Your Harrogate owners have multiplex licence revoked by Ofcom

The company that owns Your Harrogate radio station has had its small-scale DAB multiplex licence for Wetherby and Harrogate revoked after mounting transmission costs made the venture economically unviable. 

But Your Harrogate will continue to broadcast on the local DAB multiplex for North Yorkshire, with no disruption for listeners. 

Nick Hancock, who is content director and one of the co-owners of Your Harrogate, told the Stray Ferret: 

“This is really a back-end issue. It’s a bit like renting a house for ages and then having the chance to buy it. The small-scale DAB multiplex licence for Wetherby and Harrogate would have meant we owned it. 

“The local DAB multiplex actually has better signal strength and better coverage, so the listener won’t notice any difference. It was just an ownership issue.” 

The regulator, Ofcom, awarded the licence in 2022 to Wetherby and Harrogate Local DAB Limited, which is owned by Your Harrogate directors Nick Hancock and Adam Daniel, plus Alan Everard from Wetherby Community Radio and Mark Oldfield, chairman of Harrogate Hospital Radio.

The company, which operates as Your Harrogate, said it had £25,000 set aside to launch the multiplex. In its application it said: 

“Our transmission proposal is one that is realistic, compliant, and economically viable.” 

Small-scale DAB multiplex licences cost just £500 per year, as well as a non-refundable £500 application fee. But other expenses, described by Mr Hancock as “transmission costs”, escalated in the intervening period, ultimately making the project unviable. 

Ofcom may revoke a licence if it believes a service will not launch within 18 months of an award, and after it heard Your Harrogate could not continue with its plans, it exercised this option.

In a statement, it said it would consider re-advertising the Wetherby and Harrogate multiplex licence “should we receive any expressions of interest”.

But Mr Hancock said:

“We were the only people who applied for the licence in the first place, so I’d think it’d be unlikely Ofcom will advertise it again, to be honest.”

Your Harrogate launched in February 2021 to fill the gap in local radio left by Stray FM, where Mr Hancock had been a well-known presenter. Stray, which had covered the district since 1994, rebranded when owner Bauer Media announced it was making it part of the national network Greatest Hits Radio.

Digital audio broadcasting (DAB) radio allows the bundling of a number of radio stations together in a multiplex. Each multiplex can then be broadcast using an individual frequency from a transmitter. A DAB radio can then single out each radio service from the multiplex for the listener. 

This bundling into multiplexes allows for more radio stations and requires less power to broadcast, making it more cost-effective. But it can also give lower-quality sound and the signal can drop out more frequently.

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