Severn FM closes, blames climate & Ofcom

A community-based internet radio station is closing, blaming the current climate and lack of flexibility within Ofcom as its reasons.

Severn FM, which has been serving Gloucester for the last 18 months, will sign off this Saturday morning after a special look-back programme from 8am till 10am.

A notice on the station’s website says “The final show will be the same one that started the whole project off, the Breakfast show, before the technical equipment is dismantled and returned to its owners.”

“The current economic climate has made it impossible to continue with this plan and this, coupled with the lack of flexibility within Ofcom to look at sustainable FM delivery, despite the clear local demand, therefore restricting the ways in which people listen to the content, has resulted in the project “running out of money with no plan to generate revenue”.

Andy Clarke, who originally setup the project in June 2011 and is the MD of South Gloucester Media CIC, said: “we have all invested a lot of time, energy, emotion and effort into creating a great station, however, we have had to be objective about the current situation and have had to make a very difficult decision but one that never-the-less needed to be made”.

The station says it is hopeful of applying for a new licence when the next round of Community Radio Licence applications are underway in 2014, and will continue to make previous shows available online in the meantime.