Community radio station Penistone FM has been found in breach of its Key Commitments for not broadcasting enough speech.
The South Yorkshire station should be providing 70% music and 30% speech during the day but during recent monitoring, Ofcom found Penistone FM’s level of speech significantly below the 30%.
The monitoring came after a complaint was made against the station saying it was failing to deliver a number of its Key Commitments, specifically around social gain and programming.
The Licensee said that it had previously believed that its requirement for 30% speech during daytime was only applicable to the hours of output that were broadcast live but has now put together a plan to increase the speech output. It also said some presenters were not present on the monitoring day, meaning normal programming was not provided.
Ofcom said: “We are putting the Licensee on notice that, should similar issues arise in future, we may consider taking further regulatory action.”
