Community station takes chart

A community radio station is to start taking the syndicated commercial chart show Big Top 40 this weekend.

Amber Sound, based in Ripley in Derbyshire, will be the first community radio station in the UK to do so.

Amber Sound's character of service says the station will be a radio service dedicated solely to the Amber Valley. Its main goal is to be a focal point of community spirit and feeling, giving the people a station that they can call their own.

Community radio stations are free to broadcast any programmes which fit in with the character of the service, and as Amber Sound's "format" says the majority of the output will be locally produced, it leaves them free to include a small amount of networked or syndicated programming.

In response, Ofcom told RadioToday.co.uk: "Ofcom does not approve the carriage of individual shows."

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