London community radio station TGR Sound, broadcasting to the Bexley, Dartford, Thamesmead and Woolwich areas, will cease broadcasting at 1pm on Sunday 22 June.
A statement published on the TGR Sound website describes the financial conditions which have led to the closure:-
It is with much regret we have to announce, that as of Sunday 22nd of June, your local Community Radio Station, 103.7 FM TGR Sound will cease broadcasting.
Since its launch in 2004, the station has provided over 300 community groups with support and free publicity for their events and services, trained in excess of 5,000 people and forged partnerships with 200 organisations. This has all been achieved by the hard work and dedication of a team of mainly volunteers.
103.7FM TGR Sound was well regarded by OFCOM and had become as one of the foremost community radio stations and possibly one of the only stations that would have been in a position to offer ‘Live’ broadcasting from 6.00am to Midnight, seven days a week had it been able to continue.
However despite the efforts of our members to bring in advertising and sponsorship from the local councils and both local and national companies, it has proved an impossible task in an increasingly difficult and competitive environment.
Although regular revenue from training and hosting festivals existed, it is not sufficient to cover the total costs of running an FM Radio Station and therefore we became increasingly dependant on grants and funding to survive and pay for the cost of rent, electricity and other essential services. These forms of funding by their very nature cannot be guaranteed and a succession of rejected applications have left 103.7 FM TGR Sound with no major source of income for the remainder of this year.
We would like to thank everyone for all their hard-work and involvement – not only the volunteers but the community groups, organisations and individuals who helped to make 103.7 FM TGR Sound the number one listened to local radio station across Bexley, Dartford, Thamesmead and Woolwich.
