Last updated: 4 October 2026
These terms cover Essex Estuary Radio’s website, radio streams, listener services and any official EER mobile apps. Competition rules are explained below. Purchases are covered separately by our shop terms and returns policy.
1. Who we are
Essex Estuary Radio is operated by Essex Estuary Radio Ltd. Vibrato Media Group is a trading name of Essex Estuary Radio Ltd.
Company number: 17205868. Correspondence address: 13 Sapper Ellison Way, Benfleet, SS7 5FG, United Kingdom. For support, complaints or questions about these terms, email alfie@essexestuaryradio.co.uk.
2. Listening and using our services
You may use our services for your own personal, lawful enjoyment. Please do not interfere with the website or stream, attempt unauthorised access, impersonate someone, or submit unlawful, threatening, discriminatory or infringing material.
Programmes, presenters, schedules and features may change. We aim to keep the service available, but maintenance, technical faults, internet connections and third-party providers can interrupt listening. Song titles, artwork and programme information may occasionally be delayed or inaccurate. Online streams can lag behind other listening platforms.
Our website and broadcasts are for general information and entertainment. Check important information with its original source, particularly travel, weather and emergency information. Links to other organisations do not mean that we control or endorse everything they publish.
3. Mobile phones and official apps
These terms apply to any official EER iPhone or Android app where made available, as well as listening through a mobile browser. This page does not mean that an app is available for every device. Use the links on our Ways to Listen page to find the listening options we currently offer.
Streaming uses an internet connection and may continue using data while your screen is locked or the app is in the background. Your network’s data and roaming charges may apply. Check your allowance and stop playback when you have finished. Device compatibility and operating-system requirements are shown in the relevant app listing; updates may be needed for security or continued operation.
App-store terms and any licence supplied with an app also apply. These service terms do not replace an applicable app-store licence. Third-party radio apps are provided by their own operators and may have different features, advertising and terms.
Where an app offers notifications, microphone access or other optional permissions, you can manage them through your device settings. Some features may not work without the permissions they need. Our privacy notice explains how we handle listener information. Do not operate your phone while driving or when doing so would be unsafe.
4. Messages, dedications and recordings
Only send material you have permission to share. Do not include another person’s private details or recordings without their permission. If you are under 18, involve a parent or guardian before sending a recording or personal information.
Sending a request does not guarantee that it will be played, read out or answered. When you give permission for a contribution to be used on air, you allow us to broadcast it and make reasonable edits for length, clarity and compliance, without misleadingly changing its meaning. You retain any rights you own in your contribution. We will seek any additional permission needed for a different use, such as using your recording in an advertisement.
We will explain intended recording and broadcast use when inviting you to take part. Tell us before broadcast if you want to withdraw permission; once a live contribution has aired, we cannot undo that broadcast. Your data protection rights are unaffected. Contact details supplied privately are not intended for publication.
5. Competitions and prize draws
These general terms apply when EER runs a competition. Each promotion must also have accessible, specific rules identifying the organiser, entry method, opening and closing times, eligibility, entry limits, prizes and winner-selection process. Read those rules before entering; they govern that promotion if they differ from these general terms. Times are UK local time unless stated otherwise.
Who cannot enter
For competitions opening after 4 October 2026, entry is not open to directors, employees, presenters, volunteers or contractors working for Essex Estuary Radio Ltd (including Essex Estuary Radio and Vibrato Media Group), or anyone involved in organising, administering, judging or supplying prizes for that competition, including relevant sponsor and agency personnel. Their immediate family, members of their household and close personal friends are also excluded.
Immediate family means a spouse or partner, parent, child, sibling, grandparent or grandchild, including step and adoptive relationships. A household member is anyone who normally lives at the same address. A close personal friend means someone with an ongoing personal friendship involving regular social contact outside station activities; simply being a listener, social-media follower or casual acquaintance does not count.
Anyone with access to confidential competition information or who can influence its outcome is also ineligible. If you are unsure whether a connection makes you ineligible, contact us before entering. We will assess connections fairly against these definitions. These exclusions must be made clear in the promotion’s eligibility information before entry opens and do not retrospectively change the rules of a competition already underway.
Do not assume a competition mentioned in a recording, repeat programme or social post is still open. Check its closing time. Streaming delays do not extend deadlines. Phone, text or data charges and any entry cost must be explained before entry; this page does not establish a paid-entry scheme.
Enter honestly using your own details. We may exclude entries involving cheating, automated manipulation or a material breach of the published rules, and will explain the reason on request. We may request proportionate evidence of eligibility. We will not introduce undisclosed eligibility restrictions after entry.
Draws will use a verifiably random process or independent supervision. Skill competitions will follow their published judging criteria with appropriate independent judging. Specific rules will explain notification, a reasonable claim deadline and any replacement-winner procedure. Prizes will be delivered as described, normally within 30 days unless the rules specify otherwise. No fee is payable to EER to release a prize.
We will not change closing dates or cancel a promotion merely because too few people entered. Exceptional changes must be necessary and fair to entrants, explained promptly, and must not remove statutory rights.
Entry is not consent to marketing or unrelated publicity. Where winner information must be made available to demonstrate a valid award, the promotion notice will explain what is shared and how to object or request less detail; information may still need to be supplied privately to the ASA. Any proposed interview, photograph or promotional appearance will be explained separately. Apple, Google and social platforms are not organisers or sponsors unless expressly identified as such.
For a competition query or complaint, contact us with the competition name and entry details. We will review concerns fairly; a judging decision does not prevent you from making a complaint or exercising your legal rights.
6. Content and intellectual property
Our branding, programmes, photographs, writing and software, and the music and other material we carry, belong to us or their respective rights holders. Access to a stream does not give you permission to rebroadcast, commercially exploit or redistribute that material. Seek the relevant permissions for uses beyond personal listening, except where the law permits the use.
7. Privacy and shopping
Read our listener privacy notice for enquiries, dedications and recordings. Competition notices will provide any additional information needed for that promotion. Shop orders are covered by our shop terms and shop privacy notice. These radio terms do not change your purchase, cancellation or refund rights.
8. Our responsibility to you
Nothing here excludes responsibility that cannot lawfully be excluded, including for fraud, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or your statutory consumer rights. Where we breach an obligation to you, we remain responsible for loss or damage that was reasonably foreseeable. We do not promise uninterrupted availability, but this does not remove responsibility the law places on us.
9. Changes and resolving concerns
We may update these terms to reflect changes to our services or legal requirements. We will date the revised version and make significant changes clear where appropriate. Changes will not retrospectively remove accrued rights or rewrite an existing competition’s rules unfairly.
Please contact us first so we can investigate a concern. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, without taking away mandatory consumer protections that apply where you live. UK consumers may bring proceedings in the courts of their home part of the UK. Nothing here limits any right to contact a regulator or obtain independent advice.