 New legislation paved the way for this additional tier of radio, starting in 2005, and hundreds of community stations have since been set up.Unlike commercial radio licensing, which is generally advertised to cover a specific region, community radio stations are usually limited to broadcast areas smaller than commercial or BBC local stations, nominally within a radius of their transmitter.The idea for this new level of radio broadcasting was piloted by the regulator at the time, the Radio Authority in 2002 with the licensing of 15 so-called "Access Radio" stations for a trial period of one year to test the feasibility of such stations.