This is Devon -- A radio station broadcasting in Cornwall has been rapped for not having enough Cornish content. Broadcasting regulator Ofcom found Heart FM, which is owned by Global Radio, was in breach of its licence after a complaint that the station was not operating according to the requirements of its published format. As a result of the complaint, Ofcom has warned that it may take regulatory action if similar issues arise. The station was initially launched as Atlantic FM in 2006 and became part of the Heart network in spring 2012. However, in an investigation, Ofcom found that during a three day monitoring period, Cornwall specific material outside of weather and traffic bulletins accounted for less than five minutes a day. On a three hour drive time afternoon slot, on a show which is produced exclusively for Cornwall, the actual amount of Cornwall specific material was less than two minute's worth. This consisted of a 30 second dedication to "Gary in Newquay", a 56 second plug for the Race for Life at Wadebridge and 30 seconds on the Royal Cornwall Show, which ended the previous day. The complaint made to Ofcom surrounded concerns about whether Heart Cornwall was delivering enough speech content to meet the requirement for it to be "a full service local station….with speech an important part of the content". Concerns were also raised that there was not enough "locally-focused news, information and speech content." Ofcom said it was satisfied that Heart Cornwall was delivering locally focused news and information to its listeners. However it said there was "very little in the way of Cornwall-specific speech items broadcast." Heart Cornwall owner Global said the audience for its station had increased since it rebranded and that "Cornish listeners clearly enjoy Heart Cornwall's output." Global also said that it was "arbitrary and unreasonable" of Ofcom to exclude from their analysis of locally-focused speech discussion of weather, speech from Cornish callers and discussion of local events. A spokesman for Global Radio said it nothing further to add to the submission it had made to Ofcom.
Reported by This is 5 hours ago.
↧