North Norfolk Digital wins Ofcom radio licence
A company operating under the name of North Norfolk Digital is one of the organisations awarded a small-scale DAB multiplex from Ofcom today.
The award is part of Round One applications, which also sees licences handed to Cardiff DAB, Edinburgh DAB, Future Digital Norfolk (Norwich) and Leeds Digital Media.
It follows new licences given out in Inverclyde, Winchester, Cambridge and Sheffield & Rotherham in March, and Derry/Londonderry, Glasgow, Salisbury, Tynemouth & South Shields and Welsh Valleys in February.
Further licence awards for the remaining 11 areas that were advertised in Round One will be announced over the coming weeks. Round Two licence areas, for the North West of England and North East Wales, will be advertised on 1 June 2021.
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“Obviously most of our advertisers are small businesses. No matter how much business marketing tells you that you should still spend money on marketing irrespective, the first thing to go is marketing budgets.”
Raj Parmar says small independent radio stations need support as they navigate through increased competition and coronavirus disruption.
Sunrise Radio in Bradford was launched in 1989 and Mr Parmar’s family took a majority shareholding in the station a year later.
He says that a lot of local radio stations have been impacted by the lockdowns. Independent radio has already been facing pressure from larger services.
Mr Parmar said: “All these local stations with the local knowledge, with local people have been swallowed up by these big organisations who feel that they can network the programmes for the local audience from Manchester or London with maybe a two-hour daily local show. That is not local radio.