Caithness FM Community Radio Licence Application Form
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Caithness FM 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. Caithness FM 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: Caithness FM (CFM) has been operating for 19 years under the auspices of commercial radio station Moray Firth Radio (MFR),. Our application therefore is to continue in our present mode. We broadcast on 102.5 MHz from our studio in Thurso via a microwave link to Ben Dorrery (14km) and use MFR as a sustaining service when we are off air. Due to the terrain (and the MFR output power), our coverage is larger than normal for a community radio station, we would like to retain and if possible extend this since our target audience is the county of Caithness. The Caithness population at the 2011 census was 39,732, 52.5 % of which are over 45 years of age, with 21.4% being over 65. 99.3% of the population are “White British”. The county has an area of 1,805 sq km and a population density of 14.4/sq km. In terms of socio-economics, Caithness has several areas of multiple deprivation, in Thurso (14 km), Castletown (20 km), Wick (29 km) and Lybster (30 km). All distances from transmitter mast at Ben Dorrery, ND 065 550. Caithness has two main towns: Thurso 7,933 and Wick 7155 population. The bulk of the population (around 11,000) therefore live in the landward area, mainly agricultural holdings and small villages with large unpopulated areas in between. In order to reach the populated areas of the county it is imperative that we retain our existing coverage. 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 Our main priority is to inform and entertain listeners across the county of Caithness and North Sutherland, in small rural areas as well as the larger urban areas because we understand that there Caithness FM community radio licence application form to be significant difficulties regarding transport and communication especially to the large portion of our population which is over 65 and also to the 25.9% who are under 24. We would like, therefore, to continue to reach these people by continuing to broadcast to the area we currently reach through our 102.5 licence. It is our intention to continue to use MFR as a sustaining service and plans are in place to share equipment with them on Ben Dorrery. There are no local BBC services or other community radio stations in this area and the only commercial station is MFR. 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. 1 Community radio application form 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: CFM has been broadcasting for over 19 years and has an already defined output which has changed over the years to reflect the listening preference of our listeners. We have already seen that we have a mainly aging population and this is reflected in the choice of music played on the station. The most popular shows being Scottish music and Country music. Overall our music includes Scottish, Country, Rock, Jazz, Current Pop, 50s/60s/70s pop, Americana, Hip-hop/Blues, Indie/punk. The main speech elements are a twice-weekly ‘What’s On’ diary of community events, news (from MFR) and a ‘Community Profile’ where local charities and voluntary groups are interviewed. We also include studio guests and live music in many shows.