WIREDGOV

Ofcom yesterday announced the award of three community radio licences in Wolverhampton, Coventry and Rutland.

Licences have been awarded for Gulshan Radio in Wolverhampton; Radio PANJ in Coventry; and BFBS Cottesmore and North Luffenham for the Kendrew Barracks in Rutland.

Community radio services are provided on a not-for-profit basis and focus on delivering specific social benefits to a particular local area or community of interest.

Gulshan Radio (Black Country Community Development Limited)
Contact name: Gulshan Dhingra
Phone: 07931 373 613
Email: gulshandhingra3@googlemail.com

Gulshan Radio will be a community radio service for the Asian communities of Wolverhampton.

Radio Panj (Radio PANJ Limited) 
Contact: Jas Dhesi
Phone: 02476 663535
Email: jsd@hotmail.co.uk
Website: www.radio5.org.uk

Radio PANJ will serve the Punjabi community in Coventry.

BFBS Cottesmore and North Luffenham (BFBS Cottesmore and North Luffenham Limited) 
Contact: Chris Pearson
Phone: 01494 878734
Email: bfbsradio@bfbs.com
Website: www.bfbs.com

This station will serve the military community at Kendrew Barracks, Cottesmore.

Community radio licences are awarded for a five-year period.

A statement setting out the main determining factors for the awards of the community radio licences referred to above can be found on Ofcom’s website.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. Ofcom received six applications for the single FM frequency available in Wolverhampton. Alongside the successful applicant, Gulshan Radio, Ofcom received applications from the following groups, to which it was not able to make licence awards:

• Renaissance (Renaissance Arts Media Limited), Dudley
• Style FM (XEM Ltd), Sandwell
• Community Link Radio (Wolverhampton African Caribbean Resource Centre Ltd), Wolverhampton
• Sajan Radio (Sajan Community Radio Ltd), Wolverhampton
• Black Country Community Radio (Black Country Community Radio Group), Dudley

2. In addition Ofcom considered seven further applications from elsewhere in the Midlands but decided not to award a licences to:

• Radio Central (Hatrix Media Limited), Birmingham
• Indus Radio (Indus Community Radio Limited), Birmingham
• Radio Apni Awaz (Lavish Media Academy), Birmingham
• 1L (1L Limited), Leicester
• Radio Festival (Leicester Community Enterprise Services Limited CIC) Leicester
• Panj Pani Radio (New Dawn Asian Mental Health Limited), Leicester
• Radio Seerah (Seerah Academy (Radio Seerah), Leicester

3. Applications for community radio licences are being invited on a region-by-region basis. Further details can be found on the Ofcom website at: http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radio-broadcast-licensing/community-radio/apply-for-licence/