Ofcom says it made the decision to re-award the FM commercial radio licence for Ceredigion in Wales to Town and Country Broadcasting because its business case was realistic.
The regulator noted that Radio Ceredigion would be able to ‘benefit from secure funding provided by its parent company’ and said the group had helped significantly reduce losses since taking over the station two years ago.
Radio Ceredigion was re-awarded its local radio licence last week after deciding to have a full re-application process to enable changes to its format. Rival bidder ‘Radio Ceredigion 2012 cyf’ had proposed a half-Welsh, half-English station, while Radio Ceredigion Ltd (Town and Country Broadcasting)’s format was for a station with ‘regular and identifiable Welsh language programming’.
Ofcom revealed that in questioning, Radio Ceredigion said that would constitue a bi-lingual weekday breakfast show, a daily one-hour Welsh language request programme and Welsh language-led evening programming similar to what airs on sister station Radio Carmarthenshire. The regulator has said it expected the above to be delivered by the station when the new licence period commences later this year. It said that the commitment to regular Welsh language programmes and editorial focus on the Ceredigion area meant awarding the licence to Town and Country Broadcasting would ‘broaden choice for listeners in relation to the other local commercial radio service available in the area, namely Real Radio Wales’.
Members of the group behind Radio Ceredigion 2012 cyf were recently awarded a community radio licence under the name of Radio Beca which will cover Ceredigion as well as other parts of west Wales.
Read more about Ofcom’s reasons for the decision it took with the award of the Ceredigion licence here.