News story about the decision by UK radio regulator The Radio Authority to reject all applicants for the new local commercial radio licence serving Glenrothes, written by Grant Goddard in September 1992 for Broadcast magazine.

1. NEWS: UNPRECEDENTED RADIO
AUTHORITY DECISION REJECTS
ALL APPLICANTS FOR NEW
GLENROTHES LOCAL
COMMERCIAL RADIO LICENCE
by
GRANT GODDARD
www.grantgoddard.co.uk
September 1992

2. News: Unprecedented Radio Authority Decision Rejects All Applicants For New Glenrothes Local Commercial Radio
Licence page 2
©1992 Grant Goddard
Thwarted bidders for the Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy independent radio licence
have slammed The Radio Authority's failure to explain its unprecedented
decision not to appoint a winning applicant.
The licence had been advertised as one of the Authority's larger stations,
serving a potentially lucrative adult population of 260,000 in East Fife, and had
attracted three applicants. But the Authority now says it has "no immediate
plans" to re-advertise the licence and has only quoted Section 105 of the
Broadcasting Act in explanation.
Spurned applicant 'Radio Fife' described the decision as "totally unacceptable"
and its Managing Director, Daniel Burke, is instructing solicitors to press the
matter with the Authority. He is also asking a local MP to raise the matter in
Parliament after the summer recess.
"Not only this recent Authority decision needs scrutinising," says Burke, "but
several others where it has become apparent that only existing radio groups
have any chance of winning local licences."
Burke cites Scotland as an example where a single group, Radio Clyde, owns
almost the whole country's independent radio services. The Glenrothes licence
would have operated within a region of Fife already served by Clyde-owned
'Radio Forth' and 'Radio Tay'.
"It's right in their area," says Burke, "and Fife is a very profitable part of radio
Forth's advertising."
Radio Forth had originally planned to fund 51% of Radio Fife, but withdrew
shortly before the application deadline, forcing the group to raise its £350,000
capital elsewhere. Daniel Burke is paradoxically a shareholder in Forth, by
virtue of its acquisition of Radio Tay, which he formed as a founder Director in
1979. For the previous ten years, he had operated a successful pirate radio
station in Fife without prosecution.
Another snubbed bidder, 'Eastsound Radio', is asking the Community Radio
Association to take up the decision with The Radio Authority. The group's
General Manager, Chris Wraight, said it was "really galling" that not even a
provisional licence had been offered.
"Our biggest concern," says Wraight, "is the fact that The Radio Authority has
denied 260,000 people a radio station that all the applicants' research shows
they wanted."
But Wraight admitted that only half his group's required £165,000 funding had
been secured through grants and sponsorship by the application deadline.
The question remains as to why the Authority decided to abandon the licence
completely when there is no shortage of available frequencies for new stations
in Scotland.

3. News: Unprecedented Radio Authority Decision Rejects All Applicants For New Glenrothes Local Commercial Radio
Licence page 3
©1992 Grant Goddard
"The staff of The Radio Authority seemed quite happy," says Radio Fife's
Daniel Burke. "It was only when the Authority Members met that the sentiment
changed."
The Radio Authority declined to comment.
[First published in 'Broadcast' magazine as 'Glenrothes Ruling Comes Under Fire', 18 September 1992]
Grant Goddard is a media analyst / radio specialist / radio consultant with thirty years of
experience in the broadcasting industry, having held senior management and consultancy
roles within the commercial media sector in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. Details at
http://www.grantgoddard.co.uk