Community radio in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, community radio refers to a system of licensing small, micro-local, non-profit radio stations, which started in 2002. In its early days, the pilot scheme was known as access radio. New legislation paved the way for this additional tier of radio, starting in 2005, and hundreds of community stations have since been set up. Unlike commercial radio licensing, which is generally advertised to cover a specific region, community radio stations are usually limited to broadcast areas smaller than commercial or BBC local stations, nominally within a 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) radius of their transmitter.

History

The feasibility of this level of radio broadcasting was tested in 2002 by the regulator at the time, the Radio Authority, with the licensing of 15 'access radio' stations for a trial period of one year. The licences were extended in 2003 for a further year, and in 2004 a consultation was issued by the Authority's successor, Ofcom, on the creation of Community Radio. Following this, an invitation to groups to apply for community radio licences nationwide was issued. One hundred and ninety two stations applied and of those, one hundred and six were awarded licences. The first new community radio station to be licensed was youth-based AfanFM in Neath-Port Talbot, and the first to go on-air was 103 The Eye in Melton Mowbray.

By November 2010, 228 stations had been licensed over two rounds of licensing, with 181 broadcasting, 17 that had decided not to launch or handed their licence back, and the remainder preparing to start broadcasting.