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ONE OF the Southern Costa Blanca’s biggest radio stations, TKO, has been turned off this week following instructions from the Generalitat de Valencia.
A statement was read out on air and the management of the station said that they had no alternative but to adhere to the notification which was served on them on Monday.

The radio station’s website stated that “In accordance with the Ley 1/2006, de 19 Abril, de la Generalitat, de Sector Audiovisual, both TKO FM and TKO Gold have been left with no alternative other than to switch off their radio services for the time being.”
They thanked their listeners for their continued support and said that they were taking legal advice to resolve the situation.

STRONGLY ADVISED
A further statement was issued on their Facebook page stating that they had been informed that many of the radio stations, both English and Spanish, in the Valencian region are currently broadcasting without the appropriate licences and will also be contacted within the coming weeks and strongly advised to cease their transmissions forthwith.

RTN spoke to Barry Newlove owner of TKO who said: "They haven’t targeted us specifically we just got the letter first. They said that we could be fined as much as 200,000€ and so we had no choice but to cease transmission." He added that they had been reliably informed other radio stations will also receive similar notifications and that a new round of licence applications will be invited ‘soon’.
"We will be back," Barry vowed, "But we’d like to thank all our listeners and advertisers for their support."

GOALPOSTS MOVED
So, where does this leave other British radio stations in the area?
Well for many years it has long been known that the majority of them are operating without the correct licences, but it must be pointed out that this is not for the want of trying.

RTN spoke to one radio station owner who has applied for the appropriate airwave licence twice, only to have the goalposts moved both times by the Valencia authorities.
 

Some may also say that this is the perfect opportunity for the cash strapped regional government to recoup some much needed revenue and target all those radio stations which they have turned a blind eye to when times were more lucrative.

There are also others that are saying that this crackdown has been a long time coming with many stations operating from little more than a bedroom in an apartment, not paying taxes and taking advertising revenue from local businesses on which they are not paying IVA.

Telecommunications Lawyer, Jaime Rodriguez, who is based at Diez and Romero Solicitors in Madrid told RTN: "The FM frequencies in Valencia are very busy. In 2011, 121 companies applied for 31 licenses and those companies are still waiting to find out if they have been successful."

Whatever the outcome, it is the listener that loses out as well as the local expat community which relies on the local English speaking radio stations to inform them of local events, products and services as well as news from the area. 

 Source: RoundTownNews