Meanwhile, STV (the ITV local station in Scotland) is setting their radio station by 2030, with Ewen Cameron and Cat Harvey (of Greatest Hits Glasgow) fronting a mew breakfast show.
Fun fact - in the 1990s, 2 other local ITV stations in Scotland (Grampian in the North, Border for England/Scotland borders) tried their hands in radio stations, before being bought out by neighbouring stations (Grampian by STV, and Border by Granada after Capital got their radio assets)
I can understand OfCom blocking a new sports channel as Sport is already well looked after in the UK by the BBC and TalkSport but blocking a Radio 2 extension (50s, 60s and 70s) is a real head scratcher.
OfCom is using the bizarre argument, that by not allowing BBC to launch an oldies station, then this will make it more likely that Global and Bauer would?
That logic makes absolutely no sense to me as Absolute already has a 60s and 70s extension as does Heart (70s) and Smooth (70s).
Just because a market has multiple options already doesnât mean that it can accept an additional player, especially one operated by one of the worldâs biggest broadcasters
It is specifically aimed at preventing the BBC from destroying the digital commercial station Boom Radio, and one or two others. Boom launched specifically to cater for that audience, and a non-commercial BBC competitor would likely destroy it. Itâs one thing to have commercial stations competing, but an extension of BBC R2 is quite another.
Back in the 70âs the old national network (2FC, 4QG etc) used to have a state-based shipping forecast shortly after station opening at 6am: âhere is the (insert state) shipping forecast for costal waters and up to eleven nautical miles to sea⌠â Not quite so detailed as the BBC one
This includes the BBCâs national stations - BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, and Radio 3, 6Music, 1Xtra and Asian Network, Radio 4Xtra and 5Live - all the stations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and every local radio station in England.
The way theyâve done this makes no sense. Even though Sounds is being shut down, the station directory is just links straight back to Sounds! Also, fhereâs no longer going to be any schedules for those of us outside the old country, or listen again, but thatâs not really important. I suppose the one good thing is that all the expats keep their Light Programme and I donât have to spend 3 hours dealing with a VPN everytime my grandmother wants to listen to Radio nan GĂ idheal.
