Tracey Crouch, MP for Chatham & Aylesford, presented an Early Day Motion calling for OFCOM to treat Radio Caroline as a special case and allow us a medium wave licence to broadcast to our traditional heartland of the south east. If you visit the Parliament UK Early Day Motions website you will get a reasonably up to date look at how many MPs have signed so far. Full details about the EDM are here.
"Fair's fair, let Radio Caroline on the air!"
Fair's Fair Is Changing
Radio Caroline has, after discussions with politicians and media practitioners, decided to change the objective of our Fair's Fair campaign. The station has been calling on Ofcom to treat the station as a special case and be allowed a licence to transmit our programmes on medium wave to the south east of the UK. Now we are calling on Ofcom to find a frequency and advertise its availability, giving us the chance to apply.
Development Co-Ordinator Bob Lawrence said, “it is a subtle change designed to move the thing forward. Changing current legislation to give us special status and not have to go through the usual beauty contest to gain our objective is still a possibility but, given the current economic situation and the very real problems the country is facing, changing broadcasting law is way down on the list of priorities. We take the view that this would be a far better way of ensuring that we get on the air by the time we celebrate our 50th birthday in 2014”.
The change may also increase the number of MPs who are willing to put their name to the idea. Station Manager Peter Moore said, “With our distinguished history, Radio Caroline clearly is a special case, but there is no provision in UK radio regulation to recognise this. Many politicians feel unable to support us since Ofcom are not legally empowered to give us special treatment, but they certainly ARE empowered to advertise a new licence once a frequency is found”.
The MP For Chatham & Aylesford,Tracey Crouch, who presented the EDM to parliament calling for Ofcom to “exhaust all avenues in making the provisions available for Radio Caroline to celebrate its 50th birthday in 2014 ……", said, “It is important that we continue as a collective group to ensure that Ofcom think positively about Radio Caroline and changing tact will help. There is a lot of support for Caroline in Parliament and we need to keep fighting for the future release of appropriate AM licenses to bid for.”
The station is now calling on supporters to contact Ofcom directly if they wish to support this new objective. Bob Lawrence feels that by contacting the regulator asking for them to locate a suitable frequency for use in the south east it will make their job easier, “the call now is for them (Ofcom) to find a frequency and then advertise its availability for any interested parties to apply. This will hopefully give them a rest from having to keep telling MPs and supporters that they are powerless to help with the campaign aims because of current legislation …”
