Anglian Radio is to share all peak programming between Dream and Town, and between North Norfolk Radio, Radio Norwich and The Beach.
Two stations will operate instead of the current five, but each will keep its current identity and local news. Off peak programmes will continue to be shared, from 7pm till 6am across all five stations, from Norwich.
Dream 100 and Town 102 were given permission to co-location last year, but this most recent change allows for all programmes as well.
Currently, the group has five different breakfast shows and schedules, including North Norfolk Breakfast with Dick Hutchinson, Wayne Bavin – Wake Up To Wayne on Town 102, Breakfast with Dom Atkins on Dream 100, Rob Chandler on Radio Norwich and Breakfast on The Beach with Paul Carter.
We’ve been in touch with the group for a comment about programming and staff changes and we’ll bring you more details once they are available. RadioToday understands around 10 people are at risk of redundancy.
Ofcom has agreed the change in Formats for all five stations, saying the changes will not substantially alter the character of the services with all stations being in or on the border of the Ofcom East Anglia area ‘Approved Area’.
The group will use split links to populate local information during the day, as they do at night for the off-peak shows. A new news hub will be created at Radio Norwich’s premises to replace the one currently at Town 102, and extended bulletins will be provided at 1pm and 6pm weekdays.
The group has introduced a full-time Street Team as a result of the planned changes.
Ofcom favours co-location and programme sharing requests from stations with an MCA of less than 250,000. North Norfolk Radio has an MCA of 37,930 with The Beach at 174,124. Radio Norwich’s area is 290,313. Dream 100’s MCA is 117,154 and Town 102’s MCA is 154,993.The group has 220,000 listeners and 1.95million listening hours every week.
