Ofcom have published the reason why they awarded the Northeast licence to Saga out of a total of 13 strong applications.
The RLC considered that Saga?s application was a particularly strong one across all four statutory criteria. Saga?s programming proposals contained a suitable proportion of local material and locally-made programming.
The station?s Format will limit the amount of syndicated or networked programming it can broadcast to a maximum of seven hours per week while all other output must be locally produced and presented, and Saga has committed to providing news bulletins containing local news 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
The Committee also said that the application from Saga offered a highly coherent set of programming proposals and a format that has already proved successful in attracting listeners aged 50 and over elsewhere in the UK. It was felt that the inclusion in the station?s main music mix of genres and styles such as standards, nostalgia and country, which Saga?s comprehensive output monitoring demonstrated are generally unavailable on local commercial radio in the North East, would enshrine the character of the proposed service and significantly broaden the range of programmes available in the area by way of local commercial radio.