KEITH DAVIES AM ASKS FOR ANSWERS ON REVOCATION OF RADIO BECA LICENCE

Llanelli AM Keith Davies has contacted Ofcom to seek answers following the decision by the media regulator last week to revoke a community radio licence to Radio Beca.

Radio Beca was granted a community radio licence to broadcast locally produced programmes to parts of Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion from three radio transmitters across west Wales.

The original licence was granted in 2012, with the station missing a launch deadline of May 2014. This has been cited as one of the reasons Ofcom revoked the licence. It has been reported the organisation failed to raise enough of the £320,000 required to commence broadcasting.

Keith Davies has tabled a question to the First Minister next week and his office has been in contact with Ofcom, he said:

“The broadcasting landscape has changed significantly in recent years with people accessing local news and information in a variety of ways. But despite all of these new ways of getting information, radio listening continues to entertain and inform.

“Radio Beca would have given Welsh speakers a choice, an alternative to what is on offer by the BBC. I met with Euros Lewis from Radio Beca and was impressed at the plans he had developed to really engage and involve welsh speaking communities to create a variety of programme strands.

“I have raised a Statement of Opinion in the Assembly. I hope it will receive support from across all political parties, I’m calling on the Welsh Government to progress a dialogue with Ofcom and the UK Government to relax regulation of community radio to encourage the development of community radio broadcasting in Wales where current restrictions on advertising have forced stations to close or to abandon plans before they have started.”