Nathan Spackman | Friday 12th August 2022 8:14pm
Rhondda Cynon Taf based charitable radio station GTFM has had to postpone the launch of its digital radio (DAB) service because of delays in obtaining funding for the ambitious project caused by the Covid pandemic.
Station Manager Terry Mann said “GTFM, which pioneered community radio in Wales on FM in the Pontypridd area 20 years ago, won the Ofcom licence to introduce a new small scale Digital Audio Broadcasting service to its valleys broadcast area back in 2020, with an 18 month deadline to commence broadcasting by mid-August this year.
Unfortunately because the Covid pandemic caused many organisations to temporarily close or slow down, in some cases for nearly two years, it’s not been possible within the time limit to raise the finance required to purchase the eight transmitters needed to ensure good digital radio reception throughout our very hilly area.
We’ve therefore accepted Ofcom’s kind offer to re-advertise the licence early next year, effectively re-starting the clock. And as our technical planning is already at an advanced stage we still hope to be on-air across RCT County Borough on the new digital waveband by summer 2024.
Meanwhile we plan to launch on DAB in neighbouring Cardiff this autumn for the benefit of people living in the south of our RCT coverage area, plus the many local residents who visit the Welsh capital on a daily basis.
And here in RCT we will concentrate on completing our project to strengthen GTFM’s FM reception through the introduction of relay transmitters serving the Tonyrefail area (on 95.7Mhz) and the Ynyshir side of Porth (on 107.1Mhz).
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