NE1fm
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| City |
 UK – Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead
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|---|---|
| Broadcast area |
UK – Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead (FM) Worldwide (Online) |
| Slogan | Community radio for Newcastle and Gateshead |
| Frequency | 102.5 MHz RDS Name: NE1fm |
| First air date | 8 June 2007 |
| Format | Community radio |
| Language(s) | English |
| Owner | Community Broadcast Initiative Tyneside |
| Website | www |
NE1fm is an FM community radio station based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Launched in 2007, the station broadcasts 24 hours a day on 102.5 FM, and online via its website. The station is owned by CBIT (Community Broadcast Initiative Tyneside Ltd) and ran on a not-for-profit basis. NE1fm is operated entirely by volunteers. NE1fm was awarded a five-year community broadcast licence by Ofcom in 2006, which has since been extended to 2017.
NE1fm carries a wide variety of content, catering for both mainstream and niche musical genres, and also broadcasts interviews, hourly news updates, and sports, talk and comedy-based shows. NE1fm has broadcast more than 100 different shows during its time on-air, including enabling members of the local community to present as part of its open access programming. The station also broadcasts from musical and other events in the local area, promotes local bands, and highlights community issues on a regular basis.
NE1fm's name is a play on the postcode district NE1, which covers Newcastle upon Tyne, in addition to the station's community radio status where "anyone" can broadcast or help out with the station's off-air operation.
Prior to the formation of the project leading to the launch of NE1fm, a number of Restricted Service Licence broadcasts had taken place in Newcastle upon Tyne, many of which were operated by or involved founding members of NE1fm. These included ACE Radio, West End Broadcast and City FM, the latter of which ran from 13 September 2004 to 9 October 2004. Following this broadcast, an application for Ofcom's advertised community radio licence for the area was made on 19 November 2004. The application of Community Broadcast Initiative Tyneside was successful, with a five-year licence awarded in 2006.
Following the award of the station licence, NE1fm began preparations for launch, advertising for volunteers in 2007. West End Broadcast also returned for a final three-week RSL broadcast from 13 November 2005 to 3 December 2005, with many of the presenters and shows broadcast during that time becoming part of the initial NE1fm on-air schedule. In May 2007, the station ran a week of off-air rehearsal broadcasts of each show, conducted training for the benefit of inexperienced members of the team, and made a number of test broadcasts on their FM frequency (with World is Static as the first band broadcast at the time). Following these test broadcasts, the station began to promote its launch in the local community, advertising a launch date of 8 June 2007.
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