A leading county councillor and DJ for Exmouth's community radio station has been taken off-air until after the Devon County Council elections next month.
Councillor Stuart Hughes has hosted the breakfast show at Bay FM since it was granted a full-time license at the end of March.
Stuart "Huggy" Hughes, as he is known by listeners, has long been presenting programmes on Bay FM, which has previously been an online station as well as broadcasting on-air during the Exmouth Festival.
Station manager, Andy Green, confirmed Cllr Hughes' involvement with the station as a presenter has nothing to do with his role as a county councillor.
However because Cllr Hughes is standing for re-election in the county elections on May 2, he was taken off air on Wednesday, April 17, "as a precaution" until the election period is over.
Mr Green is currently liaising with bosses at the UK's communications regulator, Ofcom to clarify the regulations regarding election candidates being DJs even if they are unrelated.
Cllr Hughes is the Conservative Party candidate for Sidmouth, Sidford. The other candidates are: Labour, Judy Blackwell, UKIP, Lawrie Brownlee and Liberal Democrat, Martin Gammell.
A spokesperson for Ofcom confirmed that under the broadcasting rules regarding election periods, "candidates in UK elections and representatives of permitted participants in UK referendums must not act as news presenters, interviewers or presenters of any type of programme during the election period".
