New Stations Switch Off Community Radio

By NIKHITA MAHAJAN

COMMUNITY radio is being taken of the air this Christmas to make way for new commercial stations.

Locally run shows will be forced to shut for two months to allow UTV’s new radio station U105FM “time to establish themselves with listeners”.

Staff at Switch FM, who have been broadcasting in Shankill area of West Belfast for the past eight years, are outraged. Station controller Pheme Brown said: “This is yet another blow to the Shankill area. We are a community trying to get back on our feet and the station was key in doing this.”

Pheme added she fears this could mean the end of Switch FM, which is the sister station of West Belfast’s Feile FM.

She said: “The money we get from adverts at Christmas time is what pays our licence fees for the next year, we’ll have no choice but to shut down.” Ballymena-based Radio Cracker, is also being pushed aside to clear the way for station Seven FM.

Cracker’s co-ordinator Jack Adams said: “We have been going for 13 years and all our money goes to charity – this is such a loss.”

A spokesman for regulator Ofcom Belfast said: “When new commercial radio stations are starting up we believe it is necessary to give them time and space to establish themselves with listeners.”