The radio landscape in southeastern and southern Gran Canaria is undergoing a forced restructuring through administrative channels. The Canary Islands Government has decreed the immediate termination of the FM broadcasting license that operated in the town of Santa Lucía de Tirajana on the 98.9 MHz frequency. This measure definitively ends the operating rights held by the company Radio Región, SA, following the complete abandonment of broadcasting activities and a prolonged debt to the national government. The death of the promoter, Benjamín Lorenzo, accelerated the process, which has a chance of being overturned through administrative means.
The frequency's decline accelerated at the beginning of this year. The Canary Islands Agency for Research, Innovation and the Information Society (ACIISI) launched an inspection campaign to verify the validity of local licenses before activating the automatic renewal process for another fifteen years, as stipulated by the General Law on Audiovisual Communication. The results of these field tests precipitated the intervention of the regional government, revealing that the station no longer existed physically.
A radio spectrum monitoring campaign commissioned to the Technological Institute of the Canary Islands (ITC) confirmed the inspectors' suspicions. The technology center's receivers and measuring systems detected no waves, analog signals, or emissions on the 98.9 MHz frequency assigned to the municipality of Santa Lucía. This continued cessation of transmissions violated the legal obligation requiring the concessionary companies to provide uninterrupted communication services to the residents of the region.
The administrative proceedings opened against the company added a second, insurmountable factor related to the sector's taxation. A formal inquiry sent to the General Sub-Directorate for Planning and Management of the Radio Spectrum, an agency under the State Secretariat for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, confirmed that the company had a long history of delinquency with state coffers.
Official data from the Secretary of State revealed that the frequency holder did not pay the annual fees for reserving the radio spectrum issued during the last four fiscal years, including the overdue annual payment corresponding to 2025. The chronic non-payment of this fee for the private use of the public hertzian domain automatically invalidated any right to obtain the extension of the operating license.
The Canary Islands Agency for Research, Innovation and the Information Society attempted to give the company one last chance by sending formal requests to its headquarters, urging management to demonstrate its financial solvency and provide the required technical documentation. The company's lack of response and its silence regarding the given deadlines forced the Governing Council to decree the loss of its status as an audiovisual communication service provider.
The Regional Ministry of Universities, Science, Innovation, and Culture has ordered the retroactive application of the termination of the broadcasting license, setting the formal date for its removal from the frequency band as March 4, 2026. This is the exact date on which the fifteen-year period resulting from the previous transformation of public concessions, regulated by media legislation, expired. The decision entails the mandatory cessation of any attempt to broadcast in that band of the spectrum within the coverage area of southern Gran Canaria.
