Forest of Dean Radio was a

community radio Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popula ...

station in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. It was established in 1995 and started with a 3-day broadcast to coincide with the

Cinderford Cinderford is a town and civil parish on the eastern fringe of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England. The population was 8,777 at the 2021 Census. The town came into existence in the 19th century, following the rapid expansion of Cinde ...

Carnival. It broadcast around the whole of the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to ...

Area from its main studio in Cinderford.

History

Initially the station was broadcasting using a

Restricted Service Licence A UK Restricted Service Licence (often called an RSL), is typically granted to radio stations and television stations broadcasting within the UK to serve a local community or a special event. Licences are granted by the broadcasting authority Ofc ...

. At this time a 28-day licence was the only option and expensive. By 1998 this had changed to enable broadcasting on a daily rate. In the next few years a series of locally based broadcast projects usually 4 days at a time were developed across the Forest of Dean District. In each setting 3 months of training and programme making with people of all ages and abilities would take place to really ground the locality of content and ownership. Small towns hosting their own stations included Lydney, Sedbury, Mitcheldean, Cinderford, Newent and Coleford. This community involvement bubbled toward the opportunity to broadcast across the whole area and become the first ever Community radio station to be awarded a full-time licence in the UK following a couple of years on air as an Ofcom pilot experiment which included 12 other community stations. At this point an independent survey commissioned by Ofcom came up with a FOD Radio listenership of almost 10%, with BBC Local radio at around 8%, this was quite an achievement.(RD 25/10/13) In 2002, Forest of Dean Radio was awarded an Access Radio Licence which allowed the station to broadcast 7 days a week on a fixed Medium Wave frequency. Then in 2005, the station became the first ever fully licensed Community Radio Station in the UK. Shows included the ''Really popular Sunday afternoon'' show ''Fresh Hits'' with Ryan Davies & Justin, ''The Verdict'', a sports show with Jamie Harris and Tom Jackson, and Phils ''Acoustic sessions''. The station ceased full-time broadcasting on 31 December 2009 The final broadcast included a Christmas Radio Show; organised, written, and performed by the young people of Newent Youth Club. It included a Christmas radio play, interviews and musical performances by the young people.

References

External links

Forest of Dean Radio Homepage
- The website of the Forest of Dean community Radio. Radio stations in Gloucestershire Community radio stations in the United Kingdom Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations established in 1995 Forest of Dean {{UK-radio-station-stub