Following their successful bid to broadcast to Manchester, Xfm are now reportedly keen to reach a new audience in the North East. The GCap owned station is planning a broadcast a two week North East version of the station via digital and the web to provide a pilot for a bid to win the full time analogue licence that is currently up for grabs in the Tyne & Wear and Teeside area. Applications for that licence need to be with OfCom by 8 Dec.
Commenting on their North East ambitions, Xfm business development director Graham Hodge told reporters: "The North East is an unbelievably exciting place to be at the moment. Culture-led regeneration is taking place everywhere you look. Great bands are springing up all over the region. New venues like Sage Gateshead and the Newcastle Academy, and festivals like Evolution and Middlesbrough Music Live, reflect a thriving live scene. All that's missing is a radio station that will support all this for the long term. That radio station is Xfm."