In article <072eb4630fd722a2f782b3f6b1471eb3@jiglu-wc>, 2@slewis.biz (Sterling Times) wrote:

Eric Tesug <...> said:

Ofcom today invites applications for licences to provide
community radio
services within east and southeast England, excluding Greater
London

The limitations seem to be quite extreme:

[-] adult population area of 50,000 -- what audience can be
achieved from <50,000 adults? This could be down to a few hundred
listeners.

That would very much depend on the content. I would agree that something play (and I'm not being horrible) rock and no fun chat probably would get audience of not much.
However, give the community some fun chat and upbeat music and why shouldn't such services be sensibly sized winners.

[-] likely ban on advertising and sponsorship

I can't recall all the rules set out, that said there are ways I'm sure of paying for such services or all those applying would be very silly.

[-] no mention of power, but presumably that is adjusted to contain
the maximum adult audience to 50,000.

Have a look at the full spec, that should answer your question.

[-] no RDS and no stereo.

If such stations are income deprived, the only method of funding
can be charitable or by a benefactor.

The stereo argument is a bit of a myth as how many kitchen radios are listened to for stereo?
And the same goes for RDS, that only serves to increase costs and in such an area what is the benefit – equally, if they stream the audio RDS is of zero value to those listeners, or have I missed something.
I know that when I log on to a UK service via my laptop I don't miss the non-RDS area of my listening experience. I listen for audible content.

Debate?

Eric