FM licence thrown back at Ofcom.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

Commercial radio company UKRD is to become the first media owner to take the radical step of handing back a radio licence.

UKRD - which owns 10 commercial radio stations across England - is to hand back the FM licence for Star Radio in Stroud to Ofcom in protest at the way smaller radio stations are regulated.

The company could have sold the licence on to another operator - FM licences are a rare commodity - but decided instead to make a stand in a bid to force a review of the sector's regulation.

"Someone has got to do this to get the whole area of smaller radio stations which is over-regulated and over-burdened …