UK radio station: We want to serve everyone, not just LGBT listeners
A local radio station has urged Ofcom to allow it to broaden its appeal so it no longer exclusively caters for young people and the LGBT community.
Radio Today reports Chorley FM in Lancashire wants to changes its key commitments to remove all references to its current target audience: young people (those aged 15-25) and the LGBT population of Chorley.
The community station instead wants to serve all of Chorley’s general population.
Chorley FM would continue to provide specialist LGBT programming under plans still to be approved by Ofcom.
“It is still our intention to serve the LGBT community with the successful and well regarded news and entertainment show ‘Breakout’ and other specialist shows when possible,” the station said.
“It was a mistake to assume the taste of our audience was linked to their age. The wording infers the station is ‘exclusively for’ rather than ‘inclusive of’ the LGBT community.
Having launched in 2005, the station said: “The intention was to be inclusive, providing a service for this group, without excluding and discriminating against the wider population. That is not how this statement reads. The proposed change of wording allows us to be inclusive and serve all our listeners without being discriminatory.”
Ofcom has published a consultation following the change request, asking if the move would substantially alter the character of the service.
Last year the station was told that it was not meeting its key commitments by Ofcom.
In 2007, Chorley FM won the ‘Community Service Award’ at the National LGBT Health Summit.
The name “Chorley FM” originated as the name of a fictional radio station featured in comedy programmes That Peter Kay Thing and Max and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere.
