Moonraker - Ofcom Licensing

EVIDENCE OF DEMAND Moonraker FM
This section should provide an analysis of the reasons as to why it is considered that there is
a demand for the type of service proposed, with reference to the size and nature of the
proposed target audience.
GATHERING THE EVIDENCE
Throughout the years our campaign to provide a local radio station, we have received a great
deal of support for the idea from local residents from all walks of life. This section summarises a
cross section of the evidence we have gathered from research and other public feedback. Our
initiatives have both guided and endorsed our plan to increase listener choice in Swindon by
providing entertainment for a broad audience that will focus on providing credible and undiluted
local news/information coverage (which will challenge the BBC) complimented by themed offpeak
programming targeting both the younger and the older at appropriate times.
Although these plans have been carefully formulated over a number of years through our
intimate knowledge of the Wiltshire marketplace and useful audience feedback, it has been
rewarding to see them clearly endorsed through the results from our recent research survey,
giving us increased confidence that we can deliver a new and distinctive service that will
significantly increase the impact of commercial local radio in the Swindon area.
RSLs
Our intentions were highlighted in the public arena most of all by the four successful and
profitable RSL broadcasts we have made since our group formed in 1998.
Research Background
EVIDENCE OF DEMAND
Building on the knowledge gained from our RSLs we designed a quantitative research
questionnaire in consultation with RadioWorks (Associates) Ltd who conducted the survey
supervised on-site by Lesley Shields, an MRS trained supervisor. This provided valuable insight
into the current marketplace and details are highlighted later in this section.
Our initial proposals were formulated from this data which highlighted that neither the GWR or
Classic Gold services focussed on serving the 25-54 demographic in the Swindon area. Much of
this data has been discussed in earlier sections and how it confirmed our belief that there was no
plausible case for the establishment of a local commercial service directed at either a young or
older biased station or a viable argument for a specialist or niche service.
However, the listening patterns that came back from our RadioWorks survey were at odds with
the RAJAR for the larger GWR Swindon/Bristol TSA of 1.2M. Consequently, we also specially
commissioned a sub-area analysis of Swindon from Ipsos to check the validity of the RadioWorks
results - albeit that our own survey was considerably more robust in size. As discussed earlier in
this document, the smaller sub-area Ipsos sample did, indeed, broadly match the RadioWorks
survey.
This exercise was useful in ratifying that it is Radio 1 rather than Radio 2 that gives GWR the
most competition in the Swindon marketplace. It also confirmed that BBC Swindon/Wiltshire
seems to be attracting Swindon listeners rather better than Radio 2. The sub-sample also
indicated that Radio 5 does especially well in the area - although this was less marked in our
RadioWorks survey. Some caution is noted in this latter result as the Ipsos sub sample was very
small and the consequent RAJAR weighting is likely to have skewed all but the top lines.
Local Radio comes home - to Swindon Section 105 (D) - Page 1