Bradford Asian Radio Community Radio Licence Application Form
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Bradford Asian Radio community radio licence application form 1. Station Name Guidance Notes What is the proposed station name? This is the name you expect to use to identify the station on air. Bradford Asian Radio 2. Community to be served Guidance Notes Define the community or communities you are It is a legislative requirement that a service is intended proposing to serve. Drawing from various sources of primarily to serve one or more communities (whether or data (e.g. from the Office of Population, Census and not it also serves other members of the public) and we Survey) and in relation to your proposed coverage need to understand who comprises that community or area, please determine the size of the population communities. The target community will also be concerned and the make-up of the population as a specified in the licence, if this application is successful. whole, along with any relevant socio-economic The legislation defines a „community‟ as: people who live information that would support your application. or work or undergo education or training in a particular (Please tell us the sources of the information you area or locality, or people who have one or more provide.) interests or characteristics in common. Answer in fewer than 300 words: Bradford Asian Radio already serves the Asian population in Bradford and surrounding areas, delivering entertainment, community information, local, national and international news. Broadcasting in Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and English, we are the voice of Bradford‟s ethnic communities and their respective faiths. A voice to let the people of the city express their needs and desires, providing organisations with an opportunity to use radio to help deliver their aims and objectives. According to the 2011 census the total population of Bradford was 522,452 (Source: ONS). Of the total 26.8% defined themselves as Asian or Asian British, 140,149 people. The latest population estimates for 2017 from the ONS show steady population growth with some 534,300 people now living in the Bradford District. Bradford has the highest proportion of Muslims, Sikh, Hindus and Bengali residents in the Yorkshire and Humberside region. Through carefully devised programming and social initiatives we can serve all four of these major communities in our area. Prior to the launch of Bradford Asian Radio on AM, individual communities only enjoyed specific radio coverage during month-long RSL services which in the main provided platforms for the enhancement of various religious festivals such as the Muslim Ramzan, Hajj, Muharram, Milad, Meraj and the Sikh and Hindu community Bisaakhi and Deevali events. Bradford Asian Radio provides coverage and support for all of these festivals and events and has become established as the specialist radio station for Bradford‟s Asian community. We provide the community with an on-going platform to emotively discuss and promote social, cultural, religious and welfare issues, in fact anything which is important to our audience and plays a part in their lives. The programming agenda is flexible and open to all genders, ages and subjects. 3. Proposed area Guidance Notes What is the area you propose to serve? Although we believe it is helpful to set guidance that frequency availability may often limit transmission powers to around 25 watts and the coverage radius to around 5km, we are adopting a more flexible approach and will consider applications for wider areas where applicants can demonstrate that the proposed coverage area will better serve the target community, and where it is technically possible. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/10 1459/community-radio-future-licensing-technical-policy- statement.pdf Bradford Asian Radio community radio licence application form Bradford City Centre and surrounding areas Programmes and programme output: Definitions: Studio location: The studio from which the service will be broadcast should be located within the licensed area. Locally-produced: Locally-produced output is output made and broadcast from within the service‟s licensed coverage area. (It is anticipated that most stations will produce the bulk of their output themselves, in the locality. However, for some target communities it may be appropriate for fairly high levels of output to originate from outside the licensed area.) Live output: is that which is produced by a presenter in the studio at the time of broadcast. (The amount of live output may vary between different services depending on the needs or expectations of the target community.) Original output: output that is first produced for and transmitted by the service, and excludes output that was transmitted elsewhere before. Original output can be live or voice-tracked. Repeat broadcasts of original output do not count towards the minimum requirement. Peak time: it may be helpful to state what material will be broadcast in „peak time‟. If you do, please say what you consider peak time to be for your target community (this may vary from station to station). Automated output/voice-tracked material: most stations will carry automated output at some time. The amount of automated or voice-tracked material does not need to be specified in the Key Commitments. Sustaining service/third party produced material: if you intend to broadcast material produced by a different organisation please state what it is and how much (per day or week as appropriate). 4. Programming output Guidance Notes Please fill-in all three questions below The law requires applicants to state their proposals for Question A asks you to describe your programme providing a service that would: service. (i) cater for the tastes and interests of members of its Question B relates to how your output will serve the target community or communities (or for any tastes and interests of your target community. particular tastes and interests in those communities); Question C is about how your service will broaden (ii) broaden the range of programmes available on non- the range of local (non-BBC) services available in BBC local services (commercial and community your area. stations) to members of the relevant community or communities; Later in this form you will be asked to draft your own „key commitments‟. This will form the basis of your (iii) broaden the overall range of such non-BBC local licence and is what Ofcom will judge you against. It services provided in the area concerned; and should include a summary of your proposed (iv) have a distinct nature, or provide distinct content, programme output as set out below and reflect your from any non-BBC local services with which it would commitment to cater for relevant tastes and interests, overlap. to broaden the range of relevant programmes and Ofcom is required to consider the extent to which an services and to provide a service with a distinct applicant‟s proposals will cater for the tastes and nature and content as set out in the Guidance Notes interests of members of its target community or in the column opposite. communities. Ofcom is also required to consider the extent to which proposals for a community radio station would broaden the range of programmes available by way of non-BBC local services (both commercial and community stations) in the area concerned (especially, the extent to which a proposed service would have a distinct nature or provide distinct content from any overlapping non-BBC local services). The information given here should be more detailed than what you set out in your draft key commitments (later in this form), and will help us gain a fuller understanding of how you will serve your target community and what the station will sound like. 4. Programming output A: Please tell us about your programme service. The following questions may help you describe your programme service (but should only be used as a guide): 1 Classification: CONFIDENTIAL Community radio application form What will the service sound like? What music will you play? What are the main speech elements of the service and how will the social gain/community benefits you propose be reflected on-air? What is the likely music to speech ratio? Will this vary at different times of the day or week (or year)? Do you intend to broadcast live output? If so when and how much do you propose to do? Will you broadcast in languages other than English (what languages and how much)? Will your output be original i.e. specifically produced for your service? Will it be locally produced? Do you intend to repeat material? Answer in fewer than 1,000 words: Bradford Asian Radio will build on its existing AM service, providing programming not otherwise available in the city, a radio service for the Asian community which delivers significant speech and comment together with music by artists originating from the Indian Sub-Continent. Bradford Asian Radio is already a vibrant speech and music station for the City of Bradford which has been operating since 2016 on 1413 kHz AM. While the programming has been well-received it has become increasingly apparent that today‟s listeners are not happy with AM radio. Many listeners have told us that they believe the service would be much improved, easier to find and clearer to listen to if transmitted via FM as opposed to the current AM frequency. A regular stream of Asian RSL broadcasts on FM are capitalising on our perceived technical disadvantage and our staff believes that this transmission inequality is impacting negatively on potential listenership, funding and commercial viability - and thus our ability to deliver the quality of service we would wish. It is doubtful whether Bradford Asian Radio will be able to survive in the long term without this transfer to an FM frequency. Bradford‟s Asian community deserves their own locally-based speech and music station on FM, dedicated to serving their specific needs, tastes and interests.