[cma-l] Ofcom Awards Five New Community Radio Licences

[CMA-L]

Last Friday Ofcom announced the award of five new community radio
licences to the following applicants:

    * TCR FM (Tamworth, Staffordshire)
    * Switch Radio (Castle Vale, Birmingham)
    * Ambur Radio (Walsall)
    * SACDA Radio (Sandwell, West Midlands)
    * Raaj FM (Sandwell, West Midlands)

Details of these new community radio licensees are as follows:

TCR FM - http://www.tcrfm.co.uk/
Primarily aimed at younger people in the Tamworth area (those under
the age of 30), TCR FM will be a voluntary service providing education
and training alongside locally focused music and speech-based
programming. The station will work in close collaboration with the
Tamworth Youth and Community Centre.

Switch Radio - http://www.switchradio.co.uk/
Broadcasting to some of the most deprived locations within north-east
Birmingham and northern parts of the Borough of Solihull, Switch Radio
will focus on common themes which bind these local communities
together. The station aims to provide a truly representative community
radio service which will address social isolation and deliver skills
training and education locally.

Ambur Radio
Ambur Radio will be a community station for Walsall . It will be
focused on the Asian communities but it will also provide some
programming for the whole community, including other minority ethnic
groups.

SACDA Radio - http://www.sacda.com/
SACDA Radio will operate a community radio service that produces and
delivers programmes for African Caribbeans and other residents of the
culturally diverse area of Sandwell.

Raaj FM
Raaj FM will serve the Sandwell Panjabi community, with information
and programmes for the varied social, cultural, educational, youth,
religious, music, sports, disabled and minority activities and
interests of this community.

Licences are awarded for a five-year period.

In addition to the licence awards detailed above, Ofcom considered
three further applications, but decided not to award a licence to the
following groups:

    * Okay FM (Rugeley & The Haywoods, Staffordshire)
    * Saddlers FM (Walsall)
    * WCB FM (Walsall)