Rossendale Radio

Rossendale Radio (CIC)

Former type	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broadcasting on Monday 5 March 2012 at 15:00, because of financial difficulties.^[2] On 16 April 2012, its licence was revoked by Ofcom as it had failed to meet the requirements of that licence nor communicate with the regulator about its intentions.^[3]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:

External links

• Rossendale Radio: homepage
• Listen live
• Rossendale Radio Notice of Liquidation

References