Community stations breach funding rules

Three community radio stations have been found in breach of their licence conditions to obtain no more than 50% of income from advertising.

Erewash Sound in Derbyshire, Felixstowe Radio in Suffolk and The Super Station Orkney were all found to be bringing in more than the allowed amount of income via on-air advertising and sponsorship.

In particularly, Ofcom said The Super Station provided a number of different, and in some cases directly contradictory, figures to explain the amount of on-air advertising income it had received over the reporting period.

As a result the regulator was unable to properly determine the true situation, and concluded that the information provided was insufficiently reliable to support the Licensee’s claim that it was not in breach of its licence.

Three more stations, Seaside FM in East Yorkshire, Ambur Radio in the West Midlands and Phoenix FM in Essex were all investigated for the same reason but their issues were resolved by Ofcom.

In addition, Voice of Africa Radio in East London failed to pay its licence fee on-time, and because, even after repeated requests where the payment was not made, Ofcom has put the licensee on notice that the contravention was being considered for the imposition of a statutory sanction, which could include licence revocation.

However, Ofcom has reported that the fee has been paid in the last few days and therefore the imposition of a statutory sanction is no longer being considered.