XFM axes regional news bulletins on DAB

The Radio Magazine: XFM has been given the green light to stop broadcasting tailor-made regional news bulletins to different parts of the UK on digital radio.

The station, which is available on most of GCap’s local DAB multiplexes outside London, has until now been required by Ofcom to play out regional news and travel at peak times in some areas, instead of the bulletin from XFM London.

The format requirement applied to XFM South – which is carried on the Bournemouth, South Hampshire, Sussex and Kent multiplexes and had pre-recorded bulletins dropped into the stream from the Invicta FM newsroom.

XFM Midlands – covering Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester and Nottingham – was also required to broadcast localised bulletins, voiced by a Beacon Radio journalist.

And XFM North East, on the Teesside and Tyne and Wear multiplexes, also carried local news, although The Radio Magazine understands that this was not a format requirement and has been broadcast from GCap’s London newsroom since the group sold Century Radio to GMG in late 2006.

An XFM spokesman confirmed the station was no longer required to broadcast DAB split bulletins, with all the DAB simulcasts of XFM London now airing London news and travel.

The relaxed format requirement does not have any effect on XFM Scotland and XFM Manchester, both of which provide their own local news service. GCap sold the XFM South Wales licence to Town and Country Broadcasting in June, but XFM London is still available in Cardiff on the local digital multiplex.