By Gavin Mackintosh
Ofcom reopens FM radio to new community stations as commercial analogue licences remain closed Ofcom has opened the door to a new generation of community radio stations on FM and, in exceptional circumstances, AM, signalling that analogue radio still has a future in parts of Britain even as the regulator increasingly shifts the wider industry towards digital broadcasting.
The decision is significant because Ofcom has simultaneously made clear that it has no plans in the short to medium term to offer new licences for commercial radio services on the analogue FM band. The opportunity being created is therefore not a general revival of local commercial radio. Instead, Ofcom is reserving the remaining scope for new analogue services primarily for community broadcasters serving audiences that may otherwise remain poorly served. The regulator announced the policy on 14 September following a consultation launched in February as the long-running programme of licensing small-scale DAB multiplexes approaches its conclusion. Ofcom says its objective is to make the best use of increasingly scarce spectrum while delivering the greatest benefit to audiences that remain underserve
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The immediate opportunity is an expression-of-interest process for potential community broadcasters. Organisations interested in establishing a new service must tell Ofcom where they want to operate before the regulator will consider inviting applications. Expressions of interest must be submitted by 5pm on 26 October 2026, and simply submitting one does not amount to an application for a licence.
The process is deliberately designed to identify gaps rather than simply reward demand. Ofcom says its first priority will be areas that have neither an existing community radio service nor coverage from a small-scale DAB multiplex. Next will come areas with analogue community radio but no small-scale DAB coverage, followed by locations where a suitable FM frequency is likely to be available and areas where a previous community radio licence has been surrendered.
That hierarchy reveals much about where Ofcom believes radio is heading. The regulator is not attempting to recreate the densely populated commercial FM market of previous decades. Instead, it is using the analogue spectrum that remains available to fill specific gaps in local provision while relying on small-scale DAB to expand the digital footprint.
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For communities that have struggled to secure a place on DAB, the decision could prove important. A small local station can provide news, information and programming aimed at an audience that may be too small or commercially unattractive for a conventional broadcaster. Community radio was designed precisely around that principle. Indeed, the policy has deep roots in Ofcom’s own history. The community-radio sector emerged from the Access Radio experiment launched by the former Radio Authority in 2002, before Ofcom inherited responsibility for the sector. The experiment was regarded as a success and helped shape the Community Radio Order 2004, which established the legislative framework for the permanent third tier of UK radio. Ofcom began inviting applications for the first community-radio licences in September 2004, with the first licences following in 2005.
The scale of the early response demonstrated that there was a substantial appetite for local broadcasting outside the BBC and commercial radio. In its 2006/07 annual report, Ofcom said the first licensing round had attracted 194 applications and resulted in 107 licences being awarded. By the end of March 2007, more than 60 community stations were broadcasting, serving audiences ranging from young people and older residents to ethnic, religious and linguistic communities.
Ofcom’s support did not end with licensing. It helped establish the Community Radio Fund, designed to support the sustainability of licensed community stations, while the government provided the money distributed through the scheme. In 2006/07, the fund awarded almost £830,000 to 40 stations. The principle behind that intervention remains in place today: community radio is recognised as a form of broadcasting whose social value cannot necessarily be sustained through advertising and sponsorship alone.
That support is still relevant to the regulator’s latest decision. In August 2026, Ofcom announced changes to the Community Radio Fund under which £900,000 is available for 2026/27, with a further £100,000 ringfenced by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for sector-wide initiatives. The government’s Local Media Action Plan envisages £1 million a year to strengthen community radio over each of the next three financial years. The latest licensing decision therefore represents continuity as much as change. Ofcom is returning to one of the principles on which community radio was founded: using scarce spectrum to give smaller and underserved communities a voice.
But there is a significant qualification. Ofcom is making AM exceptionally difficult to obtain. Groups proposing an AM service will have to provide a detailed business plan demonstrating that they can meet the financial challenges of AM transmission, evidence engagement with technical consultants or transmitter sites and explain why AM would serve their audience better than FM or DAB. Ofcom will not simply offer an AM frequency because no FM frequency is available. That suggests AM is being treated as a niche technology whose survival will depend on a compelling local case. FM, by contrast, remains the principal analogue route for new community services.
The most striking part of Ofcom’s announcement is what it says about commercial radio. New commercial FM licences are effectively off the agenda for the foreseeable future. Ofcom’s decision to continue supporting existing analogue services while refusing new commercial opportunities marks a fundamental change from the regulator’s early years. In 2005/06, Ofcom was still actively licensing commercial FM, awarding 15 new commercial radio licences during that year while also issuing 92 community radio licences.
Two decades later, the balance has changed dramatically. The commercial market is increasingly consolidated and digital platforms provide additional capacity, while the remaining analogue spectrum is being treated as a scarce public resource. Ofcom’s latest policy effectively says that if new voices are going to be added to FM, the strongest case is likely to come from communities rather than another commercial operator. That could prove an important distinction for prospective broadcasters. The opportunity is real, but it is not unlimited. Ofcom warns that it may receive more expressions of interest than it can process initially and could therefore invite applications in batches. Nor will every area that submits an expression of interest necessarily proceed to a licensing competition.
The wider implication is that analogue radio is not being switched off by stealth, but neither is it being restored to its former position. Ofcom is effectively creating a new division of labour. DAB, particularly small-scale DAB, is becoming the principal mechanism for expanding radio choice, while FM is being retained as a targeted tool for community broadcasting where digital alternatives do not adequately meet local needs.
Community groups able to demonstrate a genuine local need and a credible broadcasting proposition. The decision may ultimately be remembered less as a revival of FM than as a recognition that, even in an increasingly digital radio market, there are still communities for which a local analogue station can perform a public service that national and commercial platforms cannot easily replicate. Ofcom helped create that third tier of British broadcasting more than 20 years ago. Its latest decision suggests that, despite the march towards DAB, it does not yet believe that the experiment has run its course.
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