SLR - Ofcom Licensing

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Section 105(B) and (C): Catering for Tastes and Interests And Broadening Choice 4. Programming Philosophy NEWS News will play a key role in our output. It will be a core element of our speech programming. As mentioned previously our research confirms the paramount importance of reliable, informative, up-to-the minute news to local people. Moreover, while not ignoring the wider regional, national and international perspective, SLR news must be essentially local to the two towns it serves. The people who live in Shrewsbury and Oswestry have an active interest in what happens on their doorstep, as well as maintaining pertinent views on the wider world. They are particularly proud of and keen to preserve the quality of life that living and working in Shropshire provides. Clean, fresh air, coupled with beautiful and plentiful open countryside, are regularly cited by local people among the pluses of living in the area, as are both the pleasures and uncertainties provided by the meandering River Severn. Yet this apparently casual, largely rural backdrop should not suggest a sleepy, slow news environment. It is a dynamic and diverse editorial area, fuelled by a broad-based agricultural, industrial and commercial business community, as well as a lively social diary. Like many parts of the UK, the sub-regional economy has suffered a number of changes, some of them potentially damaging with job losses experienced in both the manufacturing and the service sector. Coupled with challenging times for the agriculture industry, these economic shifts have prompted local government and local commerce in Shropshire to devise a number of strategies to meet them. Local authorities and business, working in partnership have created initiatives to take their area forward, and SLR will report keenly on the progress made as well as playing a part itself as a local company contributing to the local economy. It is encouraging to note how small businesses thrive in Shrewsbury and Oswestry. SLR will be a small business itself and it will report on and engage with its counterparts as both advertisers and companies active in the area with stories to tell. Through the day, SLR’s news and information will provide the foundations and the supporting structure of a programme schedule that listeners will find both stimulating and entertaining. It will be fun without being trivial, but serious when it needs to be, balancing lightness of touch with consistent credibility. Two extended news bulletins – one at lunchtime, the other during afternoon drive time – will present a comprehensive round up of the day’s news and allow for the considered examination of one or two major local issues. While news bulletins throughout peak daytime hours will each run at 3 minutes duration, the 08.00 bulletin in the weekday breakfast show will extend to 5 minutes, playing a major role in that programme’s agenda-setting function. The first locally presented bulletin of the day will air at 07.00. With a relatively short journey to work for most people, the demand for local news earlier than this is quite low. A first bulletin at 07.00 will also allow SLR to apply its news resources appropriately within the hours required by our audience and it will give us an advantage by breaking news stories at that critical hour, giving us a clear lead with the largest potential audience of the day. This is typical of the importance SLR will place on news management. With a necessarily tightly run staffing complement, news management will be a vital aspect of the station’s operation. Too often, radio stations dispense with a news story after it has been read two or three times, without considering who has heard it and whether it should be revived for a fresh audience later in the day. Similarly, the quick grab, sound-bite culture that broadcast news has developed often leaves the listener with only a hastily presented tit-bit of information, with barely any explanation or reasoning. 45
Section 105(B) and (C): Catering for Tastes and Interests And Broadening Choice 4. Programming Philosophy Therefore, SLR will treat one or two major stories each day differently to others and they will be the subject of an extended interview or feature. As well as providing shorter clips for general bulletins, the extended interview will be featured at up to 60-seconds duration in the ten-minute extended lunchtime bulletin and at up to 90-seconds in the fifteen-minute extended drivetime news. The inclusion of these feature interviews will be trailed through the day in other news bulletins as well as programmes. We will have a policy of breaking from programming for important local news alerts such as flood warnings. Thus, the debate over demands for a new walkway at Shrewsbury Castle, and the planned closure of Age Concern’s St Martin’s Day Centre in Oswestry will be given fair and proper air-time, with the listener offered a greater understanding of the issues involved than is currently provided by local commercial radio. Tom Craig, the father of the “new” James Bond, actor Daniel Craig, lives near Oswestry and will provide reaction and insight to his son’s 007 debut. The impact of the threatened bird flu pandemic on the wild bird food supplier, Garden Bird Supplies Ltd, based at Wem near Shrewsbury, will be closely monitored. NEWS: locally presented mix of local, national & world stories Mon – Fri Sat Sun 0700 3 min 3 min 0730 2 min headlines & sport 0800 5 min 3 min 3 min 0830 2 min headlines & sport 0900 3 min 3 min 3 min 0930 1 min headlines 1000 3 min 2 min 2 min 1100 3 min 2 min 2 min 1200 3 min 2 min 2 min 1300 10 min 1400 3 min 1500 3 min 1600 3 min 1630 1 min headlines & sport 1700 15 min 1730 1 min headlines & sport 1800 3 min IRN national/world news hourly throughout remainder of day and night. 46
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