GWR owned commercial station Chiltern FM has been fined £5000 by the Radio Authority after they failed to supply logging tapes of their output from last November. The Authority demanded to hear the recordings after it received complaints about 'biased' coverage of the fire fighters strike. All stations are meant to keep complete recordings of their output for at least 42 days after airing – Chiltern, it seems, had forgotten!
Radio Authority chief Richard Hooper told reporters: "The retention of tapes by broadcasters is fundamental to any system of broadcast regulation. Given the extensive representations being made by the radio industry that it should be trusted with more self-regulation, I am particularly disappointed that a major radio company was unable to demonstrate its innocence in the face of a potentially most serious allegation."