Beat 103 is 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 based in Preston,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, broadcasting pop and dance music. It was initially established in 2008 as Preston FM before relaunching in 2015.

History

Preston FM

Preston FM was initially operated by Prescap (Preston Community Arts Project), a local arts charity. It originally broadcast six

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 ...

trials over three years from October 2005 to June 2008 and subsequently received a full-time community radio licence from Ofcom. The station was partly backed by EU funding. It broadcast a wide range of music and speech programming by local presenters and arts practitioners. Speech programming included the serialisation of a novel by a local writer. In April 2012, the Prescap charity closed due to the loss of its Arts Council England funding. Preston FM was spun out into its own independent company to allow it to continue broadcasting, and moved out of Prescap's building into its own studios on Cannon Street. In early January 2015, the station unexpectedly went off the air. It resumed broadcasting a few days later, but was unable to sustain itself long-term and Preston FM ceased broadcasting in 2015.

City Beat

Following the closure of Preston FM, the station relaunched with a more mainstream commercial music format under the name City Beat 103.2, with new premises at

Preston Guild Hall Preston Guild Hall is an entertainment venue in Preston, Lancashire, England. History The Guild Hall was commissioned to replace the town's Public Hall. The new building, which was designed by Robert Matthew, Johnson Marshall, was due to be rea ...

. In June 2017, the station was found in breach of its Ofcom licence after

transphobic Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger tow ...

comments were made by the presenter of the ''Bigger Drive Home'' programme.

Beat 103

In 2018, the station relaunched once again as Beat Radio and subsequently Beat 103, reflecting its FM frequency. In late 2019, the station once more fell off air following a number of problems, including the deletion of music and audio from the station's computers. In May 2020, Beat 103 was again found in breach of its Ofcom licence. The regulator's investigation found that the station had not adhered to its Key Commitments on a number of levels, including the absence of any news, sport or speech programming, paying people to do shows when it key commitments was to have shows run by the community for the community and a lack of older music tracks.

Transmission

Beat 103 transmits on 103.2 MHz with an ERP of 25 watts from Guild Tower in Preston city centre.

References

{{Reflist Radio stations in Lancashire Radio stations established in 2008 Community radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations in the United Kingdom