97.1 Radio Carmarthenshire

Radio Carmarthenshire (Welsh: Radio Sir Gâr) is a British Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to Carmarthenshire county on 97.1 and 97.5 FM from studios in Narberth, Pembrokeshire in South Wales. It launched on 13 June 2004. It plays mainly Hot AC music, featuring most classic hits and some current chart hits.

History

Following the success of Radio Pembrokeshire in 2002, Radio Carmarthenshire was formed in mid-2003. Initially there were two applicants for the Carmarthenshire licence. The second applicant Carmarthenshire Sound were forced to withdraw half way through the licence approval period because the applicant's parent company owned neighbouring radio stations Swansea Sound and The Wave. This meant that Keri Jones' Radio Carmarthenshire bid won the licence unopposed. Britain's media and communications regulator, Ofcom, has sinced relaxed the rules of ownership and Radio Carmarthenshire's current parent company happens to own numerous neighbouring radio stations.

Broadcast Area

Radio Carmarthenshire serves Carmarthenshire, including the towns Carmarthen and Llanelli and surrounding villages.

Radio Carmarthenshire is broadcast from the town of Narberth in Pembrokeshire and shares studio facilities and presenters with Radio Pembrokeshire, Radio Ceredigion and Scarlet FM.

Studio invasion

On July 24, 2004 (five weeks after launching), Radio Carmarthenshire's studios in Narberth were invaded by eleven activists from Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) . They were protesting over Radio Carmarthenshire's decision to limit the amount of Welsh Language programming broadcast on Radio Carmarthenshire, despite the company's promise to the contrary as part of its application to broadcast.

The offices and studios were stormed during live broadcasts, forcing Radio Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire to broadcast from the standby broadcasting system and managing to sustain services for 15 minutes. According to Keri Jones, his head of sales was injured, and needed hospital treatment for a fractured wrist during the scuffles which ensued. Police arrested eleven activists, and subsequently released them pending further enquiries. Keri Jones later branded the members of the Welsh group as "terrorists". [2]

Cymdeithas correctly state that over 50% of the population in Carmarthenshire speak Welsh as a first language, but less than 5% of Radio Carmarthenshire's output was in Welsh at that time. As a result of complaints and pressure from the society and individuals, UK broadcasting watchdog Ofcom issued Radio Carmarthenshire with a 'yellow card' warning in late 2004 amid any further incidence of the station not conforming to its licence agreement to broadcast an agreed percentage in Welsh that would result in the station being severely reprimanded by Ofcom. [3]

Change of ownership

In August 2006, Keri Jones sold his shares in Radio Pembrokeshire and Radio Carmarthenshire to Town & Country Broadcasting and moved to the Scilly Isles to launch Radio Scilly which commenced broadcasting in September 2007 and has since been featured on the BBC television series 'An Island Parish'

Presenters

External links

• [4] Radio Carmarthenshire