Celador Radio and Midwest Radio have applied for the re-advertised local radio licence for Bridgwater and West Somerset.
It follows a breach of the licence by Total Star Somerset for transmitting at several times the permitted power level, with the licence term cut to finish earlier than scheduled next summer.
The licence was then purchased from More FM Ltd by Celador, who have been running their Breeze format on the frequencies since August.
The Breeze now faces competition to carry on in the area from Midwest Radio who own the neighbouring Yeovil and Shaftesbury licences. Midwest’s application is headed up by Paul Roberts, who has twice worked on the Bridgwater licence when it was called BCR FM and then Quay West.
Midwest says most output would come from Yeovil, with an additional news and community resource studio within the Bridgwater and West Somerset licence area.
Midwest is proposing the following format:
A locally oriented station for West Somerset and the Bridgwater area playing a broad range of popular music with a strong commitment to local news and information.
The Breeze, meanwhile would provide:
A locally-oriented, broad music and information station for the Bridgwater and West Somerset area.
All programming on the station would be shared with The Breeze stations in Bristol, Bath and Warminster. Celador say they would employ a journalist and a sales executive within the Bridwater and West Somerset licence area.
You can download and view the full applications to Ofcom here.
Posted on Thursday, December 8th, 2011 at 2:46 pm by RadioToday UK