Radio station rapped for playing too many hits

Prior to 1988 there was essentially only one commercial FM radio operator (Radio Victory followed by Ocean Sound) serving part of the central South of England region, but Ocean Sound then split to create Ocean FM and Power FM (which still exist and are now owned by GCap), and new local and regional stations have since appeared (and rebranded) on a regular basis.

In more recent times a host of local and not so local FM radio stations have appeared in the Solent region, including South City FM serving Southampton (taken over by Southampton Football Club and rebranded The Saint), and Win FM (currently rebranding as Dream FM) which technically serves Winchester but can be received in many other parts of the region.

Another surprise was the brief return of Radio Victory as a Portsmouth RSL station (with the involvement of some of the original Victory's staff) before it quickly rebranded as The Quay, although you have to be fairly close to Portsmouth to receive that particular station. Even Isle of Wight Radio can be received along many parts of the Hampshire coastline.

Given this wide choice of radio, launching a new FM service into a very crowded sector would be very difficult to say the least, hence it's little surprise to learn that CanWest's Original 106 has struggled to make any impact since launching a year ago and from a commercial perspective understandable as to why it started to play more Top 20 hits as a consequence.

This also illustrates why commercial radio regulation is still so important in order to preserve a variety of radio choice, and reflects the economic realities that are imposed on these stations at the same time. If such stations have to stick to a specific music format then their owners have to be sure that they can remain viable in a crowded market.

Ofcom is currently reassessing UK radio and its regulation, although it has suggested that any deregulation won't be as much as what has been demanded by some commercial radio operators since choice is still deemed to be an important factor in the radio market as a whole.

What really needs a rethink is how FM radio licences are awarded, their associated costs and exactly who is awarded the licences in the first place, since Ofcom doesn't really want a stack of failures following on from UKRD handing back its licence for Star Stroud not long after its idea to run the station from nearby Cheltenham was rejected.

But even if UKRD's idea of local radio for Stroud failed, that doesn't mean that other operators couldn't make such a station viable, although the Stroud region may have a difficult coverage area with little overspill compared to somewhere like the Winchester area served by the aforementioned Dream FM.