Our Hopes for Flame FM

"Light up the Fire and let the Flame burn ...
go down in the city into the street, let's give the message to the people we meet"
 ... challenging words from Parchment's 1974 hit "Light up the Fire".

Thank you all for your prayers and interest over what has been a challenging two years whilst we waited for the grant of our full-time licence. The result, we believe, is great - good news. Although Ofcom have now chosen 7 Waves (Leasowe) for the only FM frequency available for Wirral, we received a positive reply from Ofcom, in June, confirming that it would be very sensible for us to study a MW option and apply for a MW licence. Whilst MW is difficult and expensive it is possible. We will have to apply again for a licence in Ofcom's regionally-organised second round of applications so we now anticipate

  • applying for a MW licence in June 2007

  • Ofcom saying "yes" in August 2007

  • and a very busy Autumn of 2007 with commencement of full-time broadcasting by the end of 2007

Now how is that for a real big God-helped challenge ?

MW will give us a larger daytime coverage area and we feel it could lead toward broadcasting to a wider and wider audience. How, we just do not know but GOD DOES.  In the very long term digital technologies are emerging slowly and local radio will be on DRM (a digital form of MW) which is the way forward for local broadcasting – see http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/broadcast/drm/drm.php

We do rejoice that seven Christian groups have been given a licence (Cross Rhythms Stoke on Trent - on air now, Shine FM Northern Ireland - on air now, Revival Radio Cumbernauld - on air this summer, Hope FM Bournemouth - on air Pentecost Sunday 2007, Spirit of Plymouth, Cross Rhythms Middlesborough, and Branch FM Dewesbury).  Great; thank you Lord. Please pray that Flame MW and other stations will swell that number in the next 12 months. And by the way, other faiths also take community radio seriously - five Muslim/Hindu Community Radio stations and fifteen ethnic groups have also obtained a licence (out of 108 allocated).

Our next Flame broadcast (Flame 13 for the non-superstitious) will start on Saturday 7th October

We really appreciate your continued prayers and we value the financial support you are putting behind Flame. In simple terms it does really cost us£300 a day for broadcasting, and on top of that we have studio costs to meet year round. So our annual expenditure is around £30,000, but for over 7,000 hours of broadcasting we say that we are proving that "local Christian radio offers the best value for 21st Century evangelism" so please keep supporting it and tell all of your friends about it.

It will cost us over £100,000 to set up a MW antenna and equip a new enlarged studio, and we will need to raise that money within 12 months in order to go on air full-time before the end of 2007. This is 50% up on what FM would have cost us so we are faced with a tremendous challenge but a great opportunity. The annual operating costs will be higher than experienced at present, but we believe they will be achievable.

Do you believe that the radio is a key 21st Century method of communicating....we do ! So please keep praying and keep supporting us - as Christians we simply say “we know not what the future holds but we know who holds the future”. We can dream and plan but God over-rules and guides – and Flame MW is still on the right track.

Please remember that Ofcom has only said "they will seriously consider our request for a Community Radio licence on MW". That to us is a yes but it does mean a lot of hard work filling all of the forms again and then waiting for Ofcom’s final decision. We feel under God that it will be "yes" but please keep praying that way - and we will work hard at our end and keep you informed as to how we are progressing. In publicity terms we are safely saying "licence applied for" rather than "licence granted".

DREAM ON : 

  • We have a vision, and heart, for full time Christian Radio on the Wirral and Liverpool. 

  • We believe that Christian Radio feeds and encourages Christians, and interests people outside of the church. 

  • For as long as we are able to, we will seek to run two 28 day Restricted Service Licences per year (March and September) as allowed by the Radio Authority.

  • We will seek to expand our broadcasting coverage, and have applied for a full time Community Radio licence but this all costs money ... radio costs £300 per day to operate, and establishing a professionally equipped studio is a major expense

  • Join us in turning this dream into reality.

“The hopes we had were much too high, way out of reach but we had to try, no need to hide, no need to run, because the answers come one by one; the game will never be over because we’re keeping the dream alive !”
... a statement of where we're at, from "Keeping the Dream Alive"

TO HOPE IS NOT TO DREAM, BUT TO TURN DREAMS INTO REALITY