104.7 Rossendale Radio is a community radio station in the north west of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, broadcasting on 104.7 FM to

Haslingden Haslingden is a town in Rossendale, Lancashire, England. It is north of Manchester. The name means 'valley of the hazels' or 'valley growing with hazels'. At the time of the 2011 census the town (including Helmshore) had a population of 15,96 ...

Rawtenstall Rawtenstall () is a town in the borough of Rossendale, Lancashire, England. The town lies 15 miles/24 km north of Manchester, 22 miles/35 km east of Preston and 45 miles/70 km south east of the county town of Lancaster. The town is at the cen ...

Ramsbottom Ramsbottom is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 census was 17,872. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the River Irwell in the West Pennine Moors, northwest of Bury, a ...

and surrounding areas and online at www.rossendaleradio.com.

Broadcast area

The station's primary broadcasting area is the

Rossendale Valley The Rossendale Valley is in the Rossendale area of Lancashire, England, between the West Pennine Moors and the main range of the Pennines. The area includes the steep-sided valleys of the River Irwell and its tributaries (between Rawtenstall a ...

within East Lancashire and the adjoining area of northern Greater Manchester. The broadcast area consists of

Baxenden Baxenden is a village and ward in the Borough of Hyndburn in Lancashire, North-West England. The ward population taken at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 4,042. Baxenden is sometimes known to locals as Bash. History Whilst ...

Edenfield Edenfield is a village within the Rossendale borough of Lancashire, England. Lying on the River Irwell, it is around north of Ramsbottom, south of Rawtenstall, and west of Norden, and has a total population of 2,080, reducing to 2,053 at th ...

, Haslingden,

Helmshore Helmshore is a village in the Rossendale Valley, Lancashire, England, south of Haslingden between the A56 and the B6235, north of Manchester. The population at the 2011 census was 5,805. The housing in Helmshore is mixed, with some two-up, two- ...

Loveclough Loveclough is a small hamlet at the edge of the Rossendale Valley, in Lancashire, England, near Crawshawbooth and Rawtenstall, 20 miles north of Manchester, 21 miles east of Preston, and 44 miles south east of Lancaster. Governance Lovecloug ...

, Ramsbottom,

, Rising Bridge,

Stacksteads Stacksteads is a village between the towns of Bacup and Waterfoot within the Rossendale borough of Lancashire, England. The population of this Rossendale ward at the 2011 census was 3,789. Stacksteads includes a mountain bike trail called Lee ...

Stubbins Stubbins is an industrial village in the southern part of the Rossendale Valley, Lancashire, England. It is half a mile north of Ramsbottom town centre on the A676 between Bolton and Edenfield. For local government purposes, it receives serv ...

Summerseat Summerseat is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England, directly south of Ramsbottom. History Historically part of Lancashire, Summerseat lies in the Irwell Valley, on the course of the River Irwell to the nor ...

Crawshawbooth Crawshawbooth is a small village on the edge of the Pennine hills in England just north of the market town of Rawtenstall, Lancashire, and just south of Loveclough. It is part of the valley of Rossendale, an ancient royal hunting ground. The m ...

, Waterfoot and parts of

Bacup Bacup ( , ) is a town in the Rossendale Borough in Lancashire, England, in the South Pennines close to Lancashire's boundaries with West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. The town is in the Rossendale Valley and the upper Irwell Valley, east of ...

Origins and history

The station commenced official broadcasting on 1 May 2010 following a three-year period which saw the group apply and obtain a community radio licence from Ofcom and apply for funding from numerous sources. The radio station was based at the Agapao Impact Centre in Haslingden.

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

awarded a community radio licence to "Rossendale Radio CIC" and was originally planned to run for at least five years.

Closure

On 5 March 2012, it was announced that the station would close down that day at 3 pm, due to ongoing financial difficulties. The station had previously failed several months earlier and been placed in liquidation by its owners Agapao during November 2011. A message on the station's Facebook page stated how the problems were "insurmountable" and that they had no choice but to cease broadcasting. Despite attempts to find new ways of working that would save the station, Rossendale Radio was deemed not financially viable. The news was met with great sadness from loyal listeners, with comments on the Facebook post expressing sympathy and how the station was a "great loss".https://www.facebook.com/rossendaleradio/posts/10150597173645009 In reply to the Facebook comments asking why the situation had happened one of the volunteer presenters at the station stated how "as a community radio station it is part of the licence requirement that community or social funding is obtained to 'match fund' against the income from commercial revenue. Not only were we unable to secure this funding to satisfy the licence agreement but the lack of community funding left us solely reliant on the commercial revenue we had coming in. Ultimately, due to the high cost of funding a radio station, this was not enough, and Rossendale Radio was regrettably forced to cease.".

New Rossendale Radio

In December 2017, following a new application to

, a new five-year broadcast licence was awarded to broadcast once again to the Rossendale Valley. The new group is made up of some former members of the old Rossendale Radio, who felt it was time that the area needed a radio station back, and following a successful application (submitted in July 2017), they were awarded the licence. The station launched at 10:47 on 22 December 2018

Genre

Rossendale Radio's music policy consists of contemporary music from the last five decades and also featured a number of specialist music programmes, consisting of rock, theatre/film, dance music, house music, new music, downtempo/chillout and other differing genres. Information, guests, interviews, local news and sport also featured extensively on the radio station.

External links

References

{{Borough of Rossendale culture Radio stations in Lancashire Community radio stations in the United Kingdom Borough of Rossendale