THE WELSH AFFAIRS COMMITTEE met in Parliament this week to discuss radio broadcasting in Wales (Mar 1).

Toby Ellis, Station Manager, Director and Broadcaster, Pure West Radio was joined by Terry Mann, Station Manager, GTFM Radio and Martin Mumford, Managing Director, Nation Broadcasting as witnesses for Wednesday’s morning session.

Chaired Preseli MP by Stephen Crabb, the two hour meeting provided an interesting insight into the state of radio broadcasting in Wales, and more importantly the challenges of keeping radio relevant to local listeners at a time when many larger broadcasters were amalgamating output across multiple stations to cut costs.

During the session it became obvious that things need to change in Wales when it comes to radio broadcasting, and that the status quo could no be maintained. All the witnesses said that the regulator Ofcom could be doing a lot more to support the future of radio services in Wales, ecpecially when it comes to providing licences to new up and coming stations

Toby Ellis was the first in the hot seat. Asked why Pure West Radio was not on FM, and was relying on internet broadcasting, he explained it was down to red tape.

Toby Ellis said: “We haven’t been able to put an application in; that has been the issue.

“Ofcom told us that there has been no community licence available in Pembrokeshire for you . There is no local commercial radio licence, because that is already occupied until 2025.

“That is it, there is no opportunity for you. However, you can apply for a small-scale DAB, but that rollout has taken some time.

“We’re waiting on the award on that – its exciting because we will be able to explore the DAB market. That’s great – but what about FM – you’ve said you’re not turning it off until 2030 and you’re not opening any FM licences in community or local radio – that is a problem.

Asked if he thought that the government regulator was the problem facing radio broadcasters in Wales, Mr Ellis said: “There are problems with Ofcom. We understand their vision and where it needs to go – but certainly stations like ours have suffered.

“We’re coming up to our fifth birthday on April 4 – its been a huge uphill struggle for us from day dot. Have I been deterred a few times – yes many-a-time. I could stack shelves in Tesco and have less stress and probably earn a lot more money.

“We do it because we are passionate about what we do, and we get a lot of people who get incredibly galvanised by it… There shouldn’t be the constraints we’re having.

“We should be able to access more people and if we had an FM licence we would be more self sufficient – we would create more jobs and we would be able to do what we do better.”
Toby Ellis said if his company had a licence he would have more revenue, and he would be more free from “financial constraints” and do more locally including creating a radio academy and launching a B-Tech in Pembrokeshire College.

“We do not want to go begging for money, when money should be spent in other areas. The NHS locally is in an awful state. The waiting times in our local A&E are shocking. I’d rather that money is spent on nurses than local radio. We can get by – with the correct licences and support from Ofcom and government we would certainly be able to flourish further.”

In summary, anyone wanting to start a community radio station in Wales is stuck with using the internet to broadcast, or local DAB radio – which is not yet operational in all areas of Wales. This is expensive, and for Pure West Radio they would need to rent space on two tranmitters to cover the whole of Pembrokeshire.

FM, while is still surives, would be the cheaper and more viable option for Pure West.

The next witness was Terry Mann, Station Manager, GTFM Radio, based in South Wales. He echoed what Mr Ellis had said and confirmed that Ofcom was not issuing any FM licences, instead concentrating on small-scale DAB, at the behest of the government.

NATION RADIO

The last witness was Martin Mumford, Managing Director, Nation Broadcasting. Chair Stephen Crabb MP asked him how local radio was now.

Stephen Crabb asked: “The vision which Toby Ellis outlined regards a strong role for start up stations serving their communities with real time information communicated to very local audiences, does that have a future in local radio?”

Mr Mumford explained that Nation Radio started in Pembrokeshire over 20 years ago with Radio Pembrokeshire and has been expanding ever since. He explained that nation was operating as much outside Wales as it does in Wales.

“We have been hindered in our expansion because of the lack of radio frequency. Small scale DAB is order-of-the-day
Mr Mumford explained that five years ago 90% of revenue for Nation’s radio stations came from ad sales made by an ‘army of salespeople’ – but that has now shifted to 50%, with the other 50% coming from advertising agencies. He also said that programmatic advertising – advertising through a smart speaker which is tailored to you – is something that Nation are now looking to in the near future..

Mr Mumford also explained that music requirements for radio stations should be done away with. He said that Radio Pembrokeshire has a licence requirement to play pop music – and for example if they wanted to play a classical track they were not allowed. Stephen Crabb agreed – saying that it should be scrapped but the requirement for local news should be kept.

Asked by Stephen Crabb what his definition of local news was, Mr Mumford said that he thought that local news was provided on a national level on his stations in Wales – He said that BBC Radio Wales and Radio Cymru – which cost £24m per year to operate do news on a Wales-wide level and therefore he felt it was not for Nation to do things more locally if the BBC weren’t

HONOUR TO BE INVITED

Speaking after the Parliamentary session Toby Ellis posted on social media, saying: “Why isn’t Pure West Radio on FM or DAB? A question I get asked on a regular basis. Simply we can’t get a licence, today I went right to the top as I got to ask this question to MPs at the Houses of Parliament at an enquiry into local radio in Wales.

“It was an honour to be invited to give evidence and was a wonderful surprise to have Megan Absalom-Lowe from Haverfordwest High Radio and her family showing support at the hearing.

“We have hopefully been heard loud and clear so we can truly put the local back into local radio and get on the radio waves!”

Toby Ellis, Megan Absalom-Lowe and Mathew Rickard at The Houses of Parliament