Fusion Radio Ltd.

An application for the Telford FM Licence July 2015

General information

(a) Name of Applicant, Address, Telephone and E-mail address

Name of Applicant Fusion Radio Telford Limited Address Panjab Radio House Springfield Road Hayes Middlesex UB4 0TH Company Number 09564057

(b) Main Contact (For Public Purposes)

Contact Name Surjit Singh Ghuman MBE Telephone (Daytime) 07525 197035 Address Panjab Radio House Springfield Road Hayes Middlesex UB4 0TH E-Mail Address [email protected]

(c) Station Name

Fusion Radio Telford

(d) Main Contact (For Ofcom Purposes)

Contact Name Surjit Singh Ghuman MBE Telephone (Daytime) 07525 197035 Address Panjab Radio House Springfield Road Hayes Middlesex UB4 0TH E-Mail Address [email protected]

Page 2 of 25 Section 105(A): Ability to maintain proposed service

1. Ownership and control of company that will operate the licence

(a) Board of Directors

i) Provide the name, occupation, other directorships, other media interests, and, if not a director of an existing Ofcom radio licensee, the relevant media experience, of each director (executive and non-executive), including the proposed chairperson.

Harjinder Singh Minhas

Role: Chairman Other Directorships: Anjuman Ltd, KSM Holdings Ltd., KSM Industrial Services Ltd., Foleshill Metal Finishing Ltd., CDP Services Industrial Limited

Harjinder is currently Chairman of Anjuman Ltd - a non-profit making organisation providing accommodation and support for socially disadvantaged adults. He is also a serving Magistrate.

A former board member and vice chairman of Coventry’s Asian Business Association, Harjinder has also served as an adviser for Business Link. Born in Coventry, as the eldest son of north Indian migrants from Panjab, Harjinder studied at the Coventry School Bablake before taking a BSc at Aston University. After becoming a Research Associate at Glaxo Group Research in Greenford, London, Harjinder studied Clinical Pharmacology to Doctorate level, at Newcastle University, before taking control of the family engineering business in 1991. In 1995 Harjinder completed his MBA at Aston University and went on to study law at Coventry University.

Harjinder restructured the family business, creating KSM Holdings and developing a fabrication subsidiary - KSM Fabrications in 1996. In 1999, Harjinder further diversified the company into contract cleaning and facilities management through the acquisition of CDP Services. In 2007, a new engineering and metal finishing facility was set up in Estonia to serve the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, Russia and China. Currently the Group of companies has 257 employees based in the UK and Estonia. The Group’s current client base includes Jaguar Land Rover, Scania, Volvo, AQ Lasertool, B&Q, Homebase, Sainsbury’s and Dunlop. Harjinder brings a wealth of business experience and financial governance to the Fusion Radio Telford board.

Page 3 of 25 Surjit Singh Ghuman MBE

Role: Managing Director Other Directorships: Panjab Radio Ltd; Panjab Radio London Ltd; Fusion Radio Ltd

Surjit Singh Ghuman is currently majority shareholder and Managing Director of Panjab Radio. He is also owner of Panjab Radio (North London) AM. He has been a leading light in Asian broadcasting for over a decade and was awarded an MBE in 2012 in recognition of his services to broadcasting.

Born in the Punjab, Surjit moved to London aged 13. He was active in the community from a young age working with local Sikh temples, supporting the congregation. As he grew up, his community work continued alongside full-time jobs in both local and family businesses before becoming a financial advisor for Prudential. Between 1989 and 1995 Surjit was UK’s youngest serving Magistrate.

Whilst south Asian media started to grow in the 1990s, Surjit felt that often it was too broad and diverse in terms of nationality, religion, language and culture. His time working on Slough and Southall based RSLs in the late 90s showed him first- hand the strength of Asian broadcasting. However, he still felt that the needs of the Punjabi community were poorly served. He wanted a service to unite Punjabis under one umbrella and give them a forum that they could call their own.

In September 2000, Surjit created Panjab Radio which commenced broadcasting on the emerging Sky Digital platform. The response to the service was swift and audiences grew steadily. This listener support gave Surjit the confidence to launch Panjab Radio on DAB Digital Radio in London and West Yorkshire in 2003, in the in 2007 and in the North East in 2011. Panjab Radio has, to date, been the only Asian commercial station to broadcast nationally on . Surjit was a founder member of the Multi-Ethnic Media Owners Association, launched in 2006 at the House of Commons with David Lammy, Keith Vaz and Gordon Brown. Surjit and Panjab Radio have been at the forefront of many charitable endeavours for both local organisations and campaigns in Punjab. Over £200,000 was raised for building 103 homes in two villages in the District of Bhuj in Gujrat for individuals displaced by the 2001 earthquake, as well as donating a mobile medical unit in Jallandhar Punjab through Help the Aged. Every year Panjab Radio makes a financial contribution to help fund the education of 200 underprivileged children in Punjab.

In April 2009 Panjab Radio was commended for its work in promoting the Punjabi language through an award by the Punjabis in Britain All Party Parliamentary Group.

Surjit Singh Ghuman MBE has a long-term strategy to grow a network of profitable stations. Despite a long and unblemished track record of running successful radio stations, he has been unsuccessful in applying for licences in Coventry, Greater London and, most recently, . These setbacks have not diminished his commitment to securing a local analogue FM licence.

Page 4 of 25 Confidential Appointment

Role: Station Director

A senior, experienced and locally based radio professional has agreed to join the Board and take on the day-to-day management of the station, subject to award. Details in Confidential Appendix A

Page 5 of 25 (b) Investors and Shareholding Structure

i) Names and addresses (the latter may be submitted in confidence) of all existing or proposed shareholders.

Surjit Singh Ghuman MBE Panjab Radio House, Springfield Road, Hayes, London UB4 0TH.

ii) Total number, class/classes of shares and issue price of shares (specify voting, non-voting, preference, other etc.).

100 ordinary shares of £1.00 (voting)

iii) All voting shareholders and holders of 5% or more of non-voting shares and loan stock should be named. State the number, class/classes and price of shares to be issued to each investor.

Surjit Singh Ghuman MBE: 100 ordinary shares of £1.00 (voting)

iv) Outline any shareholders agreements or arrangements that exist.

None

v) Where a corporate body other than a current Ofcom licensee will be providing 30% or more of the required funding, details should be given of its directors and main shareholders, and of its activities.

Not Applicable

(c) Involvement of the Applicant in Specified Activities

Details are required of the involvement by the applicant and its participants (including shareholders or other subscribers of more than 5% of the applicant's total funding requirements) in any of the activities listed below, and the extent of the interest. For these purposes, the applicant includes associates of the applicant (i.e. directors and their associates and other group companies).

vii) Advertising agencies;

None

viii) Newspapers;

None

ix) Other broadcasting interests;

Surjit Singh Ghuman MBE owns 86.2% of Panjab Radio Ltd., an existing Ofcom licensee . Surjit Singh Ghuman MBE owns 100% of Panjab Radio London Ltd., an existing Ofcom Licensee.

Page 6 of 25 x) Bodies whose objects are wholly or mainly of a religious nature;

None xi) Bodies whose objects are wholly or mainly of a political nature;

None xii) Local authorities;

None xiii) Other publicly funded bodies.

None

Page 7 of 25 2. Financial and business plan

(a) Overall Financial Strategy

Provide a concise (maximum 500 words) summary of how the applicant considers it is able to establish and maintain, throughout the licence period, its proposed service, and how this licence fits in with the investors' strategy.

Establishing and Maintaining the Service

Fusion Radio Telford has the full financial backing of its parent company, Panjab Radio Limited. Fusion Radio Telford’s parent company has a proven record of operating successful stations.

Business Plan

Fusion Radio Telford has reviewed Ofcom's decision on the recently re-awarded Wolverhampton licence. Like Wolverhampton, the Telford licence is for a service designed to provide coverage of a relatively modestly sized area (the adult population within the MCA is approximately 114,120) and the area is one in which there are a number of local commercial radio services are available. In re-awarding the Wolverhampton licence to the existing licensee, Ofcom relied upon this combination of factors saying it represented a challenge to providing a financially viable local commercial service for the Wolverhampton area.

Financially Robust

We believe that the current licensee has proved, over successive years, that it is unable to operate a financially viable local commercial service for the Telford area. This should not be confused with the financially viability of this licence. Even the co-location of four licences under the brand has not resulted in a profitable operation. In fact, in its recent application to retain the Wolverhampton licence, the licensee said ‘If this service was returned to a standalone station it would not be viable and would ultimately lead to the loss of a local radio service for Wolverhampton and also for , Telford and /’.

It’s time for a change.

Fusion Radio Telford has developed a business plan that, with the financial and operational backing of Panjab Radio, will operate a financially viable local commercial service for the Telford area.

Fusion Radio Telford has proposed a lean business model that will be profitable in 24 months. With strong financial commitment from its parent company Panjab Radio Limited, Fusion Radio Telford has built its business plan to precisely meet the decision criteria used by Ofcom in Wolverhampton.

Enhanced News Provision

We also noted that, in awarding the Wolverhampton licence and considering the degree to which a service caters for the tastes and interests of those living in the licensed area, Ofcom recognised that the research carried out highlighted the importance of news. So, Fusion Radio Telford proposes to broadcast regular locally produced news bulletins

Page 8 of 25 throughout the week. However, the existing news bulletins – which are not produced in Telford - are a collage of stories from around the region, with frequently just one story originating from Telford and lasting no more that 30 seconds. Fusion Radio Telford will carry no less that three Telford stories each hour during Daytime 06:00 to 17:00. As Ofcom noted, news satisfies this expressed interest among local listeners, and Fusion Radio Telford will ensure that listeners receive an enhanced amount of locally relevant content from the service provided under the Telford local licence.

In developing our proposals we have been mindful to serve a clearly defined broad target audience, and that our proposed service will cater for the tastes and interests of our audience.

(b) Funding

i) Share capital

See confidential Appendix B

ii) Loan stock

See confidential Appendix B

iii) Leasing/HP facilities (capital value)

None

iv) Bank overdraft

Fusion Radio Telford Ltd will benefit from existing facilities in place with Panjab Radio Ltd.

v) Grants and donations

None

vi) Other (please specify) Where relevant, provide information on:

None

vii) Loan terms (e.g. interest rate, repayment terms, redemption/conversion terms);

See confidential Appendix B

viii) Assets leased. All of the funding identified above should be confirmed to the applicant. Explanation should be provided if this is not the case.

None

Page 9 of 25 (c) Financial Projections

Fusion Radio Telford's detailed financial forecasts are provided in the confidential Appendix B. The assumptions are based on existing market metrics and projections from over a decade of operating radio stations across the UK. Also included is economic forecast data provided by the Bank of England. All have been logically applied, are justifiable and can be fully substantiated.

The detailed financial projections include Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow forecasts together with underlying ass umptions, covering the first five years of the new licence period. They ar e provided in the confidential A ppendix B together with the Ofcom financial summary template.

An accompanying narrative describes how the underlying assumptions, on which the financial projections are based, are linked to other sections of the application.

(d) Audience Projections i) The projected adult (aged 15+) population of the Total Survey Area (TSA) within which it is intended to measure the listenership of the service;

Fusion Radio Telford will participate in the national Rajar audience research survey. This will be carried across the following Post Code areas:

TF1 2, TF1 3, TF1 6, TF10 7, TF10 8, TF11 8, TF12 5, TF2 7, TF2 8, TF3 1, TF3 2, TF4 2, TF5 0 and TF7 4

The total adult population across this proposed TSA is 151,900. ii) Projections for listenership ratings (e.g. weekly reach, average weekly hours of listening) over the first t hree years of the service, with detailed demographic breakdowns as appropriate;

iii) The expected impact of the proposed service on existing services, in listenership terms;

In general ‘flavour’ and targeting, Fusion Radio Telford will be more aligned with the service provided by BBC Radio than the more music-intensive commercial station, Free Radio. At present there is little distinction between Free Radio and Signal 107. The net impact of the proposed service, therefore, will be a small dec line in listenership to BBC Radio Shropshire in this part of its large broadcast area, whilst Free Radio is likely to see an uplift in listening, especially amongst younger demographics.

Page 10 of 25 iv) In what way(s) do you expect to achieve an audience that is different in size and/or composition from that attracted by the existing service provided under the licence now being re-advertised? To what extent, and in what ways, do you believe that existing audience figures can be improved upon?

The existing service is networked from Wolverhampton across four separate licence areas and the published Rajar data is drawn from this wider region. Any attempt to make comparisons based on the published data, therefore, would be mis leading.

What can be deduced with some confidence is that a content-rich, locally focused service based in Telford is more likely to engage and connect with the town’s population than a generic music-intensive service.

Assuming a flat audience across the entire TSA, Signal 107 is currently reachin g an audience of around 6,000 people in Telford out of a population of 151,900. Again, assuming a ‘flat’ performance across its TSA, BBC Radio Shropshire reaches 35,000 people. Looking at the commercial and BBC local radio audience relativities across the UK this licence should be capable of delivering at least the same audience levels as the BBC station and the projections above reflect this.

In terms of demographic profile, Signal 107 targets a very young audience. Some 63% of listener hours are amongst 15 -34 year olds. Fusion Radio Telford will be far less reliant on contemporary and recent pop music than the present service. The music will be far broader, taking-in classic hits from the last 60 years and, with more speech content throughout the schedule , an older profile is anticipated:

Page 11 of 25 v) The basis on which the estimates above have been calculated, and any assumptions taken into account.

Fusion Radio Telford’s audience projections are based on the findings of the consumer research that we commissioned. The findings correlate strongly with the ‘real world’ performance of three stand -alone stations in similarly medium-sized areas:

• Radio Mansfield 103.2 • KLFM 96.7 • Mix 96

These stations have a comp arable popula tion size with the Telford MCA; a geographical disconnectedness f rom a major metropolitan area; and a similar programme format to that proposed by Fusion Radio Telford.

From the Telford consumer research , a weighting of 60% was applied to the number of respondents who said th ey were “very likely” to listen and a 30% weighting to the number who declared themselves “quite likely” to listen to the proposed service.

The research reveals that there is a very real unmet demand for a truly local se rvice. The figures indicate that a weekly reach of 27.8% is achievable. (The mean weekly reach of the three stations listed above is 33%). This underscores just how poorly the current licensee is serving Telford. We have used t he mean average of 9 hours from the three stations as our projected average hours figure for Year Three.

Page 12 of 25 3. Transmission proposals a) Have you entered into negotiations with the owner/operator of the site(s) regarding arrangements for the new licence period? If so, provide details; if not, state what arrangements are anticipated.

Fusion Radio Telford Limited has a Reference Offer fro m the current transmission services provider Arqiva (Appendix C) to continue this service without interruption on award of the licenc e. The current annual fee is included under ‘Transmission Services’ in the expenditure sections of the business plan.

Fusi on Radio Telford Limited’s Managing Director, Surjit Singh Ghuman MBE, is an existing Arqiva client.

Page 13 of 25 4. Format

Service Name

Fusion Radio Telford

Licence Number AL000237BA/1

Licenced Area Telford

MCA Population 114,120

Frequencies 107.4 FM

Character of Service

A broad music and information station for Telford targeting, reflecting and embracing all the town’s key social and ethnic groups. Highly focused on local news and information; and playing a wide range of music aimed at 25 – 64 year-olds Service Duration 24 Hours a day 7 days a week

Studio location TBA

Locally-made hours All programming will be locally produced

Programme sharing No arrangements

Local, UK and international news will be broadcast at regular intervals Local News during peak times

Definitions

Speech Excludes advertising, programme/promotional trails & sponsor credits Peak-Time Weekday breakfast and drive-time, + weekend late breakfast Daytime 06:00 to 19:00 weekdays and weekends

Page 14 of 25 5. Programming Philosophy a) Explain (in no more than 500 words) how your proposed Format will cater for the tastes and interests, general or particular, of persons living in this local area;

Fusion Radio Telford is eager to replace what we consider to be the current apathetic, non- local service with a vibrant, engaging local commercial radio service for the town.

Programme output will be underpinned by a much stronger, locally gathered, locally delivered news and information service. It is the speech content that forms a station’s character and Fusion Radio Telford’s ambition is to be recognised for consistently reflecting the tastes and interests unique to this fast-growing town – the largest in Shropshire.

Content analysis shows that the existing local commercial radio services confine news to top-of-hour bulletins and these are centred on the Black Country – which means that Telford news rarely gets aired. Fusion Radio Telford will be different in three important ways:

I. Bulletins will be longer, running to 5 minutes at peak times and at least 3 minutes throughout the day; II. Journalists will be based in Telford. They will actively search out interesting, relevant or entertaining Telford stories and at least three of these will appear in every bulletin; III. The station will, in addition to the top-of-hour news, include news-led content at other times in the schedule, encouraging feedback and interaction from the listener.

In addition to hard news, Fusion Radio Telford will reach out to individuals, organisations and businesses in Telford - rather than expecting them to come to the incumbent station. Instead of relying on the traditional and easy to deliver phone-in, Fusion Radio Telford will be immersed in the community – reaching out using the latest technology to broadcast from remote locations around the area. As well as enabling the station to create strong, unique and engaging programming this strategy will also help generate sponsorship and ‘content marketing’ revenue, essential to a station operating on this scale.

All the other important information strands ranging from traffic news to sport, weather to parking availability will become hallmark characteristics of the station but, crucially, these will be tailored specifically for Telford with none of the compromises forced upon the more widely focused stations.

Whilst news and information will be the key driver of reach for Fusion Radio Telford, it is the music output that will keep people listening. Targeting a broad audience, the station will open up and celebrate the huge repertoire of popular hits dating back 60 years ago - to the birth of rock’n’roll. The station will encourage listeners to get involved with the music but in a real and tangible way. The schedule will be peppered with listener-led music features and, thanks to the broad targeting parameters, very little will fall outside the station’s repertoire.

Fusion Radio Telford has identified several radio professionals based in and around the town who will be able to relate directly to local people and properly reflect the daily talking points. The amount of irrelevant, Black Country orientated chat heard during station monitoring was astonishing. Fusion Radio Telford’s presentation team will be 100% focused on the town and output will be overseen by a highly experienced, locally based radio professional (see confidential Appendix A).

Page 15 of 25 b) Explain (in no more than 600 words) how your proposed Format will cater for tastes and interests different from those catered for by other existing local commercial and community radio services available in this local area, apart from the service currently being provided under the re -advertised licence you are applying for.

1. A Commitment to Local News and Information

Fusion Radio Telford will be the only commercial radio station delivering bespoke news and information exclusively for the town of Telford. Set against the range of national and local BBC stations on offer and the local commercial stations, the key point o f difference will be local speech content and an unwavering commitment to Telford life. Free Radio Shropshire also broadcasts to Telford but its remit is far wider, including countywide and Black Country coverage. Free Radio also targets a younger age prof ile, which renders speech less important which is reflected in the lower prevalence of speech in the overall programming mix.

Monitoring highlighted a significant shortfall in local news provision for Telford on commercial radio. At 8am on Monday 13 th Jul y 2015 the sum total of Telford news on Signal 107 was a single 15-second story about a rare spider being found locally. The entire bulletin ran to just 90 seconds and was prou dly announced as ‘Signal 107 90-Second News’. Free Radio Shropshire ran a more substantial bulletin of which 23% was of direct relevance to Telford. In contrast, Fusion Radio Telford intends to carry five minutes of news at peak times including at least three stories directly from or about Telford.

The table below shows the actual s tories and durations broadcast by Signal 107 and Free Radio on July 13 th alongside an illustration of the proposed news agenda for Fusion Radio Telford:

News Content Analysis – 13 th July 2015

The graph below highlights the relative allocation of broadcast time for news on Signal 107 and Free Radio Shropshire compared with the far more extensive commitment proposed by Fusion Radio Telford to meet the need expressed by Telford people during consumer research.

Page 16 of 25 News Bulletin Durations – July 13 th 2015

As Ofcom stated in its recent assessment of the Wolverhampton licence applications:

“regular locally-produced news bulletins will help to cater for this expressed interest among local listeners, and would ensure that listeners would continue to receive a suitable amount of locally -relevant content from the service provided under the local licence”.

This enhanced commitment to local news will make the Fusion Radio Telford a vast improvement of what is currently being provided and truly distinc tive from that provided by Free Radio Shropshire. Moreover, it will ensure that Telford receives a new, independent and dedicated news voice.

Away from the formal ‘top-of -hour’ bulletin, where other stations are content with a ‘rip and read’ weather, tra vel and general information service, Fusion Radio Telford plans to upgrade these elements by identifying genuine local experts in their respective fields. These individuals will become the station ’s ’trusted voice ’ bringing credibility, authority and integ rity to some of the most valued pieces of content.

2. Broadening the Musical Focus

Free Radio Shropshire is licenced to deliver “ contemporary and chart music ” to an audience aged 44 and under. Monitoring confirmed that it is comfortably meeting this licence commitment with output comprising songs almost entirely dating from 1990 onwards and representing a range of genres and styles:

Page 17 of 25

Almost two-thirds of the music played on Free Radio Shropshire is either current chart or recently released material. Most of the remainder was released post-2000. Just over 10 per cent is from the last millennium.

Fusion Radio Telford will contrast with Free Radio Shropshire. Only a quarter of songs will be current/recent hits and 65% will date from before the year 2000. Accordingly the service will offer an unambiguously complementary range of music to that provided by Free Radio.

Additionally it is intended to introduce a range of minority genres during the evening including Countr y, Rock and Soul.

Page 18 of 25 Section 105(D): Evidence of local demand or support

6. Evidence of Demand

Summarise the main findings of any original market research undertaken, or any analysis of existing audience research information, which demonstrates a demand for the type of programme service you are proposing to provide.

If original market research has been undertaken, please provide the following information for each piece of research:

f) A summary of the main findings from the research, showing how these demo nstrate evidence of demand for the service proposed;

BACKGROUND Telford commercial radio listeners have had to contend with some major changes over the years:

• Shropshire’s heritage commercial station, Beacon Radio was acquired by Orion Media in 2009 and re -launched in March 2012 as ‘Free Radio FM’ (‘Free Radio 80s’ on the AM frequencies). The output of Shropshire’s Free Radio FM is also broadcast across Wolverhampton and the Black Country. Weekday programming between 10am and 4pm and everything from 7pm until 6am is simulcast with Free Radio stations in Coventry, Hereford & Worcester and Birmingham.

• Telford’s small-scale commercial radio licence is held by UTV Media. Launched in 1999 as ‘Telford FM’, the Telford and Shrewsbury licences were merged in 201 0 by Midland News Association to form ‘The Severn’. Now broadcasting as ‘Signal 107’, transmitters in Wolverhampton, Oswestry, Telford, Shrewsbury and Kidderminster all carry exactly the same output other than ‘split’ news and commercials.

As these were ve ry significant changes, it was considered appropriate to understand the impact on local listeners. The Telford street survey, therefore, set out to gauge awareness of the new station identities and establish perceptions towards all the commercial radio ser vices available in the town.

Page 19 of 25 Awareness

Surprisingly, the most recognised commercial radio stations were Heart FM and Smooth Radio, neither of which officially covers Telford. Free Radio was recognised by 84% of the sample. There is still strong residua l awareness of the name ‘Telford FM’ despite its disappearance more than five years ago.

Format Test The proposed format of Fusion Radio Telford was shown to each respondent who was then asked how likely they would be to listen:

Description “A broad music and information station for Telford targeting, reflecting and embracing all the town’s key social and ethnic groups. Highly focused on local news and playing a wide range of music aimed at 25 – 54 year-olds.”

• 70.6% of respondents said that they would be either “likely” or “very likely” to listen to the new station. • Only 8.3% of respondents said they would be “unlikely” or “very unlikely” to listen. • 89% said they would listen to the proposed station in addition to the stations they currently listen to.

STATION MONITORING The monitoring process focused on the output of the following stations:

• Signal 107 (Telford) • Free Radio FM (Shropshire)

A key objective was to establish the stylistic and editorial distinctions between Telford’s two existing commercial radio services. Particular emphasis was given to local content such as news, information and presenter -generated input. It was also considered essential to re - establish how the stations differ musically and check present delivery against the letter and spirit of their respective Formats:

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1) Local Content

a) Free Radio’s non-commercial output, other than at Breakfast and Drivetime, is originated from Birmingham and simulcast by all the Orion Group’s FM stations across t he West Midlands. During the ‘local’ hours, Free Radio FM’s Shropshire transmitter carries identical programming to the Black Country transmitter. Monitoring at Breakfast showed that presenters freely talk about and engage with listeners across the entire area. During Breakfast there was a surprising amount of interaction with listeners over the phone. However, no Telford voices were heard during monitored hours:

• Emily from Kidderminster was the ‘Kids Word Game’ contestant; • Donna from Wolverhampton commented on the weather; • Deb from called in for a chat; • Phil from Stourbridge took part in the ‘Thousand Pound Minute’ • Kelly from Wordsley called in with a comment

Presenter input was very Black Country focused. There were repeated references to the ‘Wolverhampton City Show’ and ‘Black Country Day’ throughout the show.

Traffic news was broadcast three times per hour at peak times but this was centred on the M6. When the M54 was mentioned it was towards the end of the update. Lots of mentions for Dudl ey, Oldbury, Dorrington, Bilston and Wolverhampton but not Telford.

b) Signal 107 approaches localisation very differently during general output. There is far less presenter input than on Free Radio, and what there is tends to be generic and non-specific to a ny particular location. There is a sense that the station could be broadcasting from and to anywhere. The only significant local feature within general programming was the ‘School of the Week’ – St Anthony’s RC School, although the location was at no point mentioned. It’s in Wolverhampton.

Traffic news was more a list of roads than a meaningful guide to delays and trouble spots.

Unlike the other commercial stations, Signal 107 uses computer playout capability to ‘split’ pre-recorded presenter links speci fic to each sub-division of the broadcast area, to give listeners the impression that the station is local. However, on the day monitored ‘localisation’ amounted to little more than the inclusion of the word “Telford” or local frequency, “107.4”. e.g. “…wa king up Telford this is Signal 107…”; or “…the weather for Telford …”; and “…on 107.4 FM this is Telford ’s station – Signal 107…”, etc. There is a strong argument that this could be construed as wilful misrepresentation of the station’s huge geographical scale.

Page 21 of 25 2) News

On the day of monitoring there was little commonality between the stations – especially Free Radio and Signal 107. Most notable, however, was the limited news commitment on Signal 107, which ‘sells’ its top -of-the-hour bulletin as “ 07’s 90 -second News”. Coverage was more detailed on Free Radio with bespoke audio clips accompanying the key local stories.

The only content that could be described as of specific Telford relevance and origin was a news story about a rare Black Watch Spid er being found in the town. This accounted for around 2 minutes out of 240 minutes monitored at Breakfast – just 0.8% of station output.

3) Music

The degree of musical overlap between Wolverhampton’s two commercial stations was extensive. During previous analysis, in January 2015, the 20 most played artists were common to both stations. These are the ‘core’ artists, i.e. the artists that define a st ation’s musical character and identity.

In terms of the hourly composition of Signal 107 and Free Radio both stations are heavily skewed in favour of current and recent hits.

To the casual ear Signal 107 and Free Radio are clones of each other – at le ast in terms of music. However, given that music accounts for the vast majority of output, there is compelling evidence that the Signal 107 licence is not being operated in the best interests of Telford listeners. g) Full data tables for any quantitative research undertaken (these may be submitted in confidence).

These are available on request

Page 22 of 25 7. Evidence of Support Summarise (in no more than 500 words) any evidence of support for your application from your potential audience or from prospective local advertisers.

The extensive research that was commissioned has shown that the proposal for Fusion Radio Telford has tremendous latent support from individuals and organisations in Telford. The team has been heartened and energised by the overwhelmingly positive response to the prospect of Fusion Radio Telford returning a dedicated news and music station to Telford.

A confidential selection of expressions of support is available on request.

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Page 24 of 25 Declaration

Applicants are required to conclude their submission by responding as follows:

I confirm that, to the best of my knowledge and belief:

a) I am not a disqualified person in relation to the licence by virtue of the provisions of section 143(5) of the Broadcasting Act 1996 (relating to political objects); b) No director or person concerned directly or indirectly in the management of the company or the applicant group is the subject of a disqualification order as defined by section 145(1) of the Broadcasting Act 1996; c) No person involved in t he application has been convicted within the past five years of an unlicensed broadcasting offence and that the applicant will do all it can to ensure that no person so convicted will be concerned in the provision of the service, the making of programmes i ncluded in it, or the operation of a radio station if the applicant is granted a licence; and d) Any matters which might influence Ofcom's judgement as to whether the directors and substantial shareholders involved in the application are fit and proper person s to participate in a radio licence have been made known to Ofcom? Applicants should note that Ofcom reserves the right to revoke a licence if at any time any material statement made is found to be false and to have been made by the applicant or any member or officer thereof knowing it to be false, and that in the circumstances of section 144 of the Broadcasting Act 1996, the provision of false information or the withholding of relevant information with the intention of misleading Ofcom could incur a crimin al conviction and a disqualification from the holding of a licence.

Signed

Surjit Singh Ghuman MBE Dated:

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