[cma-l] Four community radio licence awards in the East of England: July 2015

[Ian Hickling]

Well done you guys - now the proper hard work starts.Looks like I've another four promotional mailings to write.
Well, three actually, because we've been working with Miles at Funky SX for some time now.There's a bit of background here which is relevant.Miles doesn't disguise that he was a very active pirate - who decided to turn legit - as Ofcom is always offering as a solution to illegal broadcasting.But Ofcom said "Sorry - no frequencies"We said "Yes there are - there's a pirate here been unchallenged for 11 years - there's an assigned frequency for a station that never took it up - and there are quite a few others that are suitable.The DCMS appeared to agree - and there might possibly have been some sort of message sent over.Ofcom than called and said - "OK - come in and let's talk about it"Seven of us sat around a table with seven of our friends at Ofcom.We were shown the precise frequency clearance procedure which I don't think anyone on the outside had ever seen before.
We all thought it was far too complex and unnecessarily limiting.We saw how a CR station in Southend on the cleared "vacant" frequency would not interfere with any existing broadcaster, but could seriously suffer from incoming interference in sporadic tropospheric propagation conditions from a 4kW station in northern France.
The potential Licensee said he didn't care - he could explain that to his listeners on the odd occasion when it was likely - so why couldn't he have the frequency?
Ofcom said they'd have to go away and think about it.Shortly afterwards, Ofcom announced that after some investigation there was a suitable frequency for that area of Essex, invited applications, and put back the deadline just for that small area to enable applications to be prepared.Now, MIles has his licenceI suggest that this shows that by asking nicely and putting forward a reasoned argument, Ofcom can be persuaded to change its view.That bodes well for all the other changes that some of us consider need to be made.

Ian Hickling
Partner

Office: 01635 578435  (7am-11pm UK time)Carphone: 07530 980115 (only responds when driving)6 Horn Street, Compton, NEWBURY, RG20 6QS

From: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2015 11:29:49 +0100
To: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
Subject: [cma-l] Four community radio licence awards in the East of England:	July 2015

Ofcom's Broadcast Licensing Committee ('BLC') awarded four community radio licences in July 2015. The licences are for services in the East of England region.

Ofcom's BLC made a licence award to each of the following:

Harbour Radio (Harbour Radio Ltd), Great Yarmouth, NorfolkColne Radio (Colne Radio Community Interest Company), Wivenhoe, EssexChelmsford Community Radio (Chelmsford Community Radio Community Interest Company), Chelmsford, EssexFunky SX (The Funky Academy Ltd), Southend, Essex Source: http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radio-broadcast-licensing/community-radio/current-licensees/awards-round-3/four-awards-july-15

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