Ofcom has found Forth Valley Radio in breach of its licence after it failed to provide a recording requested during an investigation into offensive language on air.
The issue relates to a complaint made about The Breakfast Collection on 4th April this year.
Ofcom requested a copy of the programme to assess the claim but was told by the station that the broadcast had not been recorded due to a fault in its automated recording system.
The station explained that, as a temporary workaround, presenters had been asked to manually record shows. However, on the day in question, the scheduled presenter was unwell and the station broadcast automated content between 8am and 2pm without anyone available to make a manual recording.
Ofcom found this to be a breach of Condition 9 of Forth Valley Radio’s Community Digital Sound Programme (C-DSP) licence, which requires licensees to retain and produce recordings of all broadcast output on request.
In its response to Ofcom’s investigation, the station confirmed that the fault had since been fixed and “all output is now automatically recorded”.
Ofcom said that while it welcomed the fix, the broadcaster had been aware that its backup plan relied on presenter availability and had no contingency in place for when this wasn’t possible.
Ofcom said the failure to record the output prevented it from carrying out its statutory duties and enforcement processes.
Forth Valley Radio is licensed to serve listeners in Stirling and Falkirk on DAB and is operated by Forth Valley Radio CIC. It launched in 2020.