingham City Football Club, holding public meetings and sponsoring local events. Consequently an impressive level of local support has been generated, amounting to over 1,500 letters and e-mails backing Kerrang! Radio's application for the licence award.

Background

When licensing Independent Radio services, it is the duty of the Authority under the Broadcasting Act 1990 ("the Act") to do all that it can to secure the provision within the UK of a range and diversity of local services (section 85(2)(b) of the Act). Furthermore, under section 85(3) of the Act the Authority must discharge its functions in the manner which it considers is best calculated to:

facilitate the provision of licensed services which (taken as a whole) are of high quality and offer a wide range of programmes calculated to appeal to a variety of tastes and interests; and
ensure fair and effective competition in the provision of such services and services connected with them.

Under section 105 of the Act, the matters to which the Authority shall have regard when determining whether, or to whom to grant a local licence are :

the ability of each applicant to maintain the proposed service throughout the licence period;
the extent to which the proposed service would cater for the tastes and interests of persons living in the area or locality for which the service would be provided, and, where it is proposed to cater for any particular tastes and interests of such persons, the extent to which the service would so cater;
the extent to which the proposed service would broaden the range of programmes available by way of local service to persons living in the relevant area or locality, and, in particular, the extent to which the service would cater for tastes and interest which are different from those already catered for by existing local services in the area; and
the extent to which any application is supported by persons living in that area.

While the requirements of sections 85 and 105 of the Broadcasting Act 1990 will invariably form the basis of all awards, each licence award will be made on an individual basis, with regard to the factors which, in the view of the Authority, are particularly relevant to that case.

When it advertised the availability of the West Midlands licence the Authority invited public comment on the radio needs of listeners in this area, and the type of programme service required. Copies of the non-confidential sections of the applications were made available for public scrutiny in the Central Libraries in Birmingham (local studies section) and Wolverhampton (reference section) and at the Authority's offices in London. A notice was issued on 13 May 2003 inviting public comments on the applications. The Authority took all replies into account when reaching its decision.

All eleven applications have been considered carefully by the Authority in accordance with the Act, and as against the advertised criteria set out in the Authority’s Notes of Guidance for Local Licence Applicants and the coverage brief for this licence, issued at the date of the licence advertisement. The applicants were invited to respond to written questions on programming, audience and support, and finance. Telephone interviews were conducted on the composition and history of the applicant groups.

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