County Sound has gained Ofcom approval to change its Format from an over 40s Gold/Easy listening service to a local music and information station for adults.
The new format includes extra community programming in the evenings and at weekends and will be re-branded as Eagle Extra.
The station, broadcasting to Surrey and North East Hampshire as County Sound Radio on 1566MW, says there is demand for a service providing content created and contributed to by local communities on AM. It is the sister service of Eagle 96.4 and are both based together in Guildford.
In asking for the changes, owner UKRD said: “Our aim is it minimise change to the main daytime output of the station. The majority of the current play list will remain with any additional music complementing the existing sound.
“The departure from the current format will not narrow but in fact widen the range of programmes available to the people of Surrey and N.E. Hampshire on AM. It will enable us to produce a vast range of highly targeted programmes of relevance and interest to the communities in the many boroughs within the broadcast area.
“Being the only commercial enterprise to offer such a service will not affect any commercial competition.”
Ofcom said the changes would make relatively little difference to the station’s overall Format proposition, which would continue to be a locally-based music and information station playing “melodic” hits dating back to the 1960s.
Posted on Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 at 8:35 am by RadioToday UK