Lite FM in Peterborough has broken three Ofcom licence code rules for failing to clearly identify that a commercial arrangement was in place for a recent outside broadcast.
For the course of a week, the breakfast show was presented and broadcast from a bed in the foyer of the Park Inn, a new hotel in Peterborough city centre.
Regular interviews with staff and heavy promotion of the hotel's facilities were broadcast, to which a listener complained to Ofcom saying the content was unfair to local guest houses.
But whilst the presenter made it clear the programme was transmitting from the hotel, Ofcom said the sponsorship of the outside broadcast was not made sufficiently clear to listeners, and Lite FM‟s commercial relationship with the Park Inn was not transparent.
Lite FM was found in breach of rules 9.5 (prohibits promotional references to the sponsor), 9.6 (Sponsorship must be clearly identified as such) and 9.7 (The relationship between the sponsor and the sponsored channel or programme must be transparent) of the Radio Advertising Standards Code.
