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!"
News from Ofcom
February 2012
Ofcom are hopeful that they will soon be in a position to draft a consultation document regarding any possible future use for 648 kilohertz. Until last year the frequency was used to transmit the programmes of the BBC World Service but they have now confirmed to Ofcom that they have no intention of using the frequency for any purpose in the future.
The regulator is now in discussion with the company who own the transmitting infrastructure for this channel and whilst this process may take some time, they have confirmed that their intention is to proceed with drafting the document which will invite the public to make Ofcom aware of how they would wish the channel to be used.
We would ask that you register your support to the idea of the frequency being advertised for use by a regional station for the south east. If that option is taken up, you will then be asked to offer your support for our specific application.
Bob Lawrence.
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.”
