Radio India Community Radio Application
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Radio India community radio licence application 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. Radio India 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: Radio India will serve the South Asian communities of Dudley and surrounding areas. Key groups will include the Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi communities. At the 2011 Census, the total population of the Dudley Metropolitan Borough was 312,925, an increase of 7,770 from the last census; making it the 25th largest government district in England. 90.4% of Dudley's population identified as White. The second largest ethnic group was Asian and British Asian, making up 5.6% of the population. Statistics on religious beliefs show that 65.3% of the population identify as Christian, with the second largest religious group being Muslim, at 4.1%. 22% identified as having no religion, while 6.2% did not state a religious belief. South Asian Population Analysis – Dudley Metropolitan Borough Source: 2011 UK Census The largest South Asian cohort is the Pakistani community which represents 3.3% of the population, higher than the UK average of 2.1%. The Indian ratio is 1.8% (UK: 2.6%), Bangladeshi 0.1% (UK: 0.8%), Chinese 0.3% (UK: 0.7%) and ‘Other Asian’ 0.5% (UK: 1.5%). Radio India community radio licence application Dispersal of South Asian Population by Ward The radio station will be focused editorially on wards where the South Asian ethnic groups are most prominently represented – i.e. St Thomas’s, St James’s, Lye and Stourbridge North, Netherton, Woodside and St Andrews and the northern parts of Halesowen. Nevertheless, we anticipate a strong following well outside these areas from members of the Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. Accordingly, our area is loosely represented by the figure below: Dudley Metropolitan Borough Wards The total adult universe for Radio India will be 18,942. We are confident that our unique editorial focus on these communities together with the wider social gain-driven connection will enable us to achieve a reach of around 30% resulting in a weekly audience in the region of 6,000. 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 Radio India community radio licence application 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 The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley 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). Radio India community radio licence application 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): • 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: Radio India, as the name suggests, will be the first station in the area to put Dudley’s Indian population first. However, we will also provide a service – and a voice – to the many Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities across the Borough, encouraging integration, understanding and collaboration between all nationalities and faiths originating from the Indian subcontinent. The station will be distinctly ‘South Asian’ both in the music and speech content delivered by our presenters and volunteers. We will broadcast predominantly in English but will have no hesitation in lapsing into one of the many languages spoken by our diverse audiences. These will include Punjabi, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, and Urdu. Our relaxed and reactive approach to language is entirely in keeping with ‘real world’ situations where the various languages and dialects can be heard alongside each other. It is impossible to accurately predict the relative exposure of each language but overall we will aim for 70% of output being broadcast in English and the remainder in the South Asian languages.