Bermuda is to get a Hott and jazzy summer this year after Government approved the licence for two new radio stations.

Hott FM, an “urban” popular radio station, and a jazz programming station, are set to launch in July this year and promise to have lots of local content and foster local talent.

Two new groups had applied to open up a total of four radio stations, but yesterday Minister of Tourism, Telecommunications and E-commerce, Renee Webb said that she had granted each group one licence.

“This will give them the opportunity to prove themselves,” said Ms Webb after making the announcements and said that the companies could re-apply for further licences - and therefore stations - once they had been up and running for a year.

One bid was from Inter-Island Communication Ltd. to get a licence for two FM radio stations, Hott FM and Smooth FM.

The owners proposed to have Hott as the main money earner, going head to head with Power 95, in a bid to attract its audience as a “urban” or black radio station playing hip hop, reggae, Caribbean, R&B, old school and popular music.

Smooth was pitched as an interactive community, new and talk format with live sports and political debates as well as religious programming.

The other bid was for a full-time Christian station and another devoted to jazz and community issues by LTT Broadcasting which planned to bring public service broadcasting from Public Radio International and National Public Radio in the United States including local and international news programmes on the hour.

Ms Webb granted each group a single licence and left it up to the companies to decide which stations to choose to launch - and each chose the more populist options.

Both stations plan to have local news programmes daily and will spend the next few weeks getting details ready and the upcoming months looking for staff and finalising funding.

DeFontes Broadcasting and Bermuda Broadcasting Co. both objected to the new stations when submissions were made to the Telecommunications Commission last month.

They said that there was not enough advertising to go around and that new radio stations would severely cut into their already tight business at VSB and ZBM.

The Telecommunications Commission heard submissions from both LTT and Inter-Island and then made recommendations to the Minister of Telecommunications.

“The commission was impressed by the diligence that the applicants had displayed in presenting their proposals and by their enthusiasm for their representative projects,” said Ms Webb. “It is the recommendation of the Telecommunications Commission ... that both Inter-Island Communications and LTT Broadcasting be granted a five year licence for one station only.

“The format of the station would be left to the licence holder.”

Neither station has been given the frequency on which to broadcast, and LTT has not yet decided on a name for its jazz station.

LTT president Leo Trott said he was delighted to get the licence and the group would be working hard over the next few months to firm up details of the station.

“We are aiming at the 35-plus group,” he said yesterday. “We are also looking at providing political and financial and economic news.”

He said the station wanted to cover a lot of public forums held in Bermuda that were not currently aired and that would be of interest to the public. Inter-Island Communications Ltd.'s chief executive officer, Elroy Smith, also said he was “relieved” to get the licence for one station, as this would allow them to concentrate on one station and get it right. He said that recruitment and training would start soon for the Hott station. “90 percent of the presenters will be Bermudian. It think it is important to make the sure the station signifies Bermuda. We do not want a million different accents - we want it to become the station for Bermuda.”