Lincoln is to get a third full-time radio station – run by broadcast and journalism students - after a decision to grant a community radio licence to the University of Lincoln.

Student radio station Siren FM has been broadcasting for four weeks every year from the Brayford Pool campus since 1998.

But soon it will be broadcasting 365 days a year under the terms of one of nine new community radio licences announced by Ofcom.

Siren FM will provide a service aimed at students, schoolchildren and other young people in Lincoln.

Radio production lecturer Bryan Rudd said: “This award enables the university to be pivotal in providing students, young people and community groups across Lincoln and the surrounding area with a wonderful opportunity to have a 'real' voice through the exciting medium of radio.”

Staff and students at the university will spend the next year gearing up for the re-launch of the station, which is based in the Media, Humanities and Computing building at Brayford Pool.

The characteristics of community radio are distinct from commercial radio in that the services cover a small geographical area and are provided on a not-for-profit basis, focusing on the delivery of specific social benefits to enrich a particular geographical community or a community of interest.