Dales Radio licence challenged
By James Cridland for media.info
Posted 8 January 2016, 5.15pm est
The licence of Dales Radio, a new community radio station in the Yorkshire Dales, has been challenged by a former director of a radio station based in Kirkby Lonsdale.
In its licence application, Dales Radio argued for a wider transmission area "normally considered by Ofcom". The resulting coverage area, including Sedbergh, Hawes and Leyburn, appears to have a radius of around 24km; yet Ofcom note that the general size of a community radio licence is 5km, with a special dispensation to go larger in rural areas "where there is greater availability of suitable FM frequencies (such as parts of Scotland and Wales)". The Dales Radio coverage appears to be five times as large as Ofcom's guidelines for licence applicants would normally permit.
In a letter sent to the DCMS, Paul Broadbent draws attention to his own community radio station, Indigo 106.6, which handed its community licence back to Ofcom in January 2015 November 2014 after it was unable to enlarge its transmission area to make it more financially viable. Ofcom told the station that it had refused the request because Indigo had not originally applied for such an extension; yet Indigo claim it had merely complied with Ofcom's own Guidance Notes. Mr Broadbent claims that Ofcom is showing "a lack of parity".
Nineteen community radio stations have handed back their licence since 2010.
Dales Radio is set to launch this Monday, 11 January, on 104.9FM, 103FM and 936AM.
The letter in full
I note recent publicity given to the intended launch of Dales Community Radio station, originally awarded a licence in late 2013.
Firstly, I would seek clarification as to why it has been permitted a longer than usual period to achieve a Launch.
More importantly however, I write to question and challenge the legitimacy of the licence that it was granted on the basis that the coverage area (MCA) exceeds the criteria set down for all community radio stations in Section 5 (1) of the Notes for Guidance revised in May 2010.
In making their application, the group stated that (they) “fully understand that this proposal exceeds the transmission parameters normally considered by Ofcom for a Community Radio service. However, (they believed) that the only way to viably service this unique, sparsely populated and geographically challenging area, is with a multiple transmitter service”.
They added that; “The distance between the sites and the intervening terrain would prevent full coverage when travelling along the interconnecting roads but that distance also allows the same frequencies to be used without significant problems of interaction”.
Interestingly the OFCOM MCA list does not include that of Dales Radio, but given the eventual coverage area which ultimately has been granted to cover an area of the Yorkshire Dales national park to include “distinct” communities of Leyburn, Hawes, Sedbergh and Kirkby Stephen along with presumably other smaller yet “distinct” communities, in a geographical area far exceeding the general policy of 5Km radius, and therefore far exceeding the MCA given to the majority of community radio licencees. Nor can the intended station be described as serving a “community of interest” as described by Section 2(1) of the Order below.
I originally raised the legitimacy of this licence award with my own local MP, and now LibDem leader Tim Farron, back in 2014. I understood at that time that he took the matter up with the DCMS, but as yet, I am not aware of a response.
I therefore seek a review of the decision making process that led to the licence grant, before Dales Radio is permitted to launch, and also the legitimacy of the decision made. My conclusion is that the MCA granted is outwith what might be regarded as a reasonable extension and that therefore extraneous factors must have been taken into account. The question then is why these same criteria and extraneous factors have not been applied to other community radio applicants in similar geographically dispersed areas.
The latter point is significant because it goes to the very viability of rural community radio stations and it would appear that Dales Radio may have been given an unfair advantage of survivability simply because other station applicants did not ask the question at a time when OFCOM were being quite restrictive in their interpretation of the criteria.
Indeed in a letter dated 2nd February 2014 addressed to Ms Halstead Smith of OFCOM, and noting the arguments put forward by Dales Radio as to why it was appropriate for it to be licensed for a larger coverage area, and OFCOM’s decision, on its merits, to depart from the transmission parameters normally considered appropriate, I personally made an application for OFCOM to apply the same criteria to licence holder CR051 (INDIGO 106.6fm), the Voice Community Trust, a licence which I then held, in order similarly to depart from the transmission parameters normally considered appropriate. Ms Halstead Smith did not reply but subsequently Ms Soo Williams did make a technical response. She did not justify why Dales Radio had been permitted to exceed the 5Km radius, but justified a refusal to INDIGO on the basis that it had not originally applied for such an extension, It had not done so because it, in common with many other rural community stations, complied with the Guidance Notes, at a time when OFCOM were giving a restrictive interpretation to them.
Working within the constraints of the current geographic parameters for the six years 2008 2014, it had become increasingly clear that the constraints meant that it is not financially viable to operate the licence, and as such a CR station would not be financially viable,
It also had become clear that grants/advertising/sponsorship were simply not be obtainable and sustainable.
Therefore based on the precedent of Dales Radio accepted by OFCOM, INDIGO and the Voice Community Trust argued that it should similarly be entitled to submit for coverage of the South Lakes area, a synonymous geographic community, which is equally sparsely populated and geographically challenged.
The application was not granted and ultimately the licence for INDIGO, a regionally award winning station, was handed back in common with many other rural community stations in the past and others currently facing financial viability problems because of lack of parity exercised by OFCOM.
I understand that this is not sufficient justification to question a licence, but I do believe that some form of judicial review should be undertaken of OFCOM’s decision making and interpretation process with regard to the grant of Dales Radio licence and that until such time it should be prevented from launching as the ground for the grant of the licence is unsafe.
Yours faithfully,
Paul Broadbent LLB(Hons) MA(Econ).MA
Formerly director of Indigo 106.6fm - the first community radio station in the South Lakes
Interpretation
2(1) In this Order "the 1990 Act" means the Broadcasting Act 1990; "the 2003 Act" means the Communications Act 2003; "community" means (a) the persons who live or work or undergo education or training in a particular area or locality, or (b) persons who (whether or not they fall within paragraph (a)) have one or more interests or characteristics in common;