SLR - Ofcom Licensing

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Section 105(B) and (C): Catering for Tastes and Interests And Broadening Choice 4. Programming Philosophy (ii) The strategies which the applicant proposes to implement in regard to: catering for the tastes and interests, general or particular, of persons living in the area; TARGET AUDIENCE Shrewsbury Local Radio’s programming plans have been formulated paying close attention to the various research studies we have commissioned over the months. Specifically: 1. The 400 sample telephone research project which took place in August 2005 and was designed to provide a clear snapshot of the tastes and interests of people in Shrewsbury and Oswestry. The full tables of this project are available in Appendix 10. 2. Our two focus group studies carried out in August and September 2005. These provided a valuable insight on current listening behaviour, perceptions on ‘localness’, a feel for the types of content that might be required of a new station and the propensity to listen to a new local radio station. Full details are available in Appendix 7. 3. The findings of our monitoring exercise on the existing local commercial stations broadcasting to the area, Beacon FM and Classic Gold WABC. Detailed findings are available in Appendixes 8 and 9. 4. Audience trends for existing stations as measured by Rajar, although the data available applies to the wider Beacon transmission area which takes in the West Midlands ‘sister’ station to Beacon Shropshire. Full details can be found in Appendix 6. 5. The 503 sample telephone survey which followed the trial broadcast of Shrewsbury Local Radio in May and June 2005. Full survey details can be found in Appendix 5. PROGRAMME PLANS Shrewsbury Local Radio will be essential listening for anyone who wants news, information and discussion on the issues that matter most to Shrewsbury, Oswestry and the surrounding areas. It will also provide a forum for listeners to discuss and debate matters that are important to them, from war to weather, from finance to fashion, from politics to pubs, all set in an appealing music context of quality album tracks by top-selling album artists combined with Top Twenty hits from the past forty years. We cannot over-state the importance of news in our programming plans for Shrewsbury Local Radio. 85% of 35-64 year olds questioned in our August telephone survey said they wanted news from a local station – slightly higher than music, (84%). Other information-based elements also scored very highly. It is no surprise that our telephone survey in August confirmed that the local press is regarded as the main source of local news, (84% of 35-64 year olds), when regional television – both BBC and ITV – is so Birmingham-centric in its approach to news and current affairs. No doubt both the BBC’s ‘Midlands Today’ and ITV’s ‘Central News’ can point to the variety of stories they have covered from this part of Shropshire, but the only credible broadcast alternative to the local newspaper is BBC Radio Shropshire, and its remit is to cover the entire county. 43
Section 105(B) and (C): Catering for Tastes and Interests And Broadening Choice 4. Programming Philosophy SLR will be a full service radio station, offering the specific locality of Shrewsbury, Oswestry, and the area immediately surrounding those towns, a lively, entertaining and provocative mix of speech and music, balanced to maximise its audience appeal, without compromising either programming element. The BBC local station, BBC Radio Shropshire, has a high speech content, but this appears alongside a curiously eclectic mix of music, which has no obvious focus or rationale. It is, by name and definition, a county-wide station aimed at the entire county of Shropshire and, in common with other similarly-positioned BBC local stations around England, it is programmed to attract an audience that is primarily aged 65+. An incredible 47% of the listening hours generated by BBC local radio are from the 65 plus demographic. (Source Rajar Q2 2005). What BBC Radio Shropshire listeners receive and accept in the absence of an alternative is county-wide coverage, when what they seek is a much more precise consideration of what is happening on their doorstep. Our focus group study showed that Shrewsbury and Oswestry people are loyal to their area and take a healthy interest in local issues. SLR will focus precisely on the interests of Shrewsbury and Oswestry. The station’s appeal will be much broader and younger than BBC Radio Shropshire, and it will be far more relevant in every way than the existing local commercial stations, Beacon FM and Classic Gold WABC. It will be sharply keyed into the attitudes, events and affairs of the local area, and it will provide a meaningful community focus for the significant local audience that currently regards local commercial radio as, at best, its second choice of listening. Research will be a continuous process for SLR, ensuring that the radio station is constantly in tune with what its listeners want to hear. This will be accomplished through regularly commissioned qualitative and quantitative market research and continual music research. 44
Page 1 and 2: An Application to Ofcom for the FM
Page 3 and 4: Section 105(A): Ability to maintain
Page 39 and 40: Section 105(B) and (C): Catering fo
Page 43: Section 105(B) and (C): Catering fo
Page 53 and 54: Section 105 (D): Evidence of Local
Page 69: Section 105 (D): Evidence of Local

SLR - Ofcom Licensing

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