A COMMUNITY radio station in Galashiels is in need of some chat.

TD1 Radio, which broadcasts from premises at Galashiels Golf Club, has been put on 'notice' by regulator Ofcom after the station failed to meet strict licensing requirements.

The manager and several presenters of the community station, which broadcasts to the central Borders on 106.5 FM, left last year following disputes.

And a few months later a complaint was made to the broadcast watchdog over failings in its commitment to provide 10 hours of original content each day as well at least 20 per cent as spoken word programming.

Borders Community Radio & Media Limited (BCRM), who hold the licence for TD1, admitted breaching its 'key commitments'.

A spokesman for Ofcom said: "BCRM stated that TD1 is emerging from a very difficult and trying period in its history.

"It accepted that throughout the duration of its licence it has had difficulty in meeting the speech content requirement stipulated in the key commitments.

"The licensee explained that the station faced a series of significant problems in 2017 which included the resignation of several

presenters and the station’s manager."

Following complaints to Ofcom, the regulator requested three days' worth of broadcast content from the start of November.

And it found the station wasn't living up to its commitments to speech content or enough locally-produced air time.

On Thursday, November 9 it only broadcast eight hours of original output, just five hours the following day and none at all on Saturday, November 11.

BCRM has already taken steps to address the failings and hopes to make further progress this year.

The Ofcom spokesman added: "During the monitored period, it was clear that TD1 was not meeting the key commitments

relating to the volume and variety of speech output, and the minimum amount of original output hours per day.

"The licensee explained that it had begun to implement some organisational changes, including the formation of a new committee which is looking positively at progressing the station with a number of new presenters, allowing for increases in the amount of locally made programming and speech content.

"BCRM stated that in the coming year it plans to share production of speech based programming with the local Talking Newspaper as well as aiming to increase speech-based content with the reestablishment of input from the local college and university."

Ofcom will continue to monitor output while TD1 remains on notice and if further breaches are found the regulator will consider statutory sanctions.