Community radio in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, Community Radio refers to a system of licensing small, micro-local, non-profit radio stations, which started in 2002. In its early days, the pilot scheme was known as Access Radio. In 2007, hundreds of community stations were set up, unlike in commercial radio licensing, which is generally advertised to cover a specific region, community radio stations are usually limited to broadcast areas smaller than commercial or BBC local stations, nominally within a 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) radius of their transmitter.

The idea for this new level of radio broadcasting was piloted by the regulator at the time, the Radio Authority in 2002 with the licensing of 15 so-called Access Radio stations for a trial period of one year to test the feasibility of such stations.

The licences were extended in 2003 for a further year, and in 2004 a consultation was issued by the Authority's successor, Ofcom, on the creation of Community Radio. Following this, an invitation to groups to apply for community radio licenses nationwide was issued. One hundred ninety two stations applied and of those, one hundred and six were awarded licences. The first new community radio station to be licensed was Forest of Dean community Radio, followed by youth-based AfanFM in Neath-Port Talbot and the first to go on-air was 103 The Eye in Melton Mowbray. As of 18 November 2010^[update], 228 stations had been licensed over two rounds of licensing, with 181 broadcasting, 17 that had decided not to launch or handed their licence back, and the remainder preparing to start broadcasting.

There was a second round of licensing in 2007, and as of 2010^[update] Ofcom was considering a third. Unlike in commercial radio licensing, which is generally advertised to cover a specific region, prospective operators are able to specify the target area and format of their station.

...
Wikipedia