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Bauer might be fined for switching off Absolute Radio on AM while OfCom licence still active

By | Published on Monday 30 January 2023

Absolute Radio

UK media regulator OfCom announced on Friday that it is now formally looking into revoking Bauer Media’s national AM licence which, until earlier this month, the media firm used for its Absolute Radio station. It follows Bauer’s decision to stop operating the AM version of Absolute.

Absolute Radio began life in 1993 as the original incarnation of Virgin Radio, broadcasting across the UK on the good old AM band, medium wave to be precise. It was one of three national commercial radio stations launched in the first half of the 1990s, all the UK-based nationwide stations prior to that having been run by the BBC.

Even in 1993, broadcasting a music station on AM seemed less than ideal, given the inferior sound quality compared to FM. And, indeed, from 1995 to 2021, Virgin Radio – later Absolute Radio – also broadcast on FM in London. In more recent years Absolute has shifted its focus onto the DAB digital radio network and online channels.

All of which made Bauer’s decision to switch off the AM transmissions somewhat unsurprising. Confirming that decision at the start of the month the media firm said: “We think we sound better on digital, as it offers a much stronger signal and cuts out background noise. Lots of you agree, which is why nearly all our audience listen to us digitally”.

“Broadcasting on AM requires running an additional transmitter which is environmentally unfriendly and not cost-efficient given the small numbers of those listening here”, it then added.

The AM transmissions of Absolute Radio stopped on 23 Jan. And now OfCom has to decide what to do with the fact Bauer has a licence to broadcast a nationwide AM service which it is not actually using.

“Ofcom has today written to Bauer Radio setting out our preliminary view that it has ceased to provide the national AM service Absolute Radio before the end of its licence period”, it stated on Friday, “and that it is appropriate to serve on Bauer Radio a notice revoking the licence for this service”.

“The licence was most recently renewed for a period of ten years from May 2021”, it noted. “On 26 Jan 2023 Bauer Radio confirmed that it has ceased to provide the Absolute Radio AM service. It has told us that Absolute Radio will continue to broadcast nationally on DAB”.

OfCom then added that, under the Broadcasting Act 1990, if a broadcaster stops using an active licence and “it is appropriate to do so”, then it “must revoke the licence”. And not only that, but “where OfCom revokes a national licence, it must require the licence holder to pay it a financial penalty”.

So, although Bauer is saving money by switching off Absolute AM, it may have to pass at least some of those savings over to the regulator for abandoning a licence early. “Depending on our decision, we may undertake a further process to determine any financial penalty that may apply”, Friday’s statement concluded.



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