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LETTER FROM OFCOM 
Wednesday 2nd Dec ‘09
Dear Space,
VoA: possibility of change to frequency
Thank you for your email. As you may know, Ofcom has done a great deal of work in the last year on looking at the transmission arrangements of community radio services in London, especially of those which suffer from interference from illegal operators.
As I have told you in the past, in the case of Voice of Africa, we are NOT able to make changes to your existing frequency (in terms of power or antenna height for example) because this would cause interference to other services. However, we do have an alternative that we are now able to offer you.
I am sorry it has taken so long to get to this point, but the option we can offer now is only available because we have been able to move another station to an alternative location and frequency. (We needed to wait for that to happen before we were able to make this opportunity known to you, and there were complications after the service moved.)
We can offer you a change of frequency, and an increase in power as follows:
94FM MHz,
We believe this change will improve the robustness of Voice of Africa's reception in its core area. You may wish to seek professional technical advice on this matter. If you do decide to take up this option, we will need to put it through a formal frequency clearance process which will take 4-6 months.
I look forward to hear from you, and would be grateful if you could let us know your decision on this matter by Thursday 17 December.
Yours Sincerely,
:: Ofcom
London
A LETTER FROM MANAGEMENT OF VOAR TO OFCOM
Subject: OFCOM MUST ACT
For the past three weeks the 'LEGAL' pirate stations are now operating directly on 94.3FM with impunity 24/7.
Voice of Africa Radio is a legally licenced radio station, but we don't have clear signal in many parts of Newham let alone in East -London. We are consistently being bombarded with complaints from our listeners that they cannot hear us clearly as possible. Potential advertisers are taking away or refusing to place adverts on our station because they can't hear us.
We have spoken and written to OFCOM about this many times and still the problem has not been resolved, we are seriously confused as to why VOAR a licenced radio station has to put up with this constant interference from 'legal' pirate stations on our dial. Infact, Ofcom doesn't see anything wrong about this; hence it's inability to deal with the interference.
This continual interference has seriously disrupted our services to the community not only in terms of listenership but also financially. The moral of presenters and staff has been negatively affected resulting in many fully qualified trainees leaving VOAR to join pirate stations because of their unrestricted transmitter power and freedom.
We do not wish to take the law into our own hands but VOAR is seriously being FORCED to think otherwise because Ofcom cannot or will not help.
Thank you for reading this letter.
Best regards,
Space Clottey
Voice of Africa Radio
020 8471 9111 / 07950 819 519 
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Comments
Get the pirates off OFCOM, we wont accep changing VOAR's Frequency full stop.
Also just to justify a point VOAR is a licensed community radio station regulated and controlled by OFCOM. A definition of a pirate radio station is NOT VOAR, a pirate radio station is a station that transmits illegally on the FM or AM range of frequencies within the United Kingdom.
Sorry if any of you know what I have mentioned above it seems some people are confused with what a pirate radio station is and a legal station such as VOAR.
Kind Regards
Jay
Just to inform you that OFCOM (formerly the DTI's job) have major difficulty in dealing with illegal operators or pirate radio stations as to me and you, if you scan through the airwaves in London on the FM dial there is a pirate radio station every 10MHZ so it is hard for legal stations such as VOAR to transmit without interference as we are aware. A move should not cost you anything at all if you have the right transmission equipment, a frequency can be moved as easy as a press of a button. Just to make a point clear as far as I am aware OFCOM cannot interfere with your internet stream and your internet based listeners would not be affected by the move.
WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO SUPPORT THE FINAL DECISION THAT THE MANAGEMENT MAKES.
TECHNICAL ADVICE IS NECESSARY.
I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE FREQUENCY JARGON, HAS IT DOUBLED OR WHAT? WHY DID THE PREVIOUS STATION MOVE, WAS IT DUE TO INTERFERENCE? WHO WERE THEY?
IS THERE ANY POSSIBILITY IN TALKING TO THEM?
THE OTHER STATION HAD TECHNICAL PROBLEMS WHEN THEY MOVED, WHAT WERE THEY?
HOW LONG DID OFCOM TAKE TO RECTIFY THIS PROBLEM?
THE 4-6 MONTHS THAT OFCOM WILL BE MAKING THE ADJUSTMENTS ARE THEY COVERING ALL COST DUE TO THEIR INABILITY TO DO THEIR JOB ADEQUATELY, AND DO WE STILL HAVE ACCESS
TO 94.3FM TO PROMOTE THE CHANGE OVER.
They need to do the right thing. Is it because it's an African radio station that's why they are pushing us to the wall?
OFCOM please do the right thing because, VOAR is a registered radio station. We need all our brothers and sisters in the diaspora to come together so please, don't try to divide us.
Peace Love and Respect !
Africans are used to complicating problems and will never solve the problems at hand.
What should really concern everyone (voar management and the African audience) is how to improve the quality of programmes on the station. Get that right first - and everything else will follow ... more listeners, supporters of your campaign for a clearer broadcast signal, advertisers etc.
A. BBC Radio 4
Q. what radio station has the greatest audience in london?
A. BBC London
Q.What radio station is between radio 4 and BBC London?
A. VOAR voice of africa radio
Q. if you were a musician and you were offered a slot between 2 big acts or one before and after - which would you choose?
A.the one betweenbecause youhave a huge captive audience
Q.Which is the main radio station ofcom listen to because it is one of a handful in the Uk which is not directly controlled by whitehall and which one do they hope will fail?
A.Voice of africa radio
Q.So Ofcom has offered VOAR a poisoned christmas present - like the one jacob offered Esau. Does VOAR have the intelligence, the patience, the shrewdness, the savvy or are they gullible, lightweights, short term pirates, headed for oblivion?
A. We will soon find out.
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