Community radio station all set to go live

Jan 28 2008 By Judith Phillips

LLANDUDNO’S community radio station has been given the green light for a St David’s Day launch.

It had originally been hoped that Tudno FM would be on air before Christmas, but technical difficulties meant there would be little or no chance of testing the strength and reach of the signal beforehand.

These have now been resolved and today broadcasting regulator Ofcom is announcing the station has been granted a five-year licence.

"It’s great news, we’re now getting excited about the launch. It is five years since the project started and it’s great to see it finally coming to fruition," said acting station manager Darrell Owens.

Work on the studios at T Hapus Community Centre is still not complete but won’t delay the launch.

"We will start broadcasting on St David’s Day even if work is still going on around us. We’re making good progress with programming and at the moment it looks as though we will be sending out live programmes 18 hours a day with the station being on air around the clock," he said.

Tudno now has more than 100 volunteers on its books and the directors say the response from the community has been excellent. A thorough training programme for technicians and presenters is underway.

"We are still looking for more volunteers," he added.

More information can be found at www.tudno.com