Ofcom indicate Banbury FM may finally get the chance to have an FM frequency
28/03/2025
Further details may become available from May onwards
Banbury FM’s long running campaign to be given an FM broadcast frequency has finally taken a step forward.
After years of trying to persuade the regulator Ofcom to make an FM licence available for our town their latest workplan update – published today – acknowledges there is demand for more FM licencing.
Banbury FM was amongst a number of radio stations making the case for an FM analogue broadcast licence in a consultation which Ofcom ran in January.
The regulator has been focusing on implementing small-scale DAB (SSDAB) services across the country and Banbury FM was part of a local consortium which won a licence. However plans to launch were shelved after it became apparent that the project wasn’t financially viable or technically robust.
In today’s announcement Ofcom said: “we do recognise there is some demand for more analogue licensing, particularly in unserved and/or rural areas where SSDAB coverage is harder to achieve in a sustainable way.
“In our SSDAB progress report published in October 2024, we acknowledged this demand and confirmed that our priorities remain to focus on the final rounds of the SSDAB programme before considering what comes next in line with our duties and functions, as well as market conditions.
“We will engage stakeholders in this process through a consultation and the timeline for this work will be communicated after we have received the applications for Round 7.”
Its anticipated that more details may become available from May onwards.
Banbury FM’s Managing Director, Andy Green, said: “We have campaigned for an FM licence to be made available in our area for a very long time, but have always been told no.
“We are therefore very pleased that Ofcom are finally acknowledging there is a call for more analogue licencing, particularly in areas which are rural and where DAB is hard to achieve in a sustainable way.
“I look forward to working with Ofcom and others around the country in a similar situation to ourselves in investigating further FM licencing as soon as is practicable.”
Published: by the Banbury FM News Team
