Concept News
Radio Authority News
London Pirate Station Raided DTI Press Release
More Raids on FM Pirates
The first quarter of 1998 saw operators of 13 different stations in court resulting in 20 people being convicted, 12 receiving fines and 9 were given conditional discharges. 2 warning letters were sent to stations and 5 phone lines were terminated in the same period.
During March there were 53 raids on 28 different stations in the London area. Outside London there were raids on stations in Bradford, Leeds, (2stations) and Worthing. In April 36 London stations were hit 62 times. Genesis, Carrib FM, and Unique were each raided four times. Outside the capital, stations in Stowmarket, Bradford, Warly and Luton were targets for the DTI's RIS officials.
Pirate Radio Broadcaster Convicted
DTI Press Release - 25 June 1998
From Andy Barrett
Keithley Fitzroy Bryan, of Upton Road, Edmonton, London, has been convicted of operating an unauthorised broadcast radio station contrary to section 1(1) of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949. The illegal 'Station FM' covered North East London.
He was sentenced by Wood Green Crown Court, on June 24, to 240 hours Community Service and was ordered to pay costs of £5000. His studio apparatus, which included tape decks, a CD player, audio mixer, records, cellular telephone, microphones, headphones, assorted cassettes, stereo amplifier plus transmitter modulator, was ordered forfeit by the Court.
Notes to Editors - Unlicensed Broadcasting
1.The Radiocommunications Agency, an Executive Agency of the Department of Trade and Industry, is responsible for managing civil use of the radio spectrum.
2.Unlicensed broadcasters appropriate radio frequencies without regard for authorised users. Such unplanned use results in interference to the reception of authorised broadcasting stations. The poor technical quality of the equipment used by the unlicensed stations can also result in interference to other radio users, including that of the aeronautical and emergency services.
3.In 1997 the Agency successfully prosecuted 41 people arising from their involvement with unlicensed broadcasting stations. Average fines, where imposed, were £272 and average costs awarded to the Agency were f339. The courts can also order all equipment to be forfeited. The Agency also carried out 820 raids on 169 unlicensed broadcasting stations. 707 of the raids were on 109 stations in the London area.
4.There are over 200 licensed independent broadcasting stations in the United Kingdom. Broadcasting licenses are issued by the Radio Authority, Holbrooke House, 14 Great Queen Street, London, WC2B SDS.
Issued on behalf of The Radiocommunications Agency by COI (London and South East). Media Enquiries to: DTI Press Office: 0171 215 5961
(DTI Press Release courtesy of Andy Barrett)
Raids on Pirate Radio Stations
RIS officers raided 38 London piates a total of 63 times during February, ehilst outside the capital, stations in Manchester (20), Birmingham (3), Bradford,Briistol(2), Liecester, Nottingham, Portrush, Smethwick, Wednesfield, and Wolverhampton were also hit.
(Radio Magazine via BDXC)
DTI Officials have raided stations in Ipswich, Bradford, Birmingham, Leeds, Wolverhampton, Edinburgh, Luton and Bedford during December, as well as carrying out 44 raids on a total 25 stations in London in the same month. (Radio Magazine)
RSL Changes Frequency Due To 'Pirate Interference'
In a phonecall to the Radio Authority I learned that Avenues FM were indeed allowed to change frequency from 107.2 to 87.7 due to pirate interference. Address:
Avenues FM 3-7 Third Avenue Queen's Park London W10 4RS
Station tel : 0181 964 1127 Main Youth Project tel : 0181 969 9552
(From Mark Hattam British DX Club)
New FM Licence For Telford
A New FM licence for Telford has been announced. The station is expected to cover an adult population of around 115,000. Deadline for applications is 11th August 1998.
RA Receives 4 Applications For Tayside Small-Scale Licences
The Radio Authority has announced the applications for the new small- scale Independent Local Radio (ILR) licences within Tayside; the closing date for applications was 7 April. Each licence is being offered for small-scale coverage of a location within the former Tayside region comprising the areas of Angus, City of Dundee, and Perth and Kinross.
The following stations have applied:
Discovery FM Ltd. (George Mackintosh, 01382 776 403): a fluid mix of easy listening and soft adult contemporary artists together with locally focused speech content targeting the 35-64 year old market with a proposed music to speech ratio of 75:25, for the City of Dundee and immediate environs.
ESK FM (Martin Gilbert, 01674 673 506): a lively mix of music and speech together with community news, information and specialist music, for Angus.
RNA FM (Malcolm Finlayson, 01382 660 111): a generalised music-based service that would contain health care information and advice, community announcements and news of interest to the public, and promote education, the local economy, and voluntary organisations, for Arbroath/Carnoustie and surrounding districts.
Radio Tayside (Martin Campbell, 01382 225 656): a radio service run for the community by members of the community, bringing together all the local voluntary charity groups within the community, for the city of Dundee and its environs.
The Radio Authority hopes to announce its decision about the award of the licences this Summer.
(Via Ray Woodward British DX Club)
Owen Oyston
..The Radio Authority has also agreed to the transfer of control to independent trusts of the four radio licences controlled by Owen Oyston. The Authority says that it has taken into account the best interests of listeners, staff and minority shareholders at the stations and decided that the removal of control was a preferable alternative to revocation.
In December 1997, the Authority decreed that Owen Oyston was not a 'fit and proper person' to hold a radio licence following his unsuccessful appeal against charges of rape and indecent assault.
As a result, Oyston's shares in the companies which hold the licences for The Bay, Heartbeat 1521 AM, Gold Beat and City Beat 96.7, may be transferred into one or more trusts, provided the trustees are independent of Owen Oyston.
Oyston is required to complete the transfer of his radio shareholdings within six weeks.
Radio Authority: 0171 405 7058
[MediaTel Newsline http://www.mediatel.co.uk/newsline]
(Via Ray Woodward British DX Club)
New Full Time ILR Licenses
DX Information from the British DX Club.
This weeks Radio Magazine reports the following *new* areas have been added to the RA's working list of areas for full time ILR licences - all are 'small-scale' areas :
Area..............................Ad. date\Closing date
Bridgend (Sth. Wales)....Oct. 98 to Feb. 99
Bridlington (Yorks).........Sep. 98 to Jan. 99
*Burnley (N.E. Lancs)...Dec. 98 to Apr. 99
Hertford..........................Jan. 99 to May. 99
Kintyre & Jura (Argyll).Sep. 98 to Jan. 99
Newbury (Berks)............Nov. 98 to Mar. 99
* The 'Burnley' area (including Pendle) has only had *two* RSL operations to date :
13/9/97 - 10/10/97
7/3/98 - 3/4/98
With a third promised from :
17/10/98 - 13/11/98
All operated by the same group - Two Borough's Radio '2BR' [107.5 MHz].
It occurs to me that this *must* be some sort of record for any area - from RSL status to advertisement of a 'full time' licence [Sept. 97 (first RSL) Dec. 98 (ad. for full time licence)].
Especially when one remembers the number of RSL's run by the same people over in Todmorden as 'Calderdale Sound' over the years ...
Unless (of course) anyone on the list knows differently ..?
(Via Ray Woodward . British DX Club.)
Fourteen Applications for North East Regional Licence..
From Ray Woodward British DX Club
Fourteen applications were received by the RADIO AUTHORITY on Tuesday following the closing date for receipt of bids for the new regional Independent Local Radio (ILR) licence for the North-East region of England. The new licence will cover most population centres within the former metropolitan counties of Tyne & Wear and Cleveland, and neighbouring parts of the county of Durham, together with some parts of south Northumberland and North Yorkshire. The adult population of the area within which this new service should be received is around 2.0 million. The Authority says that they will need to conduct at least one 'public interest test', in respect of an application which is affected by the ownership provisions of the Broadcasting Act 1996. Details of those applying for the licence are listed below, together with a brief outline of proposed programming formats:
CRASH FM (ALTERNATIVE & ROCK LTD) An alternative rock and dance station for 15-34s in the North East;
CRYSTAL FM (CRYSTAL RADIO LTD) A broad mix of 'contemporary easy' music, featuring high quality melodic music from a wide range of eras and genres, combined with concise, authoritative and targeted news, information and speech;
FUN RADIO (CAPITAL RADIO NORTH EAST LTD) A music-led, interactive service, targeting children aged 4-14 and their young parents, featuring new fun music, with news, information and features designed to entertain its audience:
GALAXY FM (CHRYSALIS RADIO NORTH EAST LTD) A fun, upbeat, lifestyle-led dance station, playing a mix of contemporary and classic dance music, together with news and information that matters to its target audience of 15-29 year olds;
ICE FM (ICE NORTH EAST LTD) A dance and 'dance related' music station for the youth of the North East, at the forefront of new music trends and tastes, with local youth information and regional, national and international news; JAZZ FM NORTH EAST LTD. Jazz, soul, blues and rhythm & blues, with speech and information relevant to the region:
NORTH EAST NEWS RADIO LTD. The first commercial 24-hour news and newstalk station for the North East, providing a mix of regional, national and international news, travel, finance, sports, entertainment and weather; N.E. ROCK (NORTHERN RADIO INITIATIVE LTD) The finest classic and contemporary rock, indie and blues music, with national and local news, information, sport. entertainment news and arts related information;
THE POINT (GET THE POINT LTD) Specialist in appeal, a progressive and vital young dance and alternative music station, offering 15-30 year olds a constantly evolving environment of youth culture: a real and relevant source of music, entertainment and information for a generation disaffected and dissatisfied with the same old voices and choices;
ROCK 105 LTD A 24-hour music station featuring current and classic rock tracks from the past four decades designed primarily for a 25-44 audience;
ROUTE FM LTD Today's country music, complemented by a service of headline regional news, weather and travel for the North-East;
STATE FM (NORTH EAST BROADCASTING CO. PLC) A greater variety of MOR/AC music from the 60s to the present day, relevant to the over 35 year age-group, with a blend of stimulating lifestyle features and a daily news service that will give listeners the \par North East world in three minutes;
VIBE FM (NORTH EAST WIRELESS LTD) A fresh, fun and exciting classic and contemporary dance music station serving people in their teens and twenties, across Tyne & Wear and Teesside;
VIRUS RADIO LTD. A sparkling new radio service featuring the very best of new music with interesting and provocative speech elements, all clearly aimed at young people.
(The Radio Magazine WWW site http://www.theradiomagazine.co.uk)
(It occurs to me that *some* of those applicants have simply changed the front of their applications from 'North West' to North East' and resubmitted them - in the hope of being more successful second time.( Ray)
(Ray Woodward British DX Club)
BBC Radio Gloucester
BBC Engineering Information reports (via CEFFAX [page698 sub-page2] that the two new MF transmitters for BBC Radio Gloucestershire (mentioned in 'Communication' towards the end of last year and originally slated to become operational in Dec.97/Jan.98) will actually enter service in April. Both sites will operate on 1413 KHz medium wave (at 500 watts if I remember rightly):
Bourton-on-the-Water - serving East Gloucestershire
Berkley Heath - serving Southwest Gloucestershire and the Forest of Dean
(Ray Woodward British DX Club)
London News Radio have now launched a web site with info. on their latest licence bid (the second Central Scotland regional) : http://www.scotnews.co.uk
(Ray Woodward British DX Club)
No More Small Scale ILR'S ?
The head of development at the Radio Authority has said that the RA has no plans to advertise further small scale alternative location licences after the current batch have been completed. He has not ruled out "revisiting" areas where licences have already been awarded, but in general, the future development of the 106-107 Mhz slot will be for further local or regional ILR stations. (Via Mike Terry Communication.March '98)
MELODY RADIO
Emap Expects To Improve Melody's Financial Performance
Emap Radio has said that it expects to significantly improve the financial performance of Melody Radio after agreeing to buy the station for £25 million this morning (see Newsline story).
In the year ended 30 September 1997 Melody had an operating profit of £0.4 million on a turnover of £3.6 million; Emap believes that by marketing the station to national advertisers as part of the group's Magic network it will increase this performance significantly. It is also planning to relocate the station to its Emap On Air premises.
Although the sale has been agreed between Emap and Melody's owners Hanson plc., the finalisation is contingent on the Radio Authority's approval that the sale will not be to the detriment of public interest.
In order to remain within the radio ownership limits Emap is to dispose of the Cardiff-based services Red Dragon FM/Touch Radio. Emap says it has already received a number of expressions of interest for this service which had operating profits and sales of £1 million and £3.4 million respectively for the period ended 31 March 1997.
Emap Radio says that the acquisition of Melody will be complementary to its other metropolitan stations which are largely based outside London in the North West and North East of England and Yorkshire. In London. Emap owns Kiss 100 FM.
Emap Radio's chief executive Tim Schoonmaker comments: "Emap has grown its radio interests by serving metropolitan areas, which are particularly attractive to advertisers. The acquisition of Melody FM covering Greater London is exactly in line with this. As part of a large radio grouping, we expect Melody to show a significant financial improvement. The London market also offers us good opportunities to achieve this."
Emap Radio c/o Braben Company: 0171 289 1616
[MediaTel Newsline : http://www.mediatel.co.uk/newsline]
(Via Ray Woodward. British DX Club)