Radio broadcast update – December 2023

North Wales South East Wales

Surrey & North Sussex South Hampshire

Overview

Norgate Limited (“the Licensee”) holds a local commercial radio licence (AL000138) to serve the area of Ludlow and South Shropshire via the provision of its service, Sunshine Radio. When this licence was originally awarded in 1992, it was to broadcast the service via AM. This licence provides for the provision of a service on both AM and FM. Sunshine Radio is also available on two local DAB coverage areas (Gloucester and Hereford & Worcester). On 29 September 2023, the Licensee submitted a proposal to switch off their AM transmitter, while keeping the FM transmitters operational.

On 6 October 2023, we published the Licensee’s proposal on the Ofcom website and invited comments. Ofcom received one response from a stakeholder which supported the proposal.

For the reasons set out below, Ofcom has decided to approve the licence variation request submitted by Norgate Limited to remove the obligation to broadcast its Sunshine Radio service via AM. The Licensee will continue to provide its service on its FM frequencies.

The proposal

The Licensee provided the following reasons for its proposal. First, its AM coverage is limited to daytime hours only due to interference from European stations which reduces listening hours significantly during the autumn and winter months. Second, the results of a listener survey indicated that only a very small proportion of listeners still accessed the service via AM. When the AM transmitter was forced off-air due to damage caused by Storm Afwen in November 2021, Sunshine Radio received no complaints from affected listeners, providing further support for the view that there are likely very few individuals accessing the service via this platform.

Third, maintaining the AM transmitter would be very expensive given that the transmitter and associated equipment is coming to the end of their projected service life.

The Licensee said that switching off their AM transmitter would only affect a very small number of listeners. Sunshine’s FM transmitters serve the majority of the major population conurbations in the licensed area so listeners would be able to access the service on FM within the licensed area. It is also possible to access its licensed DAB service where it overlaps with the licensed area. The Licensee has set out its intention to provide the service on Small-scale DAB when it becomes available in the licensed area, subject to a successful application, while the service is also available online.

Legal framework

When carrying out its functions, Ofcom must act in accordance with its duties in Section 3 of the Communications Act 2003. These include its principal duty to further the interests of citizens and consumers and its duties to have regard to the matters in section 3(3) and (4), including the opinions of consumers and the different interests of persons in different parts of the UK.

We have considered the Licensee’s request to vary its licence to remove the requirement to provide its service on AM in the context of its licence condition to secure that the licensed service serves so much of the licensed area as is for the time being reasonably practicable.

This document comprises an impact assessment as defined in Section 7 of the 2003 Act. We have also conducted an equality impact assessment in light of our duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010.  We have not identified any impact specific to a group with protected characteristics.

Ofcom’s decision

Within the current licensed area, there are a number of areas which are only able to access the Sunshine Radio service on the AM platform. However, we accept that the AM service is only able to broadcast during daytime hours as a result of interference from overseas services.

According to Ofcom’s analysis, the population within the AM only coverage of the Sunshine Radio service comprises of 106,549 individuals.

The survey data provided by the Licensee indicates that only a very small proportion of this number are likely to access the service via the AM signal.  In a survey conducted by the Licensee, respondents were asked to how they accessed the service. Only a handful selected the ‘AM’ option and when asked follow-up questions by the Licensee, they amended their answer to ‘FM’.

Ofcom did not receive any objections in response to our invitation to comment on the Licensee’s proposal to switch off its AM signal. We also note that the Licensee did not receive any complaints from listeners when its AM transmitter was not broadcasting during a storm in 2021. The available evidence therefore tends to confirm the Licensee’s position that very few individuals are likely to access the service via AM.

In all other areas, Sunshine Radio’s listeners will continue to be able to access the service via the FM signal and/or on DAB. In areas where there is no corresponding FM/DAB access, listeners still have the option of listening to the service online. We therefore consider that the potential impact on listeners if the AM transmitter is switched off is minimal.

We have also taken into account that the costs of maintaining the AM transmitter are material.

For these reasons, we consider that it is no longer reasonably practicable for the Licensee to continue to provide its service on AM. Therefore, we have decided to agree to Norgate Limited’s request to vary its licence to remove reference to the AM transmitter site.  The variation will take effect from Friday 19^th January 2024.