A RADIO station that covers north Herefordshire will cease its medium wave service. 

Sunshine 855 has held an AM licence since 1992. However, it can only be accessed during daylight hours due to heavy interference from European, and in particular, Spanish stations. 

A survey carried out by the station between 2022 and 2023 showed that only a minority of listeners tune in via the AM frequency.

Norgate Limited, which holds the local commercial radio licence, therefore applied to Ofcom for the service to remove the transmitter site, which has been granted. 

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The changes will take effect from this Friday (January 19). 

A spokesperson for Ofcom said: "Within the current licensed area, there are a number of areas which are only able to access the Sunshine Radio service on the AM platform.

"However, we accept that the AM service is only able to broadcast during daytime hours as a result of interference from overseas services.

"According to Ofcom’s analysis, the population within the AM only coverage of the Sunshine Radio service comprises of 106,549 individuals.

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"The survey data provided by the licensee indicates that only a very small proportion of this number are likely to access the service via the AM signal.

"Ofcom did not receive any objections in response to our invitation to comment on the Licensee’s proposal to switch off its AM signal.

"We also note that the Licensee did not receive any complaints from listeners when its AM transmitter was not broadcasting during a storm in 2021. The available evidence therefore tends to confirm the Licensee’s position that very few individuals are likely to access the service via AM."