May 24th 2007 - TRIAL RADIO STATION IS PLEASED WITH RESULT (East Grinstead Courier)

A Radio station covering the East Grinstead area completed its second trial licence on Saturday but organisers hope it will return later this year.

Meridian FM, which is based at East Court Mansion, was on air for four weeks, and managing director Lee Quinn said the shows had proved popular.

He said: "We worked out from the hits on the website and the e-mails and phone calls that we had at least four times as many listeners as last time."

An application for a third trial licence, between November 25 and December 22 has been made to Ofcom, the communications regulator, and the station has been told that these dates would be available.

"What we want is more people to invite us to events. It was great to do the live feeds from the Lingfield Marathon and the Sunshine Sevens." said Mr Quinn.

"I think next time it will grow even more."

The recent licence period was interrupted during the bank holiday weekend by a pirate radio station stealing the station's 87.7fm frequency.

Mr Quinn said: "They must have had about 100 watts compared to our 15 watts. It switched off as soon as the bank holiday was over, but we got our complaint in with Ofcom."

If the Christmas period is awarded to Meridian the station hopes to gain a community licence from next year.