Marlow FM has organised a 10km run around the local Buckinghamshire countryside to try and raise £3,000 to help with the cost of running the community radio station.
The Marlow FM 975 Radio Run takes place this weekend (Sunday 27th May), starting from the town’s Higgingson Park.
The route takes in the local area as well as the banks of the River Thames. The event is being broadcast live by the station with a commentary point towards the end of the course. More than 270 runners have already signed up to take part.
Marlow FM Managing Director Tim Ashburner – also chairman of WRN Broadcast and former BBC Senior Sound Supervisor – said: “Community Radio is suffering badly from the economic downturn and stations have to find more and extreme ways of raising money. Marlow FM is lucky in that there are over 100 volunteers in a station that serves only 36,000.”
He added that Ofcom should take a fresh look at the way community radio stations can operate and raise funding. “At the moment we are expected to perform and produce programmes up to the standard of BBC and ILR stations whilst providing training and accessibility, yet our funding is throttled and our transmission power restricted. Something has got to change!” he said.
Marlow FM launched last March after being given a five-year community radio licence by Ofcom in 2009.
Posted on Friday, May 25th, 2012 at 2:38 pm by RadioToday UK