Crystal FM

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Crystal FM Community radio licence application formlicensing.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/.../Crystal_FM_application_form.pdfYou +1'd this publicly. Undo
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Crystal FM will provide a community radio service for South and West Midlothian serving the residents of. Penicuik (Population 17173), its satellite villages of ...

Anybody know more about this?

This is a link to the application for a licence which is quite detailed http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/radio/community/apps/2012/Crystal_FM_application_form.pdf

Thank you Mr Admin,
"evidence of support from your proposed target community." From application form; I do not recall any form of Local Consultation; Courier, Town Crier, Monthly Edit, Lamp Posts far less a public meeting.

I'm a member of PCEA and several other groups mentioned and it's the first I've heard of this. Nice to be kept in touch about how PCEA spends my subs.

I investigated this on behalf of The Penicuik Cuckoo and got the following reply:

Quote :

Basically the local group Penicuik Community Education Association responded to Ofcom’s refusal of a repeater transmitter to improved the reception of Black Diamond FM in our area.

Ofcom suggested that the best way forward was for a local corporate body to apply for a licence to serve the Penicuik area so a radio steering group was formed and an application submitted.

We await Ofcom’s decision which is due soon.

We feel the area is underserved as far as local radio is concerned and hope we are given the opportunity to provide a voluntary service via Crystal FM.

Nineteen applications for Community Radio Licences have been lodged with Ofcom and you can read all the applications including Crystal FM’s at

http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radio-broadcast-licensing/community-radio/apply-for-licence/community-radio-applicants/region2-scotland
Hopefully Ofcom will provide the licence for Penicuik Community Education Association to make Crystal FM a reality thereafter we will be able to meet to move forward together with this.

So it sounds like it could just be a sister station to Black Diamond FM however I can't fault new business startups in Penicuik so I won't complain.

It's a new station, not a sister station to any other. A non-returnable payment of £600 is required with each application - some of which may be my membership money. No-one I have contacted has heard of this new venture despite being members of some of those groups which Penicuik Community Education Association claims to have support from.

It's not a new business start-up either. Community radio stations are non-profit making voluntary groups which are operated for social, not financial, gain and depend on grants, donation and sponsorship for income. I can't see many of the few remaining local businesses paying for adverts which few people will hear on a minority radio station when the Town Crier pops through every letter box in Penicuik.

"Hopefully Ofcom will provide the licence for Penicuik Community Education Association to make Crystal FM a reality thereafter we will be able to meet to move forward together with this." Quote.
It seems hollow to state that WE will meet after the issuance of a License; why?. Examining the application there must have been many meetings by a few people to have formulated such a thorough application and appointed all the key figures/roles in advance. Is this to be another exclusive club?. Rock me gently.

So Ofcom don't want to allow Blackdiamond to put in a transmitter to provide a better signal to Pencuik but are happy for a new transmitter for a new station, sounds just a wee bitty weird.

Sounds like a case of "your names not down on the list so you are not coming in!" to the Crystal FM gang (but we will happily spend your money on it!) I expet it will go the way of so many other plans for things in Penicuik - nowhere

musicman wrote:

So Ofcom don't want to allow Blackdiamond to put in a transmitter to provide a better signal to Pencuik but are happy for a new transmitter for a new station, sounds just a wee bitty weird.

Music Man makes a point, but I have had a look at Blackdiamond's original application and note that it was granted the license on a social gain basis to the Mayfield & Easthouses area, then deemed socially deprived. The geograohical area of Midlothian is larger than the norm for a Community Radio Station. I wonder if any of the many Penicuik residential musicians were approached.

I would agree with Sam that it does sound like a closed shop.

Note that three of Crystal FM's steering group are already Directors of Black Diamond FM...big fish/little ponds come to mind.

Interestingly enough, the section in the application outlining the steering groups' previous broadacsting experience or qualifications remains blank. Why?
Looking at the finacial pages, there is a lot of cash required to establish and maintain such a project.
I may get a group together and create, MESA..Muaricewood & Eskhill Space Agency.

Roger Rabbit; quote; in Lounge.
Like Crystal FM and its fantasists, the Hub has about the same chance of being anything other than a building site as I do of having twins.

Interesting observation.