Each local commercial station in the UK has obligations with regard to its programmes, including its music and local content. These obligations are set out in the station format, which forms part of their Public File.

Community radio stations do not have the same requirement to provide a Public File, however we choose to in order to make our broadcasting commitment clear to listeners.

If you have any comments on the file, or the station, please let us know. If necessary, you can also contact our regulator, Ofcom.

Ownership

Black Country Radio is wholly owned by Waterfront Media CIC - a community interest company based in the West Midlands.

We broadcast using a Community Radio licence from the regulator, Ofcom.

News

The station broadcasts local news bulletins hourly from 0700 until 1830, Monday to Friday. Bulletins contain a mix of local stories, sport and weather. We also broadcast national news hourly, except for certain exceptional circumstances including our dance music output on Saturday evenings and our sports programming on Saturday afternoons.

Outside of those hours bulletins containing national and world news, prepared by Sky News Radio, are broadcast. 

We also publish national and local news as well as sports news online. Recent stories can be seen here.

Programmes

The station broadcasts twenty four hours a day, with programmes as listed here.

Where possible, no programming within daytime hours is automated. However, there are rare occasions where this may be the case to ensure we can continue to have shows created by local presenters.

Our late night and overnight programming – and some early evening weekend programming - will generally be automated.

Except in special or exceptional circumstances, our programmes are broadcast from the Black Country. On occasion, some programmes may be sourced from elsewhere or may form part of an outside broadcast and, on very rare occasions such as adverse weather, we may use technology to pre-record or broadcast shows in home studios. 

Contact

To contact the radio station, you should use the details available on our contact page.

Messages sent to the studio (via the 'message' button at the top of the site) may be used on air - however we can't promise to use everything we receive. We seek to reply to any emails which raise substantive issues, complaints etc within the timescales provided. 

You can also contact us during office hours on 01384 887554. However because of the way the company is structured this may be answered by a voicemail service.

Charitable Support

The station gives coverage and support to several charity initiatives each year. This is achieved through a free events listing on our website and mentions, where appropriate, on air.

We also endeavour to interview guests from local good causes and to promote what we can via social media. 

We offer a roadshow service which visits many charitable events throughout the year.

Music

During our core daytime hours (Monday to Friday, 0500 to 1900 and some shows during the weekend) we play a varied mix of contemporary and chart music alongside classics from previous decades. Examples of some of the songs we play are on our playlist.

During our specialist output, our music policy is far more varied, encompassing genres as diverse as Jazz and 50s to Metal and Urban.

How to complain

Live, entertaining radio always carries some risk. We try to get things right but not all programmes will be to everyone’s taste.  Where we do make mistakes, we try to take appropriate action as quickly as we can. 

Please get in touch with any comments - praise or complaints - and we’ll consider them carefully plus, where appropriate, attempt to rectify things.

If you need to speak to us directly, our weekday office hours phone numbers are above. Should you feel we have not taken the right action regarding a broadcast after contacting us, you may refer the matter to our regulator, Ofcom - however we'd politely ask you give us chance to rectify the issues first.