Local Radio Company Wins Durham FM Licence

Staff – MediaTel NewsLine

The Local Radio Company has been awarded the new 12 year FM licence for the Durham area by media regulator Ofcom, with Durham FM beating off competition from Prince FM and Durham 2Day FM.

Durham FM will be a “friendly, locally involved radio station aimed particularly at 25 to 52 year olds, focussing on local news, info and issues relevant to life today in and around Durham and featuring the best music from the past four decades and today”, according to the Local Radio Companies pitch.

Earlier this year, Ofcom awarded the FM local commercial radio licence for Ashford in Kent to Local Ashford Radio Kent (Lark), partially owned by Kent Messenger, which will broadcast in the area as KM-FM Ashford (see Ofcom Awards Ashford FM Licence To Kent Messenger).

In awarding the licence Ofcom stated that, as a ‘smaller’ licence serving a locality which is not the sole focus of any existing service, it was more likely to consider speech content to be of importance, rather than music proposals.

At the end of last year, Kelvin MacKenzie’s Wireless Group scooped the last remaining FM radio licence in Edinburgh, enabling the broadcaster to provide the region with a 24-hour speech radio station dubbed Dunedin FM (see Wireless Group Scoops Edinburgh Radio Licence).

The licence covers the city of Edinburgh and the area surrounding the Firth of Forth, providing TWG with a potential adult audience of around 940,000.

Ofcom: 020 7981 3040 www.ofcom.org.uk

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