Protest pressures Ofcom to curb radio regulation

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 22-Sep-06, 11:00

LONDON - Commercial radio company UKRD is protesting about the burden of regulation on small radio stations by making the unexpected move of handing back a radio licence to Ofcom.

UKRD said it will stop broadcasts from Star FM in Stroud at the end of the month and hand back its licence in protest rather than sell it to another operator.

It believes that Star FM is one of several stations in the UK that are commercially unviable and need less regulation.

William Rogers, chief executive of UKRD, called for a number of concessions from Ofcom to improve the lot of smaller stations, demanding "better signal strength for smaller stations; far less regulation; much more flexibility in how the product is delivered to air and much greater flexibility in format regulation".

Rogers said: "Commercial radio, at any level, can not operate as the charitable arm of the regulator and with the climate changing so quickly, I can only hope that Ofcom appreciates that it is lagging far behind market conditions and makes some sort of nod in the direction that is needed."

Last year, Ofcom rejected UKRD's application to simulcast the majority of output on Star in Stroud and its sister Star station in Cheltenham, though it allowed UKRD to broadcast the two stations from the same studios.

It is believed to be the first time that a radio licence has been handed back to the regulator.

UKRD's move comes amid a tough time for commercial operators and local radio in particular, which has experienced a drop in listening share from 33.8% to 32.2% over 12 months.

In March this year, the UK's biggest commercial operator, GCap Media, attempted to auction off nine of its local stations including Coast FM but cancelled the plans after finding bids were not high enough.

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