Section 355 Review of Output: Free Radio 80s (Coventry, Wolverhampton1 and Birmingham) When a local commercial radio licence undergoes a change of control (this includes licence transfer), Ofcom is required, under section 355 of the Communications Act 2003 (the Act), to undertake a review of the effects or likely effects of the change of control in relation to: the quality and range of programmes included in the service; the character of the service, and; the extent to which Ofcom’s duty under section 314 of the Act is performed in relation to the service. Ofcom’s duty under section 314 of the Act relates to securing the inclusion of an appropriate amount of local material, and a suitable proportion of locally-made programmes in the service. Under section 356 of the Act, where it appears to Ofcom from its review that the change of control would be prejudicial to any of the three matters listed above, then it must vary the licence, by including such conditions as it considers appropriate, with a view to ensuring that the relevant change of control is not so prejudicial. In doing so, any new or varied conditions must be such that the licence holder would have satisfied them throughout the three months immediately before the change of control. Ofcom is required to publish a report of its review, setting out its conclusions and any steps it proposes to take under section 356. Where Ofcom proposes to vary the licence, it is required to give the licence holder a reasonable opportunity to make representations about the variation. In May 2016, a change of control took place at Orion Media Limited, which was the parent company of the licence holding subsidiaries shown in the table below. Orion Media Holdings Limited is now owned by Bauer Radio Limited, which previously had no shareholding. Bauer Radio Limited’s named directors are Paul Keenan, Deidre Ford and Sarah Vickery. The parent company to Bauer Radio Limited is UK unlimited company HBVB. In consideration of the three matters listed above, this review carried out under section 355 is only in relation to the station(s) highlighted in the table below. Separate reviews consider the licensed services not highlighted below. All were previously subsidiaries of Orion Media Holdings Limited. Company Licence no. Station name Locality Orion Media Limited AL000021 Free Radio 80s Coventry AL000022 Free Radio Coventry AL000118 Free Radio 80s Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury and Telford Beacon Broadcasting AL000119 Free Radio Wolverhampton, Limited Shrewsbury and Telford Birmingham Broadcasting AL00077 Free Radio 80s Birmingham Limited AL00078 Free Radio Birmingham Radio Wyvern Limited AL00061 Free Radio Hereford & Worcester Orion Media (East AL000200 GEM 106 East Midlands Midlands) Limited 1 Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury and Telford Ofcom has reviewed the output of these licensed services in the three months prior to the change of control taking place2, and considered information provided to it with regard to the future programming on the station(s). Ofcom’s assessment of the output of Free Radio 80s (prior to the change of control) The Character of Service for each station is shown below: A CLASSIC POP HITS STATION, WITH LOCAL INFORMATION AND OCCASIONAL LOCAL SPORTS COVERAGE, TARGETED PRIMARILY AT 35-54 YEAR-OLDS IN THE COVENTRY AREA A CLASSIC POP HITS STATION, WITH LOCAL INFORMATION AND OCCASIONAL LOCAL SPORTS COVERAGE, TARGETED PRIMARILY AT 35-54 YEAR-OLDS IN THE WOLVERHAMPTON AREA A CLASSIC POP HITS STATION, WITH LOCAL INFORMATION AND OCCASIONAL LOCAL SPORTS COVERAGE, TARGETED PRIMARILY AT 35-54 YEAR-OLDS IN THE BIRMINGHAM AREA Each station’s Format is shown in Annex 1. Annex 2 is the licensee’s completed Review of Output, which summarises the output of this service. In reviewing the output of each station prior to the change of control, it was noted that each of the three licences were permitted to share their programmes. The licensee was required to broadcast locally-made programming including locally-made material for a minimum of four hours per day during weekdays between 0600 – 0000, and that these programmes may be made in any of the three licensed areas named above. All of Free 80s' output was broadcast from studios in Birmingham. Each Format also requires the licensee to provide local news bulletins (i.e. news bulletins which contain local news stories) at least hourly during peak-times3 weekdays and weekends. Bulletins of two minutes' duration containing local news of relevance to listeners across the region was broadcast at 0700, 0800 & 0900 and at 1600, 1700 and 1800 (outside these times IRN/Sky news was broadcast. Typically two, and sometimes up to four, local stories were broadcast in a local bulletin. Morning bulletins were produced by journalists based in a Birmingham news hub, and compiled and read by a news reader in Nottingham. Afternoon bulletins were produced, compiled and read from Birmingham. Weekend bulletins were read either from Nottingham or the Birmingham news hub. Ten journalists were employed to work for the Birmingham news hub, either working in the field following and gathering stories or as studio-based staff. Regional traffic and travel reports were broadcast twice-hourly between 0600-1000 and 1500-1900 weekdays, and 1030 & 1130 at weekends. On the days listened these were of 30 seconds duration. Regional weather reports of 17 seconds duration were broadcast hourly between 0700-1800 each day. 2 At Ofcom’s request, Orion Media Holdings Limited supplied recordings of the output from the relevant stations broadcast on 29 and 30 April 2016 3 Weekday breakfast and drive-time and late breakfast weekends Free Radio 80s also broadcast a (predominantly) football phone-in, The Goalzone. Presented by an expert broadcaster alongside football professionals, the programme, which was broadcast Monday and Fridays (1800-1900), gives local fans the opportunity to talk about the state of play in the game. Two programmes focusing on specific types of music from the 1980s were also broadcast: 80s Party (1900-0000 Friday and 1800-0000 Saturday) and 80s Chilled (2200-0000 Sunday to Thursday). As noted above, the Free 80s Format requires the services to broadcast classic pop hits. When monitored, among the songs played on Free Radio 80s, those listed below satisfactorily met this term. Artist Title Wham! Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go The Bluebells Young At Heart Prince Purple Rain David Bowie China Girl Lionel Richie Dancing On The Ceiling Gloria Estefan Dr. Beat Swing Out Sister Breakout Jocelyn Brown Somebody Else’s Guy UB40 Red Red Wine The new owner’s plans The new owner of these licences proposes to provide news bulletins containing local news in line with the Format minimum. The new owner proposes to continue to produce all programmes from the Birmingham studios. Frequent traffic and travel bulletins and local weather updates would still be broadcast across weekdays. The new owner plans to replace The Goalzone with Freekick, described as a light-hearted look at weekend sport. This programme would be broadcast for up to 15 minutes on Friday and Monday early evenings (see Annex 3). Provided the character of service specific requirement to provide “…occasional local sports coverage…” is adequately addressed following implementation of the new owner’s plans, then these proposals would be expected to be compliant with the broadcaster’s localness requirements. Recommended variations to the licence Based on our assessment of the station’s output in the three months prior to the change of control, we do not believe that the shared Free Radio 80s service was broadcasting any programming not already reflected in the existing requirements of each station’s Format which would, in our view, have a significant impact upon: the quality and range of programmes included in the service; the character of the service; and, the extent to which local material and locally-made programmes are included in the service. Therefore, we are not proposing any variations to the licence. January 2017 Annex 1 COMMERCIAL RADIO STATION FORMAT Service name Service name FREE RADIO 80s (Coventry) FREE RADIO 80s (Wolverhampton & Shropshire) Licence number AL021 Licence number AL118 Licensed area Coventry area Licensed area Wolverhampton & Shropshire MCA population 584,701 MCA population 2,174,496 Frequency/ies 1359 kHz Frequency/ies 990 & 1017 kHz Character of Service Character of Service A CLASSIC POP HITS STATION, WITH LOCAL INFORMATION AND OCCASIONAL A CLASSIC POP HITS STATION, WITH LOCAL INFORMATION AND OCCASIONAL LOCAL SPORTS COVERAGE, TARGETED PRIMARILY AT 35-54 YEAR-OLDS IN THE LOCAL SPORTS COVERAGE, TARGETED PRIMARILY AT 35-54 YEAR-OLDS IN THE COVENTRY AREA. WOLVERHAMPTON AREA. Service duration 24 hours Service duration 24 hours Locally-made Studio location: Locally-made Studio location: programming Locally-made programming must be produced within the licensed areas of programming Locally-made programming must be produced within the licensed areas of Birmingham (AL076), Coventry (AL021) or Wolverhampton & Shropshire (AL118). Birmingham (AL076), Coventry (AL021) or Wolverhampton & Shropshire (AL118). Locally-made hours: Locally-made hours: At least 4 hours a day between 6am and midnight on weekdays. At least 4 hours a day between 6am and midnight on weekdays. Programme sharing: Programme sharing: All programmes may be shared between the Birmingham licence (AL076), the All programmes may be shared between the Birmingham licence (AL076), the Coventry licence (AL021) and the Wolverhampton & Shropshire licence