Rossendale Radio

Rossendale Radio (CIC)
Community interest company
Industry Broadcasting
Genre Local radio and variety of music
Fate Financial difficulties; closed and licence revoked
Founded 1 May 2010 (2010-05-01)
Defunct 5 March 2012 (2012-03-05)
Headquarters Haslingden, England, United Kingdom
Area served
Rossendale
Key people
Antony Nixon
(Director)
Phil Ord
(Sales & Station Manager)
Gaye Nield
(Accounts & Administration)
Andy Hargreaves
(Programme Controller & Station Sound)[1]
Services Radio
Website www.rossendaleradio.com

104.7 Rossendale Radio was a local radio station in the north west of England, broadcasting on 104.7FM to Haslingden, Rawtenstall, Ramsbottom and surrounding areas and online at www.rossendaleradio.com. The station closed down and ceased broadcasting on Monday 5 March 2012 at 15:00, because of financial difficulties.[2] On 16 April 2012, its licence was revoked by Ofcom as it had failed to meet the requirements of that licence nor communicate with the regulator about its intentions.[3]

Broadcast area

The station's primary broadcasting area was the Rossendale Valley within East Lancashire and the adjoining area of Northern Greater Manchester. The broadcast area consisted of Baxenden, Edenfield, Haslingden, Helmshore, Loveclough, Ramsbottom, Rawtenstall, Rising Bridge, Stacksteads, Stubbins, Summerseat, Crawshawbooth, Waterfoot and parts of Bacup.

Origins and history

The station commenced official broadcasting on 1 May 2010 following a three year period which saw the group apply and obtain a community radio licence from Ofcom and apply for funding from numerous sources.

The radio station was based at the Agapao Impact Centre in Haslingden. Ofcom awarded a community radio licence to "Rossendale Radio CIC" and was originally planned to run for at least five years.

Closure

On 5 March 2012, it was announced that the station would close down that day at 3pm, due to ongoing financial difficulties. The Station had previously failed several months earlier and been placed in liquidation by its owners Agapao during November 2011.[4] A message on the station's Facebook page stated how the problems were "insurmountable" and that they had no choice but to cease broadcasting. Despite attempts to find new ways of working that would save the station, Rossendale Radio was deemed not financially viable. The news was met with great sadness from loyal listeners, with comments on the Facebook post expressing sympathy and how the station was a "great loss".[5][6] Matt McManus, a volunteer at the station, stated how "as a community radio station it is part of the licence requirement that such funding is obtained to 'match fund' against the income from commercial revenue. Not only did we not have this funding to satisfy the licence agreement but the lack of funding left us reliant on the revenue we had coming in". Ultimately, due to the high cost of funding a radio station, this was not enough, and Rossendale Radio was forced to shut down.[5]

Genre

Rossendale Radio's music policy consisted of contemporary music from the last five decades and also featured a number of specialist music programmes, consisting of rock, theatre/film, dance music, house music, new music, downtempo/chillout and other differing genres. Information, guests, interviews, local news and sport also featured extensively on the radio station.

Presenters and workforce

Rossendale radio was a not-for-profit organisation that was staffed mainly by volunteers. It was administrated by a day-to-day team of directors. The volunteer presenters were as follows:

Name Show(s)
Big H ,[7] Monday to Friday 7 am – 11 am
Peter Sweetmore ,[8] Monday to Friday 11 am - 1 pm & Saturday Breakfast 8 am – 11 am
Andy Cook Valley Drive, Monday to Friday 3 pm - 7 pm
Olly & Liam The Olly & Liam Show, Wednesday 7 pm – 9 pm (Liam also presents Club 104 on Fridays)
Sophie Lord Stage and Screen, Sunday 7 pm – 10 pm
Si Carvell Decadance, Saturday 9 pm – 12 midnight
Liam Houldsworth Club 104, Friday 7pm - 10pm
Terry Butterworth Rossendale Rocks, Monday 7 pm – 10 pm
Shaun Smith Sunday Breakfast, 8 am – 11 am
Matt McManus Early Breakfast, 5 am – 7 am
Dave Harvey Soul and Motown Madness, Tuesday 7 pm – 10 pm & Community Show, Sunday 5 pm - 7 pm
Catherine Saturday Jukebox 11 am - 2 pm
Henry Hewitt Saturday Sport 2 pm - 6 pm & Sunday Jukebox, 11 am – 2 pm
Graeme Park The Graeme Park Radio show, Friday 9 pm – 11 pm
JP The White Hot Music Show, Thursday 7pm - 9pm
EJ Lunchbox Bonanza, Weekdays 1 pm - 3 pm and the Partyzone, Saturdays 6 pm – 9 pm
Colin James Newsreader and Weekday Breakfast co-presenter
Tim Haslam-Jones Station Technician

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/18/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.