Today 1 April 2014 Ofcom invited applications for the third round of Community Radio licences in the East and West Midlands. Despite the date they are not joking! The Ofcom definition of East and West Midlands is best shown in the map in their document:
As usual there is the list of areas where they will not accept applications due to “no suitable FM frequencies available” – these are:
- City of Birmingham
- Solihull
- City of Coventry
- Derby
- Nottinghamshire (with the exception of Newark on Trent)
- Nottingham
- Lincoln
- Leicestershire
- Leicester
And the Black Country gets special treatment as follows:
Applicants wishing to provide a service to a locality within any of the following
districts of the West Midlands – Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall or Wolverhampton –
should note that there is only one suitable FM frequency available for a service in
these areas (in other words, FM applicants from any of these areas will be competing
with each other for the single available frequency).
The closing date for applications is 5.00 pm on Tuesday 24 June 2014. A non-refundable fee of £600 will be payable for each application submitted and considered. Full details here.