Hot Radio in Poole has requested to drop local news bulletins, increase the power of its transmitter, and add another transmitter in a neighbouring town.
In a Key Commitments format change document, the station says its listeners don’t want local news bulletins, but instead would rather hear presenters reading out positive news.
Ofcom agreed to the change saying it would not substantially alter the character of the service.
And in a separate Technical Change Request Form, Hot Radio management says it wants to resume an essential local service of local news and traffic information following the rebranding of Fire Radio to Hits Radio, by extending its own transmission area, increasing power on its transmitter and adding in a new one in Christchurch, to the east and north of Bournemouth.
Owner Kevin Scott writes about Fire becoming Hits, which happened three years ago, saying that “this will leave the entire area of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole with no local secular radio service on FM” although Hope FM, whilst Christian in nature, operates a local service from studios in Bournemouth, and a new local service, Bournemouth One*, is currently serving the area online with local news bulletins and traffic reports.
More services such as Dorset Coast Radio (Bournemouth) and Poole Radio are also planning to launch local stations, according to the small-scale DAB applications for the area.
The application has many letters of support from local organisations and advertisers including MP Vikki Slade, who was leader of BCP Council at the time of writing in 2021.
Hot Radio will need to request a change of Key Commitments if the power increase is granted, as it currently is only licensed to serve Poole, and has been in breach of its licence twice for broadcasting insufficient content specifically about the town. RadioToday has requested confirmation on this from Hot Radio but has not received a reply at the time of publication.
Ofcom will accept representations up to one month following publication before they make a formal decision on the request. Representations can be sent to broadcast.licensing@ofcom.org.uk.
*Bournemouth One is part owned by RadioToday’s founder.