News story about the publication by UK media regulator Ofcom of its reasons for making awards of new local commercial FM radio licences in the Edinburgh and Blackburn markets, written by Grant Goddard in January 2005 for The Radio Magazine.

1. NEWS: OFCOM EXPLAINS
AWARD DECISIONS FOR LOCAL
FM RADIO LICENCES IN
EDINBURGH AND BLACKBURN
by
GRANT GODDARD
www.grantgoddard.co.uk
January 2005

2. News: Ofcom Explains Award Decisions For Local FM Radio Licences In Edinburgh And Blackburn Page 1
©2005 Grant Goddard
Ofcom has issued brief explanations of its decision making process for the
award of the new Edinburgh and Blackburn local radio licences. These matters
were discussed at the 16 December 2004 meeting of its Radio Licensing
Committee, chaired by Ofcom board member Ian Hargreaves and attended by
Ofcom Content Board members Pam Giddy and Matthew MacIver, along with
Ofcom staff Kip Meek, Martin Campbell, Peter Davies and Neil Stock. Only two
of the Ofcom team are former Radio Authority staff.
For Edinburgh, the Committee felt that the Wireless Group’s application
“offered a programme service which would provide a greater broadening of
choice in the Edinburgh local commercial radio market than would the other
proposed formats” and “would best be able to cater for tastes and interests
different from those already catered for by existing local commercial radio
services.” Whilst recognising that a speech format presented a greater
commercial risk than a music format, the committee felt that Wireless Group’s
experience running national station 'TalkSport' inspired “confidence” that it
could “make a success” of the new station. No mention was made of the
Wireless Group’s poor track record attracting audiences to its other speech-
inclined Scottish stations, Scot FM (which it subsequently sold), Wave 102
(market share down from 13% to 6.8% since 2000) and Q96 (market share
down from 6.3% to 3% since 2000).
For Blackburn, the Committee considered that 'The Bee' “would benefit from
the involvement of Two Boroughs Radio Ltd., the holder of the licence for the
neighbouring Burnley area, which would be able to provide opportunities for
resource-sharing that could prove valuable in such a relatively small licence
area.” The Committee believed that Two Boroughs Radio “has demonstrated
its ability to provide such a service, to some financial success, in the
neighbouring licence area,” where it achieves an impressive 23% listening
share. Two Boroughs Radio, which will control 33% of The Bee, is wholly
owned by radio group The Local Radio Company. A further 33% of The Bee is
controlled by The Radio Business consultancy, which had been a founder
shareholder in Two Boroughs Radio, but sold its stake after the station’s
launch in 2000.
[First published in 'The Radio Magazine' as 'Edinburgh & Blackburn Awards Explained', #668, 29 January 2005]
Grant Goddard is a media analyst / radio specialist / radio consultant with thirty years of
experience in the broadcasting industry, having held senior management and consultancy
roles within the commercial media sector in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. Details at
http://www.grantgoddard.co.uk