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Fleet's Very Own
Community Radio Station
3
July
Sadly our FM licence
application for Fleet and surrounding areas wasn't successful. Ofcom,
the licensing authority decided to award a licence to Rush FM in
Farnborough who have submitted an application for a station aimed at the
under 30s age group which states that it will employ five people and be
based at Farnborough College Of Technology.
Thanks to each and every person that
gave support to Heath Radio CIC's community radio application not
least the team of volunteers at Sound Vault led by Paul Simpson.
Ofcom invited FM community applications
for the Fleet area on TWO separate occasions last year for a non
refundable £600 fee, but have now decided that there is actually only
ONE available FM frequency on which to broadcast a community
radio station in the Fleet area.
-
Taken
from Ofcom press release.
1.6
There were six applications under consideration for
services in Bradford, and two for the Farnborough area.
Unfortunately, Ofcom could only consider awarding a licence
to one of the applicants (subject to the legislative
requirements being met) in each area. This is because only
one suitable available FM frequency had been identified for
use in each area by a community radio station. The scarcity
of frequencies in urban areas was highlighted in sections
2.1, 2.2 and 2.10 of the invitation to apply for this
round3.
-
1.7
As a result of this scarcity of spectrum, all six of
the applications for Bradford, and the two applications for
the Farnborough area, were competing with one another for
the one suitable FM frequency in each location. Therefore,
as well as considering the suitability of each applicant’s
proposals in terms of the area and community they wished to
serve, the decision-makers also considered each application
in comparison with the others in the same area.'
Needless the say our team of volunteers
who give our time for no remuneration are particularly disappointed as
our application fee was partly donated by Fleet Lions charity. We
aim to continue involving local councillors in pushing for this
worthwhile cause of providing community radio by volunteers of any
background rather than excluding the over 30s. We believe that our
application was tightly budgeted to avoid handing back a licence in
the future through lack of planning. We disagree with Ofcom in
inviting applications twice for an area with only one frequency,
awarding licences to parties who don't live in their proposed
transmission area, and Heath Radio CIC don't consider our application
be a commercial threat to anyone outside our town where we actually
live.
28 April
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Message
from Soundvault
Heath
Radio is among 44 hopefuls to operate new
community radio stations across the UK which have been submitted in
response to a request for applications from industry regulator OFCOM.
If
successful, the FM radio station would provide a much-needed community
resource on Sound Vault’s doorstep, to the people of Fleet, Yateley, Farnborough and Hartley
Wintney in Hampshire,
and Camberley in Surrey.
Sound
Vault is excited to be working with Heath
Radio, and has everything crossed for their application for a
licence. We can’t wait to get on air with them, should they be
successful in the bid to bring community FM radio to the Surrey/Hampshire border.
10 Sep
Heath
Radio have come a few steps closer to handing in our application for
community radio in Fleet. A podcast project called the vault is joining
forces with Heath Radio so that even more people can become involved in
all areas of media production training. Former PR guru at BBC Radio 1,
Paul Simpson who is from Yateley is climbing on board to help Allan
Gibson & Paul Wisdom from Fleet to broaden the appeal of community
radio to the surrounding towns who will also be able to tune in and feel
more connected with Fleet.
We
know that residents of Fleet commute to nearby towns for work and
leisure so it makes sense that everyone should be able to listen on a
radio in places like Yateley , Farnborough and Camberley.
If
you are from those nearby areas and would benefit from the voice that
community radio could give your organisation, charitable event or a
local subject that you want to discuss then it's not too late to email a
support letter to hello@heathradio.co.uk
Another
step forward for the growing team - Hart District council are also
in discussions with Heath Radio CIC about sighting our vertical
broadcast antenna on top of the offices at Harlington Way.
24 July
Three Directors have been named. Allan
Gibson (Content Manager and fleethants.com), Melisa Montagon (Funding
Manager) and Paul Wisdom (Station Manager)
10 June
The prospect of a Local Radio station
has been boosted by a donation of £500 by the Fleet Lions.
30 May
A small board of directors for the
community interest company is coming together with the latest member ,
Mark Cater who is Content Director at BBC Sussex and Surrey offering his
support and help with training. He has recently trained volunteers from
Wey Valley Radio in Alton, Suzy Radio in Merstham. This includes two
three hour sessions at the studios in Guildford incorporating multimedia
provided by the The BBC Academy which covers best practice on covering
local news stories online through social media and broadcasting. This
also explained the differences between Libel, Defamation, Slander and
how to avoid other pitfalls when presenting.
The test transmission fee has kindly been donated by well known
community man Allan Gibson of www.fleethants.com
Alton Radio - Wey Valley has been able to launch for £4000 including a
donation by one of the directors of £1000. The amount of people who
have come forward with donations of time and money or new equipment has
been overwhelming. It really is the people of Alton's radio station and
I hope to replicate that good will in Fleet.
The essential costs will be:
Ofcom Application £600
Transmitter Install £1000
Ofcom Tests £250
Yearly
License Fee £600
PRS and PPL £2500
Liability Insurance £150
Transmit Insurance £50
Monthly
Broadband £50
Electricity £75
We will of course publicise local news
information and events for free but advertising local business will have
a part to play in the sustainability.
Sponsorship of a three hour breakfast
show Monday to Friday 7-10 am would cost £225 per month, including
three messages per hour , fifteen messages per week.
The same could apply to other shows and
hourly weather or what's on updates. A very reasonable price but the
lifeblood for the station to cover costs.
25th May
The
content
director for BBC Surrey has offered to help with training of potential volunteer
presenters and will also be a director on the small board of the
community interest company. This could help with the application in
July. A positive response to the request to site an antenna on the Hart
Council building has been offered by John Ellison, subject to contract.
Another possibility for an aerial would be Beacon Hill for FM coverage.
Fleet Lions have been approached for possible funding.
20
May
Fleet community radio will have two different strands of programming for daytime and evening with a team
of experienced and less experienced volunteers who will have access to training and benefit from being
part of a small community hub in the centre of the town. Offers gratefully accepted.
Following the Ofcom guidelines, members of community radio could broadcast their own shows
consisting of local interest that could include the arts such as drama, poetry, movies, or even mixing
house music.
We would also be attending the the town to bring the colour to the airwaves for some listeners who aren't able to attend for various reasons.
There will be training available from experienced presenters at places like the local BBC
Radio in Guildford who are helping Alton and with my own close links to Wey Valley Radio
in the smaller town who successfully applied to Ofcom, they are testing this month on 101.1 FM.
Seven councillors have already emailed since last week to get behind the Fleet station which bodes very well,
for a cost of £850 a year to Ofcom ( £ 650 for the application ) and then there is music licensing.
Fleet community radio will hopefully find a home within a council building and perhaps a chimney site for an antenna mast designed to look like a flag pole.
One thing that our small team of three volunteers need right away is a letter of support for the application.
Without any future obligation, do you think a charitable radio service that is dedicated to Fleet and the people within the town would be of benefit to society?
How do you think you would benefit ?
Thank you again and hope you will support an application for a local Fleet Community Radio
and respond as soon as you can by email to
paul@RadioForFleet.com
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