The Burn FM Limited - Ofcom Licensing

Number 1 for News
BURN FM will employ a fully staffed, independent and locally based newsroom –
supported by the resources of over 20 news and sports reporters at the
Lancashire Evening Telegraph, the six-days-a-week Blackburn-based local
newspaper. With the back-up of dedicated Evening Telegraph street reporters for
Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn, BURN FM will be first and fastest with the
local doorstep news and information that matters here.
Number 1 for Sport
BURN FM’s studios will be based at Ewood Park, the home of Blackburn Rovers
– the club who helped to pioneer the UK’s first match-day radio station, Radio
Rovers. As part of a comprehensive arrangement with the Football Club, BURN
FM will have 90 minute live coverage of all Rovers games, together with the latest
team news and club gossip – plus extensive reports on Accrington Stanley,
coverage of Lancashire, Northern and Ribblesdale league cricket and a whole
range of other local sports, including amateur local teams.
Number 1 for Music
BURN FM will have widespread popular appeal playing the best music from the
70s to today with a brilliant selection of current and classic hits alongside
entertaining and informative talk, guests and special events.
Number 1 for the Local Community
In line with its investors’ long-term strategy, BURN FM will be a traditional local
radio station at the heart of the community. BURN FM will work in close
partnership with local public, private and voluntary organisations to help promote
social cohesion, life-long learning, tolerance, active citizenship and community
development. Following their involvement in BURN FM’s four commerciallysuccessful
trial broadcasts, the Asian Business Federation and Blackburn
College are both represented on the board of the radio station, ensuring the
views and wishes of local ethnic groups and education establishments are
reflected in all aspects of BURN FM’s day-to-day operations.
Number 1 for Listeners and Advertisers
Through a policy of serving its audience first and integrating itself into community
affairs, BURN FM believes it will provide a service listeners love and come to rely
on as a true part of local life. For advertisers, BURN FM will be a vital
communication tool to reach their target market. With the support of Newsquest
Media, Milestone Radio and Blackburn Rovers, BURN FM will be able to deliver a
high-profile and well-resourced long-term sustainable radio business predicated
on ‘big’ station brand values but with high levels of customer service and care.
This is why so many local people are all saying BURN FM is the best choice
for our new local station, as witnessed by almost 1,200 letters and emails of
support over three years.
BURN FM – A SOUND BUSINESS CASE FOR A BIG LOCAL STATION.
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This application is split into seven sections, following the order suggested in
Ofcom’s guidance notes.
SECTION 1
GENERAL INFORMATION
PAGE 4
SECTION 2
OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL OF THE COMPANY WHICH WILL
OPERATE THE LICENCE
PAGE 7
SECTION 3
FINANCIAL AND BUSINESS PLAN
PAGE 22
SECTION 4
TRANSMISSION PROPOSALS
PAGE 43
SECTION 5
CATERING FOR TASTES AND INTERESTS / BROADENING
CHOICE
PAGE 50
SECTION 6
EVIDENCE OF LOCAL DEMAND OR SUPPORT
PAGE 85
SECTION 7
DECLARATION AND CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION
PAGE 108
APPENDIX
BURN FM MARKET RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE
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Name of Applicant & Contact Details
Name of Applicant:
THE BURN FM LIMITED
Pre-launch Address:
BURN FM
Newspaper House
High Street
Blackburn BB1 1HT
Telephone:
01254 298 295
Fax:
01254 581 622
Email:
info@burnfm.co.uk
The Company is registered in England and Wales Number 4276092 at 20 Marcham
Road, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 1AA. A copy of the Company’s certificate of
incorporation is enclosed in section 7 of this application.
Main contact for public purposes
Name:
Richard Matthewman, Chairman
Telephone (daytime):
01254 506 300
Address:
BURN FM
Newspaper House
High Street
Blackburn BB1 1HT
E-mail address:
richardm@burnfm.co.uk
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Main contact for Ofcom purposes
Website
BURN FM would be delighted to receive comments and suggestions from members
of the public on any aspects of the proposals set out in this application via the
station’s website:
www.burnfm.co.uk
Proposed Station Name
BURN FM
Brief Description of Programme Service
A BIG local station for Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn providing a mix of
music and talk that encompasses the whole community – with a focus on local
news and sport produced by a well-resourced team of journalists based in the
area – and broadcast alongside an exciting selection of current and classic hits
of wide popular appeal.
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Brief History of THE BURN FM LIMITED
On 28 th March 2000 Andy Craig of Milestone Radio wrote to the Radio Authority,
commenting that “Blackburn/Accrington/Darwen is a large community almost entirely
surrounded by high ground” and suggesting it should be considered for its own fulltime
commercial radio station.
In early 2001, the Fusion Radio Group, a new grouping of smaller stations of which
Milestone was a founder shareholder, joined forces with the Newsquest Media
Group, publishers of the Blackburn-based Lancashire Evening Telegraph, and
agreed to form a joint-venture company in order to conduct a Blackburn-based trial
radio broadcast. “FM 106 The Burn” (later abbreviated to “BURN FM”) was adopted
as the station’s name to appeal not only to the available audience in the borough of
Blackburn with Darwen, but also potential listeners in the neighbouring borough of
Hyndburn.
Regent Media Services, a North West-based radio consultancy run by Red Rose
founding director Peter Salt, was contracted by BURN FM to oversee the operation of
a trial broadcast, designed to prove to the Radio Authority the level of support for a
new full-time licence. Harry Pennington, then President of Blackburn Lions, was
recruited to help and advise the BURN FM team on forging links with the community
and its many charities and voluntary organisations – a role Harry will continue to play
post-licence award in conjunction with BURN FM’s Community Liaison Officer.
BURN FM’s first trial broadcast in September 2001 was a phenomenal success, with
news and sport supplied with the support of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph –
where temporary studios were based. Students from two of the UK’s most respected
journalism training courses, the University of Central Lancashire and University of
Salford, were heavily involved in the news operation on official work placements.
Support was provided by students of two local further education establishments –
Blackburn College and Accrington and Rossendale College.
Blackburn Rovers Football Club provided extensive assistance to BURN FM
including behind-the-scenes access to players and substantial promotional support.
In addition, a weekend “Asian Image” music, news and discussion-based magazine
programme was broadcast in close co-operation with both the Asian Image
newspaper and the Asian Business Federation.
With listener and advertiser response exceeding internal expectations, it was agreed
to set to work on a second trial broadcast, set for March 2002. Blackburn Rovers
accepted an invitation to formally join BURN FM as a shareholder in the company,
following a meeting with Andy Craig and Dan Cass of Milestone Radio. A series of
presentations was held with local opinion formers, many of whom wrote letters of
support for BURN FM’s licence campaign (all of which were passed to the Radio
Authority). In May 2003, the Authority announced that it was adding Blackburn to its
‘working list’ of areas it intended to advertise new FM radio licences.
The further trial broadcasts in March 2002, September 2002 and April 2003 were all
considerable commercial successes – so much so BURN FM would have carried on
with more trial broadcasts if the Radio Authority rules had allowed! The level of
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epeat advertising was high and, in total, BURN FM raised £96,000 over four trial
broadcasts from a base of 70 different advertisers.
BURN FM was established with a view to encouraging community development. Two
of those most associated with this cause, Lord Patel of Blackburn, and Sheena
Ewing, then Principal of Blackburn College (the largest educational establishment in
East Lancashire) were founder directors. Having retired from the college earlier this
year Sheena’s place on the board has now been taken by the Vice Principal, Jane
Cowell, also an early supporter of the station. BURN FM is committed to continuing
to work with Blackburn College and other educational establishments to seek to raise
the level of skills and promote the economic development of Blackburn, Darwen and
Hyndburn.
BURN FM’s shareholders remain unchanged – having worked together since 2001
the group remains as focussed now as the day it was formed. From the start, the
shareholders agreed they would not put their name to any new radio station that was
not well-resourced, highly professional and capable of providing a very high quality
news, sport and music service that would be locally based. The shareholders
recognise that a licence to broadcast is a privilege – not a right – and are proud to
submit this application to Ofcom for the independent local radio licence for the
community that the group and its directors are already an established part of.
Board of Directors
The BURN FM team is well known locally, approachable and highly respected.
BURN FM believes having a local board of directors comprising local knowledge,
business experience and media expertise is important for a new licence of this
nature.
Following the award of the licence the position of Managing Director will be
advertised in order to attract a suitable high-calibre candidate from across the radio
industry. The Managing Director of BURN FM will be appointed to the board.
A profile of each of the BURN FM’s directors follows.
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Richard Matthewman, Non-Executive Chairman
NAME Richard Leslie Matthewman
OCCUPATION
DATE WHEN APPOINTED DIRECTOR
OF BURN FM
HOME ADDRESS
Managing Director, The Neales Waste Management Group
of Companies
November 2003
Alum Scar, Pleasington Road, Pleasington, Blackburn BB2
6RA
AGE 49
DATE OF BIRTH 1/2/55
NATIONALITY British
Neales Waste Management Limited, Blackburn Rovers
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – CURRENT Football & Athletic Club PLC, Quercia Limited, Clayton Hall
Sand Company Limited
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – LAPSED
IN PAST FIVE YEARS
None
OTHER MEDIA INTERESTS None
PROMINENT LOCAL BUSINESSMAN AND VICE-CHAIRMAN OF BLACKBURN ROVERS
Richard brings to BURN FM many years experience of company
management, especially smaller companies, operating experience in market
and business development and a strong knowledge of Blackburn, Darwen
and Hyndburn gained over 24 years living in the area and active involvement
in a number of community initiatives.
Richard lives locally in Pleasington and manages the specialist waste
management business based in Blackburn – Neales Waste – which he set
up in 1991. The company is well respected for its commitment to the
environment and won the Business Environment Award for Environmental
Innovation and Environmental Management in 2003. The company employs
over 100 staff and has a strong commitment to staff development, winning
the 2003 Lancashire Evening Telegraph Business Award for workforce
development.
Richard is well known locally as Vice Chair of Blackburn Rovers and helped BURN FM gain its profile at
Rovers games during its first and subsequent three trial broadcasts from 2001 onwards. Richard was
also instrumental in establishing the football club’s relationship with Radio Rovers, the first football club
AM radio station in the UK.
As a council member of Lancashire Football Association Richard is keen to see a new radio station
provide coverage to the area’s smaller teams and leagues.
Richard is a keen supporter of youth and social development and through his waste management
companies he is responsible for using the landfill tax credit scheme to fund a range of local community
and special school projects
Richard is chairman of Blackburn Rovers Football in the Community Forum which is involved in
promoting a wide range of sporting, social and educational activities to those from the age of four to
pensioners. Richard is also a committee member for the Princes Trust North West Business
Development raising money to enable young people to get business ideas off the ground. He stays in
touch with many of the young people involved and is proud of the fact that 70% of the businesses
supported are still going after three years.
Richard supports Blackburn Rovers work with Lancashire Fire Brigade to help disadvantaged young
people into further education and employment. He is part of the committee for Macmillan Nurses that
raised £350k to fund two nurses for Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn area. In his spare time he plays
golf at Pleasington Golf Club and enjoys the theatre. Richard’s four children attend local schools.
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Brian Chester, Non-Executive Director
NAME Brian Robert Chester
OCCUPATION Finance Director, Milestone Group PLC
DATE WHEN APPOINTED DIRECTOR
OF BURN FM
HOME ADDRESS
August 2001
AGE 53
DATE OF BIRTH 07/09/51
NATIONALITY British
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – CURRENT
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – LAPSED
IN PAST FIVE YEARS
OTHER MEDIA INTERESTS None
Millstone, 39 Windmill Field, Windlesham, Surrey GU20
6QD
Andover FM Limited, Aroma Broadcasting Limited, Banbury FM Limited, Blackburn FM
Limited, Chesterbrwn Consultants Limited, CKFM Kernow Limited, Cornwall FM
Limited, Courier Newspapers (Oxford) Limited, Courier Publication (Oxford) Limited,
Fusion Radio Group Limited, Fusion Radio Management Limited, Fusion Radio Sales
Limited, Jazztech Limited, Kestrel FM Limited, Kick FM (West Berkshire) Limited, Links
Investments Limited, Milestone FM Limited, Milestone Group PLC, Milestone Pictures
Limited, Milestone Radio Holdings Limited, Milestone Television Company Limited,
Newbury Community Radio (Investments) Limited, Passion Radio (Oxford) Limited,
Reading Broadcasting Company Limited, Reading Radio Limited, Rugby Broadcasting
Company Limited, SIX TV Limited, SIX TV Portsmouth Limited, SIX TV Southampton
Limited, Soundview Investments Limited, Spa FM Limited, The Milestone Radio
Company Limited, Tri Media Publishing Limited, West Berkshire Radio Limited
Time FM 106.8 Limited, Fusion 107.3 FM Limited
FINANCE DIRECTOR OF MILESTONE GROUP AND RESPONSIBILE FOR BURN FM’S FINANCIAL
REPORTING, CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Brian was a founding director of BURN FM and welcomes the opportunity to put
his local radio knowledge to work to develop opportunities in an area with which
he is very familiar. Brian and the finance team at Milestone have provided
finance and accounting services to BURN FM from the outset and will continue
to do so post-licence award.
Brian was born and grew up in Preston before going to Durham University in
1970. He left Durham in 1973 with a Physics degree and joined Philips
Electronics Finance Graduate Trainee programme. His initial placement was at
the Mullard Glass and Tube factories just outside Blackburn and Brian studied
at Blackburn College. In 1975 he transferred to MEL Crawley, the Philips’
defence subsidiary, before taking up a Group Management accounting role
where the Mullard factories continued to be part of his overall portfolio.
In 1979, Brian joined Polygram in the Netherlands where he headed up the Group Accounting
Directives. In 1982, he was appointed Financial Controller of London subsidiary, Polygram Video which
distributed film, TV and video programmes before moving back to MEL Crawley as Financial Controller,
in 1985.
In 1987, Brian became Financial Controller of Bourne Publicity Ltd, the UK’s largest independent
supplier of promotional and incentive merchandise. He was instrumental in negotiating the sale of the
company to Bemrose Corporation Plc where he became Divisional Director of Finance.
Brian joined the Fusion Radio Group as Finance Director in April 2000. Since joining Fusion, he has
played a pivotal financial role during the Company’s embryonic stage of development through the
acquisition of the first three stations, merger with Milestone Radio and subsequent flotation as part of
Milestone Group PLC.
Brian is a non-executive director of all Milestone’s operating companies and, as such, has witnessed the
benefits to Reading 107 FM of working in cooperation with Reading Football Club as well as being
involved in the successful launch of Rugby FM. Brian’s understanding of Milestone’s radio interests
provides a considerable knowledge of the financial workings and practices of smaller stations which will
continue to be invaluable to BURN FM in its formative years.
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Jane Cowell, Non-Executive Director
NAME Jane Cowell
OCCUPATION College, Vice Principal
DATE WHEN APPOINTED DIRECTOR
OF BURN FM
June 2004
HOME ADDRESS 27 Renaissance Way, Crewe, CW1 6HT
AGE 51
DATE OF BIRTH 16/09/53
NATIONALITY British
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – CURRENT
Trustee of Northern Education Advice and
Resettlement Service (a charity working with offenders)
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – LAPSED
IN PAST FIVE YEARS
None
OTHER MEDIA INTERESTS None
VICE PRINCIPAL OF BLACKBURN COLLEGE – ACTIVE IN PROMOTING COMMUNITY COHESION
AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE AREA
Jane Cowell is Vice Principal of Blackburn College of Further and
Higher Education, providing academic and vocational education to
some 4,000 young people and circa 18,000 adults drawn from
Blackburn with Darwen and the surrounding areas. The College
reflects the ethnic diversity of the area and building community
cohesion is one of its key objectives.
Prior to joining the Further Education sector, Jane worked for national
charities concerned with education and disadvantage (NACO,
NIACE), within local authorities and with the National Funding Council
for Further Education. Jane spent a period working on a self
employed basis and was a consultant to Baroness Helena Kennedy
QC, working with her on the production of her seminal report on
widening participation in Further Education. Early in her career Jane
worked as a research economist with the Confederation of British
Industry.
Raising the aspirations of young people and the community generally
to gain skills and to contribute to and benefit from economic prosperity in the locality is essential to the
work of Blackburn College. Jane was instrumental with Sheena Ewing, then Principal of Blackburn
College, in helping to establish the college’s links with BURN FM (Sheena was a board member of
BURN FM from the inception of the project until her retirement in July 2004). Jane believes that local
radio provides an important means of contacting and engaging with the community and that BURN FM’s
proposed programme schedule will be a key vehicle for community engagement.
Blackburn College is active in the wider community and works closely with a host of community and
voluntary organisations such as the Asian Business Federation, the Chamber of Commerce,
Groundwork Trust, the Council for Voluntary Service and the Salvation Army to name but a few.
Jane supports the depth of commitment to Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn demonstrated by BURN
FM and the effort made to involve Blackburn College and others in the development of the identity of the
station and to provide citizenship education to students.
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Andy Craig, Non-Executive Director
NAME Andrew Timms Craig
OCCUPATION Chief Executive, Milestone Group PLC
DATE WHEN APPOINTED DIRECTOR
OF BURN FM
November 2001
HOME ADDRESS West Barn, Manor Farm, Oare, Hermitage RG18 9SB
AGE 49
DATE OF BIRTH 5/12/54
NATIONALITY British
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – CURRENT
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – LAPSED
IN PAST FIVE YEARS
Andover FM Limited, Aroma Broadcasting Limited, Banbury FM Limited,
Banbury Radio Limited, Basingstoke Observer Limited, Courier Newspapers
(Oxford) Limited, Courier Publications (Oxford) Limited, CKFM Kernow Limited,
Contemporary Enterprises plc, Cross FM Limited, Freedom of Speech Limited,
Fusion Radio Holdings Limited, Independent Local Media Limited, Kestrel FM
Limited, ListenEar Limited, Little Tinker Limited, MGH Investments Limited,
Milestone Group PLC, Milestone Pictures Limited, Milestone Radio Holdings
Limited, Milestone Television Company Limited, Orbi-Tel Limited, Owlport
Limited, Passion Radio (Oxford) Limited, Reading Broadcasting Company
Limited, Reading Television Limited, Ridge FM Limited, Rugby Broadcasting
Company Limited, Show TV Limited, SIX TV Limited, SIX TV Portsmouth
Limited, SIX TV Southampton Limited, Soundview Investments Limited, Spa
FM Limited, The Milestone Radio Company Limited, Themenote Limited, Tri
Media Publishing Limited, West Berkshire Radio Limited, Youth FM Limited
Academy Line Limited, AuSPeD Limited, Dicemove Limited, Jazztech Limited,
Little Tinker Limited, Milestone FM Limited, Milestone MD Limited, Oak FM
Limited, Oxford Broadcasting Limited, Reading Radio Limited, Sail In Limited,
The Quay Radio Limited, Time FM 106.8 Limited
OTHER MEDIA INTERESTS Andy is engaged on a freelance basis by ITV plc
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF MILESTONE GROUP AND ONE OF THE UK’S LONGEST-STANDING
PROPONENTS OF THE ‘SMALL-SCALE’ TIER OF RADIO LICENCES WITH SIGNIFICANT
UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TO MAXIMISE THEIR POTENTIAL BOTH ON AND OFF THE AIR
Andy is well known as an enthusiastic supporter of the ‘small scale’ tier of
radio licences which, he feels, have often proven most successful when
properly resourced from day one as an integral part of the areas they
serve and not just as ‘satellites’ of other stations.
Andy was born in Lancashire and spent much of his childhood playing
football in Blackburn. Andy’s experience in professional broadcasting
spans more than 25 years, mainly in the field of radio and television news
and current affairs. Andy has a long list of broadcast credits including
‘The Time The Place’, ‘This Morning’, ‘Sporting Triangles’, ‘Daytime Live’,
and ‘Going Going Gone’.
Nine years ago Andy founded the Milestone Group, of which he is Chief
Executive, with a view to developing niche broadcasting opportunities
and, in particular, bringing back some of the values of ‘localness’ which
Andy felt had gradually been eroded in a great deal of regional and local broadcasting.
Andy continues to champion radio licences that serve smaller audiences, recognising the role they are
capable of playing in community development, particularly when locally-managed and focussed. Andy
and Milestone Radio advocate high quality local content for their services that helps to distinguish
stations at this level from their larger competitors.
Working with the national youth charity UK Youth Andy helped set up Youth FM (the official radio station
of the Millennium Festival in the year 2000) and he continues to support projects and initiatives to use
media to inspire young people to become active citizens.
Having first written to the Radio Authority suggesting a licence for Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn in
March 2000 Andy has provided advice and support to BURN FM since before its first trial broadcast. He
brings to the board his experience of making smaller stations work whilst maintaining sensible cost
controls. Andy is married with two young children.
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Lord Patel of Blackburn, Non-Executive
Director
NAME Adam Hafejee Patel
OCCUPATION Member of the House of Lords
DATE WHEN APPOINTED DIRECTOR
OF BURN FM
HOME ADDRESS
AGE 64
DATE OF BIRTH 7/6/40
November 2001
Snodworth Hall, Snodworth Road, Langho, Blackburn
BB6 8DS
NATIONALITY British
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – CURRENT
Blackburn City Challenge, Careers Enterprise, East
Lancashire Training Enterprise Council
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – LAPSED
IN PAST FIVE YEARS
Careers Enterprise Limited, Enterprise plc
OTHER MEDIA INTERESTS None
ONE OF BLACKBURN’S MOST ACTIVE AND RESPECTED RESIDENTS
AND FOUNDER SUPPORTER OF BURN FM
Adam is one of Blackburn’s most well-known retired businessmen and
remains active within the local community. On 1 st January 2000, Adam
was appointed a member of the House of Lords and became known
locally as “The Millennium Lord”. He has supported BURN FM since
visiting its first trial broadcast in September 2001.
Adam was born in the Broach district of Gujarat, India. He arrived in
England in 1966 and worked as an accountant for ten years. His career
accomplishments include founding The Comet Clothing Company and,
as managing director from 1976 to his retirement in 1997, built the
company to become one of the largest employers in the town. He
became the Chairman of the UK Haj Committee and Leader of the British
Haj delegation in 2001.
Adam is keen to encourage more young Asians to enter broadcasting
and hopes that BURN FM’s association with local educational
establishments will help to inspire more young Asians to consider a career in journalism and media. He
brings to BURN FM a commitment to building good community relations, his considerable knowledge of
the area and its people and his strong desire to see the station succeed as a resource for the whole of
the local community.
Adam has special interests in education, training and retraining of life skills, all aspects of trade and
community relations, the economy, regeneration, ethnic minority health concerns and religious
understanding. Although he has been involved all his life in community and social work, he takes a keen
interest in gardening and sport, particularly in football and cricket.
A full list of the posts Adam Patel has had and currently holds is included on page 21 of this application.
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Harry Pennington, Non-Executive Director
NAME Harry Pennington
OCCUPATION Retired Managing Director
DATE WHEN APPOINTED DIRECTOR
OF BURN FM
November 2001
HOME ADDRESS 17 The Spinney, Beardwood, Blackburn BB2 7BN
AGE 61
DATE OF BIRTH 28/1/43
NATIONALITY British
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – CURRENT None
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – LAPSED
IN PAST FIVE YEARS
MG Telecommunications Limited
OHER MEDIA INTERESTS None
LOCALLY-BORN AND BRED FORMER PRESIDENT OF BLACKBURN LIONS, CURRENT CAPTAIN
OF BLACKBURN GOLF CLUB AND LOCAL CHARITY FUNDRAISER
Harry has been an active member for the past 20 years and
past President of Blackburn Lions, a charity organisation which
raises money to help disadvantaged people in the area. Harry
became involved with BURN FM at the outset in early 2001. He
was the person named on the application for each of the four
trial broadcasts and he actively helped during those hectic
weeks. Harry’s wife, Julie, did not get off lightly – she acted as
BURN FM’s assistant manager!
Harry was born and bred in Blackburn and attended St John’s
Primary School and St Peter’s Secondary Modern School
where he was Head Boy. Harry was baptised, confirmed and
married at St. John the Evangelist Church in the town where he
was Head Chorister and an altar boy. He graduated from
church music to Rock & Roll and has been involved in local rock
groups as singer/guitarist for many years.
Harry is by trade a Chartered Engineer (MIEE) and spent much
of his career working for BT, managing business sales and
external networks. Harry was admitted as an Honorary Fellow
of the BT Telecommunications Engineering Staff College in
1998 in recognition of his contribution to the institution. Harry took early retirement from BT in 1991 and
became a Telecommunications Consultant travelling extensively throughout Africa, America, Europe
and the Middle East undertaking various commissions such as one for the World Bank in The Gambia,
advising on the suitability of a fibre-optic network to partially replace the GAMTEL main telephone
network.
In 1994, Harry was approached and subsequently appointed as Managing Director of MG
Telecommunications, a company installing telephone and cable TV networks for BT and other major
network providers world-wide. Over a period of six years he increased turnover from £7.5m to £26m. In
the year 2000, in line with his life plan, Harry retired from business at the age of 57.
Harry is a keen golfer and currently Captain of Blackburn Golf Club. He has four children and five
grandchildren, and he is pleased to say they all live in the area.
Harry brings to the Board business skills, experience and time commitment as well as enthusiasm for a
local commercial radio station and a wealth of local knowledge and extensive contacts with local people
and businesses. Most of all Harry is well known and loved throughout the broadcast area and he
relishes the opportunity to meet even more people to explain to them how they can benefit their
organisations through BURN FM!
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Chris Hughes, Non-Executive Director
NAME Christopher John Hughes
OCCUPATION Regional Managing Director
DATE WHEN APPOINTED DIRECTOR
OF BURN FM
September 2004
HOME ADDRESS Caer Aney House, Parc Plas Aney, Mold Flintshire
AGE 38
DATE OF BIRTH 06/02/66
NATIONALITY British
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – CURRENT
Wire FM Limited, Plas Aney Management Company
Limited
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – LAPSED Chamber of Commerce Warrington and Cheshire
IN PAST FIVE YEARS
Limited, Business Venture Limited
ANY MEDIA INTERESTS None
REGIONAL DIRECTOR RESPONSIBLE FOR LANCASHIRE EVENING TELEGRAPH AND STRONG
SUPPORTER OF CROSS-MEDIA SYNERGIES BETWEEN RADIO AND NEWSPAPERS
Chris is the Regional Managing Director for Newsquest’s North
West titles which include the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, Bolton
Evening News, The Westmorland Gazette and the Warrington
Guardian. He has held this position since January 2004, prior to
which he was Managing Director of the Guardian Series
newspapers in Cheshire.
Chris also represents Newsquest’s investment in Wire FM and sits
on that station’s board.
As an accountant by qualification, Chris has held a number of
senior management positions within the regional newspaper
industry, including Trinity Mirror, where he was Financial Director
for North Wales Independent Press and Group Circulation Director
for Cheshire Chronicle and Associated Newspapers.
As Regional Managing Director, Chris is responsible for all of the
publications of Newsquest Lancashire including:
* The Lancashire Evening Telegraph, founded in 1886, one
of Britain’s leading evening newspapers providing four
localised editions six days a week
* The Blackburn Citizen Group, a free weekly tabloid newspaper for the towns of Blackburn,
Darwen and Accrington
* Asian Image, established in 1998, a free monthly Asian newspaper for Lancashire and the
North West
Chris feels strongly that a new radio station should live up to the quality expectations of listeners and
advertisers in the area and, in particular, provide an unrivalled independent local news service for
Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn.
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Khalid Saifullah, Non-Executive Director
NAME Khalid Saifullah
OCCUPATION Chief Executive Officer, Asian Business Federation
DATE WHEN APPOINTED DIRECTOR
OF BURN FM
November 2003
HOME ADDRESS 25 Lynwood Road, Blackburn, Lancashire, BB2 6HP
AGE 30
DATE OF BIRTH 09/06/1974
NATIONALITY British
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – CURRENT Asian Business Federation Limited, Groundwork Trust
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – LAPSED
IN PAST FIVE YEARS
None
OTHER MEDIA INTERESTS None
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF BLACKBURN-BASED ASIAN BUSINESS FEDERATION AND FOUNDER OF
ASIAN IMAGE NEWSPAPER
Khalid is the founder and Chief Executive of the Asian Business
Federation (ABF) – a not-for-profit organisation committed to
maximising sustainable growth and increasing profitability and
competitiveness in ethnic minority businesses in Lancashire.
Membership of ABF is open to all businesses, regardless of the
ethnic heritage of their ownership. Over 1,000 businesses have
joined the ABF since it was launched in February 2001 and, last
year, ABF assisted over 120 individuals to start a business. The
ABF is a federation of businesses and a gateway to access a
complete range of business support and training solutions as well
as encouraging entrepreneurship in schools and the community.
Khalid, in common with the ABF, believes the foundation of a
unified and tolerant society is a vibrant local economy and ABF
seeks to create an atmosphere where businesses can celebrate
their diversity and success and realise the important role ethnic
minority businesses play in growing and sustaining the regional
economy. Under Khalid’s management last year ABF itself
became an accredited Investor in People.
Khalid graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a BSc in Manufacturing Management.
He started his career by running his family business, which he developed into a leading paper
disposables company. He left to set up Image Promotions & Publications, a company specialising in
developing communication strategies and publications aimed at the ethnic market. In 1998 Khalid set up
Asian Image, the highly-respected monthly newspaper targeting Asians in Lancashire, which was
acquired by Newsquest Lancashire in 2001. Khalid is also a Confederation of Business and Industry
(CBI) Regional Councillor, Director of the environmental projects charity Groundwork Trust and a
Director of Blackburn with Darwen Racial Equality Council.
Khalid assisted with the Asian Image show on three out of four of BURN FM’s trial broadcasts. Khalid
also assisted the station behind the scenes, helping to put the station in touch with a number of
businesses who advertised on the broadcasts including the major local employer, Time Computers.
Khalid believes it is important to encourage ‘integration’ rather than ‘segregation’ in BURN FM’s
everyday output. As founder of the Asian Image newspaper Khalid sought to target a young, dynamic
Asian audience and recognises the importance of BURN FM to enable businesses of all origins to reach
out to the whole of the local community and to provide a source of community-wide information and
entertainment.
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John Williams, Non-Executive Director
NAME John Williams
OCCUPATION Chief Executive Officer
DATE WHEN APPOINTED DIRECTOR
OF BURN FM
HOME ADDRESS
November 2001
3 Wolsey Drive, Bowden, Altrincham, Cheshire WA14
3QU
AGE 55
DATE OF BIRTH 2/3/49
NATIONALITY British
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – CURRENT Likeaballs Soccer Limited, Physio4U Limited
OTHER APPOINTMENTS – LAPSED
IN PAST FIVE YEARS
Castlefield Heritage Trust
OTHER MEDIA INTERESTS Small shareholder in ITV plc
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF BLACKBURN ROVERS WITH SUBSTANTIAL START-UP BUSINESS
EXPERTISE
John’s background is in running media and entertainment
businesses having had a career with the Granada Group, which
spanned 18 years. John joined Blackburn Rovers in 1997 as Chief
Executive and has developed a number of business opportunities
for the club which, by its nature, brings him into contact with many
organisations across the area.
John’s career in Granada started at Granada Television where his
roles included Head of Studio Operations, Head of Design and
Head of Film. .
Having established himself firmly within Granada Television John
was asked to open Granada Studios Tour. He started this
business from scratch and it soon became an award winning
tourist attraction, with 750,000 visitors a year. On the back of this success he became the CEO at the
Granada Entertainments Division which encompassed hotels, theme parks, nightclubs and bowling
clubs.
After a number of years running the Entertainments Division John assumed responsibility for Granada
Travel Lodge and Little Chefs.
John is proud of the position Blackburn Rovers holds as a focal point for the local community, from
which its support is drawn. As is well documented in this application, the Blackburn Rovers in the
Community (BRIC) department runs a comprehensive programme of football related activities, involving
ladies, ethnic minorities and disability groups.
Rovers participate fully in the national Anti-Racism campaigns and the Club is also a member of the
Cultural Harmony Forum, a group formed by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council to develop a
Community Cohesion strategy for Blackburn with Darwen.
All programmes run by the Club’s Education Department – Educate at Ewood – are designed to meet
the National Curriculum requirements, using the environment and medium of football as a route to other
knowledge, skills and understanding. Rovers are proud to have achieved national recognition through
the Quality in Study Support (QiSS) scheme, and which provides access to ‘learning through football’ for
literally thousands of pupils from across the area every year. Through links with Blackburn with
Darwen’s ‘Education Action Zone’ and community groups across the region, Rovers reaches out into the
community in many varied ways. As such, John feels Rovers has a significant contribution to make in
helping to deliver a truly local commercial radio station for Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn.
John enjoys sports, reading and playing guitar.
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Proposed Investors and Shareholding Structure
BURN FM will be fully-funded by its shareholders without recourse to debt or HP
finance. The company will be capitalised immediately upon award of the licence, as
set out below.
FULL NAME & REGISTERED
ADDRESS OF INVESTOR
Blackburn Rovers Football &
Athletic plc
Ewood Park, Blackburn BB2 4JF
Milestone Radio Holdings
Limited
20 Marcham Road
Abingdon OX14 1AA
Newsquest (Investments)
Limited
58 Church Street,
Weybridge KT13 8DP
Harry Pennington
17 The Spinney, Beardwood,
Blackburn BB2 7BN
NO OF ORDINARY SHARES
TO BE HELD
(% of total share capital)
- 19 of 122 -
FUNDING COMMITMENT
UPON LICENCE AWARD
150,000 (20%) £150,000
281,250 (37.5%) £281,250
281,250 (37.5%) £281,250
18,750 (2.5%) £18,750
Regent Media Services
Limited
1A Eastdale Road, Wavertree,
Liverpool L15 4HN
18,750 (2.5%) £18,750
TOTAL 750,000 (100%) £750,000
All share capital comprises ordinary voting shares issued at the nominal value of £1.00.
Loans from the major shareholders to fund the application process will be written-off upon
award of the licence. A ‘standard’ form shareholders agreement is already drafted by lawyers
to BURN FM and primarily exists to provide the usual pre-emption rights normally found in a
company of this nature. It has been agreed in principle by all parties and a copy is provided to
Ofcom in the Confidential Appendix to this application.
Newsquest (Investments) Limited is an investment holding company of Gannett U.K. Limited,
the controlling company of the Newsquest Media Group in the United Kingdom. Newsquest
(Investments) Limited’s ultimate parent company is Gannett Co., Inc, a company incorporated
in the United States of America. The Newsquest Media Group is the largest regional publisher
in England and Wales providing highly local news and information in local markets across a
large part of the UK.
Ofcom already holds details on Milestone Radio Holdings Limited (“Milestone Radio”),
formerly Fusion Radio Holdings Limited, which is the radio holding company of Milestone
Group PLC (“Milestone Group”). Milestone Group is an AIM-listed media group which,
through its group companies, owns and operates a number of media interests focussed on
delivering news, information and entertainment services in local markets primarily funded by
commercial advertising.
Further details on all shareholders in BURN FM Limited and their directors and investors is
available to Ofcom on request.

Involvement of the Applicant in Specified Activities
Advertising agencies
We wish to make Ofcom aware that Blackburn Rovers own a marketing and design agency
(“Touch”).
Newspapers
Milestone Group’s publishing division publishes a number of titles, none of which cover
Blackburn, Darwen or Hyndburn.
Newsquest Media Group, through its subsidiaries, publishes over 300 titles in England and
Wales, including those published by Newsquest Lancashire Limited which cover Blackburn,
Darwen and Hyndburn. In particular, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph (LET) is the flagship
newspaper for the region, with four separate daily editions.
A full list of Newsquest Media Group’s and Milestone Group’s newspaper titles in the United
Kingdom can be supplied to Ofcom on request. In addition, further information is publicly
available on-line at www.newsquest.co.uk and www.milestone.co.uk
Other broadcasting interests
Milestone Group’s radio division wholly owns Passion Radio (Oxford) Limited (Passion
107.9) and has a controlling interest in Kestrel FM Limited (Kestrel FM), West Berkshire
Radio Limited (Kick FM) and Rugby Broadcasting Company Limited (Rugby FM). Milestone
Group also is also the joint-leading shareholder with a 37% interest in Reading Broadcasting
Company Limited (Reading 107 FM). In addition, Milestone Radio is involved in a number of
groups campaigning for new FM radio licences. Milestone Group’s television division wholly
own companies that hold the local television (RSL) licences for Oxford, Reading,
Southampton and Portsmouth.
Newsquest Media Group and its subsidiaries own 20.06% of Wire FM 1997 Limited (Wire
FM), 22.55% of 5 Valleys Radio (Stroud) Limited (Star FM) and 31.68% of BCR FM Limited
(BCR FM). Newsquest Media Group has been involved in a number of radio licence
applications and continues to explore appropriate opportunities to further its radio interests.
Newsquest Media Group is ultimately owned by Gannett Co. Inc of Arlington, Virginia, USA. A
full list of Gannett’s international broadcast interests can be supplied to Ofcom on request.
Blackburn Rovers has a contractual arrangement with Create TV Limited to support, finance
and collect advertising revenue from the independently-licensed match-day Restricted
Service Licence “Radio Rovers”.
Nick Hall, Business Development Manager of Blackburn Rovers is an alternate Director for
John Williams on the BURN FM board. Nick is currently a non-executive director of Red Rose
Limited (Rock FM). Emap Group (controllers of Red Rose) are aware of Nick’s involvement
with BURN FM.
Bodies whose objects are wholly or mainly of a religious nature
Not Applicable
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Bodies whose objects are wholly or mainly of a political nature
Lord Patel of Blackburn is a member of the Labour group in the House of Lords.
Local authorities
Not applicable
Other publicly-funded bodies
Jane Cowell is Vice Principal of Blackburn College. Ian Clinton, Principal of Blackburn
College, is an alternate director to Jane Cowell on the board of BURN FM.
Khalid Saifullah is Chief Executive of the Asian Business Federation which receives funding
from the North West Regional Development Agency and other publicly funded bodies.
The majority of the directors are involved in various forms with supporting the work of publicly
funded bodies, as outlined in their profiles.
In particular, Lord Patel of Blackburn has been serving the community for the last four
decades and has held the following posts:
* Chairman, Blackburn & District Commonwealth Friendship Society 1966-1967
* Founder member, Blackburn with Darwen Racial Equality Council and subsequently
its Treasurer, Vice Chairman and Chairman, currently its honorary Vice President
* Founder, General Secretary of Blackburn Indian Workers Association 1967-1974 and
its President from 1977 to present
* Founder Chairman and former President of the Lancashire Council of Mosques 1989
– 1999
* Member of Lancashire County Council’s Standing Advisory Council on Religious
Education
* Magistrate for the Divisional Petty Sessions of Blackburn 1984-1995
* Honorary Vice President of the Heart of Lancashire Trust (NHS) – current
* Member of the North West Conciliation Committee of the Race Relations Board –
current
* Non Executive Director of Lancashire Enterprises plc since its inception until 2000
* Founder Director of Lancashire Training and Enterprise Council since its inception
until to date
* Founder director of Blackburn Partnership from its inception to present time
* Executive member of Blackburn City Challenge and its forward strategy group from
1983 to 1998
* Member of the Ethnic Minority Panel of Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley
Health Trust – current
* Member of the Home Secretary’s Race Relations Advisory Forum – current
* Member and Trustee of East Lancashire Radial Harassment Partnership – current
* One of five national councillors of Muslim Council of Britain
* President of Asian Business Federation – current
* Joint Chairman with the Bishop of Blackburn of the Christian / Muslim Interfaith
Forum
* Chairman and Trustee of Westbrook House Community Centre, Blackburn
* Director of Careers Services Enterprises - current
* Awarded Honorary Fellowship of Bolton Institute
* Awarded Honorary Fellowship of University of Central Lancashire
- 21 of 122 -

Overall Financial Strategy
BURN FM’s overall financial strategy, as set out in this section, is to fully
resource and fund a highly local and sustainable programming service which
will become the ‘number 1’ station for locally orientated programming and,
through quality management and staff, will deliver a focussed and cost
effective advertising outlet that plays an integral role in community
development, providing a return to shareholders over the course of the licence.
Mission Statement
To deliver a highly professional, truly local and long-term sustainable commercial
radio station for all the people of Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn.
Summary of Business Plan
Burn FM will be fully resourced to ensure success
The BURN FM partnership consists of three companies with a long term commitment
to develop a new Blackburn-based commercial radio station.
The Lancashire Evening Telegraph (Newsquest Media Group) is the region’s premier
local news publisher; Blackburn Rovers is at the very heart of the community whilst
Milestone Radio brings a wealth of experience and expertise in the establishment
and operation of the smaller tier of local commercial radio.
The capitalisation of BURN FM at £750,000 demonstrates the commitment of the
shareholders to invest substantially to establish the station and ensure it becomes
the ‘number 1’ commercial radio station within its broadcast area as quickly as
possible. The marketing support of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and Blackburn
Rovers will be vital in helping BURN FM to meet this objective.
The company will be fully funded by its major shareholders. The investors in BURN
FM believe that the initial capitalisation will allow the station to trade (even at more
pessimistic revenue levels than those in the financial projections) from launch –
without a requirement for further funding. Like any commercial company a primary
objective is to achieve profitability as early as possible – but without compromising
BURN FM’s long-term audience or revenue success.
It is recognised that, despite the currently small proportion of Blackburn, Darwen and
Hyndburn clients advertising on other commercial radio stations, the reaction of
competitors (including the BBC) for audience cannot be predicted. All corporate
shareholders have indicated their willingness to provide further funding should it be
required.
The BURN FM board believes that a well-launched, well-resourced and wellmanaged
radio station for Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn will become selffinancing.
BURN FM’s shareholders are committed to the company for the long-term,
as demonstrated by the submission of six year financial projections within the
Confidential Appendix to this application.
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BURN FM is a commercial company and the shareholders will be investing with a
view to making a modest return on investment by way of dividend once the station is
fully established.
Both the Newsquest Media Group and Milestone Radio have well documented
strategies that recognise the convergence of media and the benefits that cross-media
can bring. The investment in BURN FM is an extension of this strategy and the
companies will work together to examine the ways in which the BURN FM brand can
be extended once the radio station is established.
Blackburn Rovers, one of the area’s largest employers, already understands the
power of commercial radio in maintaining and raising awareness of the activities of
the club. The club currently works with the AM match-day radio station, Radio
Rovers. BURN FM is in the advantageous position to negotiate full commentary
rights for all first team fixtures home and away and BURN FM will be based within the
club itself. The symbiotic relationship that can grow between the radio station and the
football club at the heart of the community is strengthened with Blackburn Rovers
fully involved as a shareholder of BURN FM.
When new listeners discover BURN FM, they will be impressed by its
professionalism and its locally-focussed commitment. Despite the substantial launch
marketing effort, in a community such as Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn, word of
mouth will be one of the most effective forms of communication. If local people do not
feel the station meets the ‘big, confident’ sound highlighted as important in research,
BURN FM will struggle to win a place in local hearts and minds. From day one,
BURN FM will sound as though it is already fully established in the community.
BURN FM will be a valued community resource and an effective advertising medium.
The shareholders are committed to its long-term success and a sustainable business
will be developed.
BURN FM’s shareholders are not just staking their investment and their reputation on
the new station’s success. Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn needs a radio station
that is integrally involved in the area it serves.
Cautious but sensible
Whatever the ambitions of BURN FM’s investors, the challenges that smaller stations
face in competing against long-established, commercially-successful and wellresourced
competitors cannot be overlooked. Consequently, audience and revenue
projections in this application are cautious but sensible. Compared to the commercial
success of BURN FM’s four trial broadcasts, the business plan might, to some, look
pessimistic. The failure of many smaller stations to achieve their original business
plans is well known within the commercial radio industry and the board of BURN FM
would prefer to be initially cautious with a view to exceeding expectations than
anticipate a fully profitable company from launch. BURN FM’s cost base has been
established with care to ensure viability and sustainability.
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Compiling the projections
The BURN FM board contracted John Lockwood, former finance director of the
Midlands Radio Group plc and a consultant to Milestone Radio, to assist in compiling
the financial projections. John compiled the business plan for the Burnley station,
2BR, when it submitted its original licence application, as well as many other radio
station business plans including Rugby FM. The board is confident that the revenue
projections can be achieved.
Capitalisation
The board of BURN FM is aware that many commercial radio companies tend to
undercapitalise at launch based on the expectancy of outperforming business plans
and with no cash contingency. The profitability of ‘small scale’ commercial radio is
inextricably linked to revenue, since the cost base is predominantly fixed. The board
of BURN FM had decided to set the capitalisation of the company at £750,000 with
any excess cash being invested in low risk Bonds, to allow the directors to properly
establish a long-term business in the initial years of the licence, even if trading fails to
meet expectations. As previously noted, the shareholders are willing to invest further
in the company if necessary.
Sales strategy
For any smaller radio station, in the first years of operation there will be a heavy
reliance on the local (as opposed to regional or national) marketplace to deliver the
majority of revenue.
The Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn market is predominantly made up of smaller
businesses. For many of these potential clients of BURN FM, advertising on nearby
local or regional commercial radio stations is either wasteful in terms of coverage or
prohibitively expensive when compared to other local media.
This places BURN FM at an advantage since sales executives are likely to have
direct access to decision makers spending their own money, presenting a product
that will be affordable and offering coverage of the local marketplace.
BURN FM does not expect its sales executives to be ‘order-takers’ merely waiting for
the revenue to come to them. BURN FM will succeed by getting ‘under the skin’ of
the community, playing an active role in business life and community affairs and
having a genuine understanding of local issues. BURN FM’s long established links
with local businesses and business organisations will be invaluable in the early
period of the new licence.
Sales methodology
BURN FM believes that personal client contact by telephone followed by a series of
face-to-face meetings will achieve generally better results than ‘group presentations’
or a wholly ‘telesales’ approach.
From the very start, BURN FM’s sales strategy will be structured and professional.
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BURN FM will invest in client relationship management software which will enable
effective sales management and tracking of sales executives’ performance and has
the added benefit of creating database information for the purpose of targeted direct
mail.
A local business database will be acquired commercially to facilitate direct mail shots
prior to the launch of the station.
Typically, a potential client might expect to see a BURN FM sales executive in
person at least twice before signing off a sales order. The first meeting will be a ‘factfind’:
this will enable the decision maker to find out more about BURN FM’s products
and the merits of commercial radio and will allow BURN FM’s executive to find out
about the client’s marketing needs. BURN FM’s sales executives will then produce a
presentation and proposal which will be presented at a second client meeting. The
objective will be to match the needs of the client with the products of BURN FM.
This relatively labour intensive method for servicing the marketplace is designed to
build trust and long term business relationships. By ensuring that the BURN FM sales
executive is aware of the needs of each individual client, the expectations of what a
radio campaign is likely to deliver can be agreed and managed effectively.
BURN FM’s sales executives will concentrate on securing long term brand
awareness airtime bookings of 13 weeks duration or longer. Sponsorship packages
will usually be sold for minimum periods of 52 weeks.
In a marketplace such as Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn, where there is a
substantial level of relatively small business, it is to be anticipated that BURN FM will
generate a large volume of orders, but at relatively low yields. One cornerstone of the
sales approach for BURN FM will be not to discount from rate card in order to secure
a sale. This is not to say that longer campaigns will not be charged at a lower rate
than short term campaigns, but in order to gain respect and trust in the marketplace it
is imperative clients undertaking the same levels of activity with BURN FM are
charged the same rates. BURN FM will avoid using aggressively low rate-cards
because experience elsewhere suggests it is difficult to raise yields to a more
sensible economic level once a rate is established in the marketplace.
Sales executives that serve client needs
It will be a founding philosophy of the sales team not to propose a campaign to a
client that does not have a realistic opportunity of meeting the client’s expectations.
This is particularly important at a station launch as clients experiencing little or no
perceived benefit from advertising are unlikely to use the medium in the future.
BURN FM sales staff will be trained to operate with clients in a partnership scenario,
ensuring the client feels fully involved in every aspect of their relationship with the
station, and thus avoiding the ‘take the money and run’ feeling that is left after
dealing with a less caring approach allowed by some others. This continued attention
to detail will serve to reduce as much as possible advertiser churn.
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The BURN FM sales executive will usually be the main contact for a BURN FM client.
This is a key advantage of smaller commercial radio stations. A client might usually
expect to deal with at least three people within a larger radio station: a sales
executive to sign off orders, a commercial production department to make the
commercial and credit control or accounts department to collect payment. At BURN
FM, the same sales executive that makes initial contact with a client will be able to
answer any client query direct or will undertake enquiries with the other departments
with the station to find an answer for the client.
As the role of a sales executive at BURN FM is not just about generating orders,
each will earn a relatively high basic salary as compared to similar media sales roles
in the area. This should also help minimise staff turnover in sales which can have a
dramatic impact on revenue generation.
In addition to a basic salary, a sales executive at BURN FM can expect to benefit
from a commission scheme based on individual achievement against agreed targets
as well as a team commission scheme based on overall achievement and further
one-off targets for special sales products and brand extension projects. Provision is
also made for a company car for each sales executive.
Commission levels in the business plan are reasonably modest. In keeping with other
media sales organisations, BURN FM executives will receive higher levels of
commission once budget is achieved and, by its very nature, such commission is
self-financing.
With a strong local product and a team of highly-trained professional sales
executives, the sales revenue predictions in the BURN FM business plan can be
achieved and exceeded. The heavy investment in marketing BURN FM during the
launch period and beyond, as well as in quality programming throughout the
schedule, will help ensure that the sales team is able to deliver value for money in
the marketplace over the long-term.
Airtime Sales
The basis of BURN FM’s launch sales strategy will be to engage local businesses,
using a competitive and affordable rate card, in long-term advertising and
sponsorship packages which will deliver audience across the BURN FM schedule.
Airtime will initially be sold on a spot-rate basis.
Based on the experience of Milestone Radio of this tier of radio elsewhere, delivering
on promises and quality of service is an important part of building a long term radio
business.
Bonus Policy
Whilst detailed audience data will not be available in the early months of operation, it
is expected that the audience profile of BURN FM will follow industry trends with the
bulk of audience reach delivered between 6am and 6pm, lighter listening between
6pm and 10pm and relatively low listening outside these times. However, this is not
to say that there is no value in providing programming or commercials between 10pm
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and 6am and it will be the policy of BURN FM to air commercials for long term clients
as bonus airtime over this time period.
In keeping with standard industry practice, BURN FM’s airtime inventory controller,
based at Milestone Radio, will work in conjunction with the BURN FM sales team to
apply bonus airtime to certain campaigns, particularly in the early stages, in order to
increase value for clients and ensure balanced airtime schedules. This will not
generally be shown to clients and will be carefully applied, so as not to give clients an
incentive to ‘lightweight’ their campaigns.
Sponsorship
The growing popularity of sponsorship revenue in smaller commercial radio stations
is not underestimated in the BURN FM financial projections.
The following are just a few examples of sponsorships available within the
programme schedule:
* Programme Sponsorship (BURN FM: Breakfast, The Retro Rewind, Daytime,
Drivetime, Interactive, BURN FM Chill, Saturday Sport)
* Feature Sponsorship (Workplace of the Day, Paperclips, TV Highlights, Gig
Guide, Lunchtime Music Fest, Coffee Break, Movie Roundup, Hot Topics, Hot
3)
* Travel News
* Weather
* Sports News
* BURN FM Noticeboard
* BURN FM Showbiz
Commercial production
BURN FM recognises the importance of investment in commercial production, not
only in raising the likely level of effectiveness of client advertising, but also in raising
the quality of programming on the station.
Experience suggests that in-house commercial production units can often experience
‘log jams’ in turning around high-quality commercials when there is a rush of orders.
There are now a number of competitively priced radio production specialists who are
able to produce commercials that are legally sound (both in terms of copy and use of
licensed music) within a matter of hours – which can achieve an excellent result for
station clients. During BURN FM’s four trial broadcasts a substantial amount of
commercial production was contracted to Blackburn-based producer Steve Johnson.
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National Revenue
BURN FM prudently observes that the ability of smaller stations to generate national
revenue prior to the publication of RAJAR is limited and even once data is available it
will take some time for the station to filter into campaigns which can often be planned
by agencies months in advance.
It is anticipated that BURN FM will engage the services of a third party national sales
house, most likely First Radio Sales, who together with most other national sales
houses, offer their client stations either as stand-alone units or in ‘regional’ clusters to
national and regional agencies.
Other revenue opportunities
BURN FM will not only sell traditional airtime and sponsorship packages. BURN FM
is a commercial company in the pursuit of profit. The flexibility of smaller radio
stations to adopt product portfolios, create features, and broadcast or non-broadcast
promotions should not be underestimated.
The benefits of incremental revenues from SMS text, events, exhibitions,
merchandising, website sales, listener loyalty cards, money-off booklets and similar
schemes can be considerable, enabling a significant contribution to be generated by
maximising the loyalty that exists in a local marketplace for a radio station’s brand
without detracting from core airtime and sponsorship. At Kestrel FM, in North
Hampshire, over 10% of station turnover is now generated by such ‘relationship
revenue’. Preliminary discussions have already taken place with Blackburn Rovers
regarding co-promoting a local concert, following the success of the Blue concert at
Ewood Park in March this year.
The initial focus will be on primarily selling BURN FM as a stand-alone product.
However, the Managing Director of BURN FM will be encouraged to investigate other
commercial opportunities including cross-media, brand extensions and joint training
projects with Blackburn College, Blackburn Rovers and the Asian Business
Federation, some of which may be eligible for external third-party funding. Such
projects are not shown within the business plan at this stage but will be considered
by the board of BURN FM on a case by case basis.
‘Seminar Selling’
In recent years a number of stations have adopted ‘seminar selling’ revenuegenerating
schemes, which encourage clients to attend special sales seminars where
they are able to sign-up for 12-month advertising campaigns at significant discounts.
Whilst there may be benefits to adopting such schemes at established stations in
order to provide ‘incremental’ revenues that may not otherwise be achieved, BURN
FM does not intend to adopt this strategy during the formative years of trading.
BURN FM will be seeking to establish a core base of regular repeat advertisers
buying from an established rather than discounted rate card. This strategy will be
kept under review by the board during the course of the licence term.
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Administration
To support the commercial operations of BURN FM and to enable the sales team to
maximise their time in the marketplace, Milestone Radio will provide the
administration and financial services required for the smooth running of the company.
These services include airtime inventory management, commercial scheduling,
financial planning and reporting, invoicing, credit control and purchase procurement.
Further services will include human resources and legal support on issues such as
induction handbooks, staff contracts, advertising terms and conditions, insurance
quote preparation, royalty returns and company secretarial services. This high-quality
specialist service is already engaged by four commercial radio stations licensed by
Ofcom and capacity exists to service BURN FM. Additional provision is made for on
the ground administrative support including a reception, telephone and mail service
provided by Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park.
Programming
In programming, throughout the financial projections, consideration has been given to
ensuring that resources will be available to recruit, train and develop the team to
produce a station ultimately capable of becoming the commercial ‘number 1’ within
its core target audience in Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn. This is an ambitious
objective and one that is not underestimated, even with the significant benefit of the
local news support and sports content at BURN FM’s disposal. Whilst good provision
has been made to pay competitive salaries in all departments, budgets will be flexible
where necessary to attract the staff BURN FM seeks, whilst maintaining overall cost
control.
As a Milestone associated radio station, members of Milestone Radio’s group
programming and sales team will regularly visit BURN FM to provide the Managing
Director, Programme Manager and Sales Manager with professional support and
expertise on music scheduling and speech content; technical support on broadcast
systems; assistance with recruitment, training and reviews; RAJAR and other
research analysis; recommendations on external supply contracts; sales training; and
advice on Ofcom related matters. The central operational support team at Milestone
has been providing these services to associated stations of Milestone Radio for a
number of years. Milestone Radio’s philosophy of ‘best practice not policy’ ensures
stations receive the benefit of being able to access a pool of expertise, without a
centralised ‘policy’ dictated from a head office to individual local marketplaces.
RAJAR (Radio Audio Joint Audience Research)
RAJAR is generally accepted as the ‘currency’ for radio buying, most particularly, in
the national marketplace. RAJAR’s research data enables stations to answer one of
the primary questions from any client – local or national: “How many listeners have
you got?”
Investment and confidence in the programming standards of BURN FM has
prompted the decision to enter the RAJAR survey at the earliest available opportunity
and double the number of survey points to allow the station to report its first result six
months after entering the survey (compared to the usual twelve months for a station
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of this size). Assuming BURN FM launches in autumn 2005, the first entry point will
be January 2006, enabling BURN FM to gain first RAJAR results in September 2006
(rather than January 2007). This will mean that, approximately one year after
launching its permanent service, BURN FM will be in a position to review advertising
rates, based upon the anticipated success of its initial RAJAR and the advertising
Impacts clients will receive from their campaigns.
Marketing
BURN FM recognises the challenge of marketing the station not just in one major
town but three – Blackburn, Darwen, Accrington and the surrounding significantly
populated towns and villages.
BURN FM’s first year marketing spend will be substantial. This will be in addition to
the ‘contra’ arrangements with the Lancashire Evening Telegraph (including The
Citizen and Asian Image titles), Blackburn Rovers, Blackburn College and the Asian
Business Federation. The bulk of the spend is likely to be on outdoor media that is
largely consumed involuntarily such as bus and 48 sheet poster campaigns – with
the objective of raising general awareness of the station. In order to provide an
immediate ‘call to action’ to people (particularly in their cars), BURN FM roadshows,
‘sticker squads’, car park tickets and branded taxis are also likely to be used.
In a competitive marketplace, raising the awareness of BURN FM to encourage
sampling as soon as possible after launch is imperative. BURN FM will contract
Touch, the marketing agency owned by Blackburn Rovers, to continue to advise it on
its brand awareness strategy. Touch is well respected for its innovation and, in early
brainstorming sessions, suggested a town-by-town “Blackburn/Darwen/Accrington’s
Feeling Hot” beach-style event to take over each town centre in turn. Promotional
staff on roller-blades will distribute information about BURN FM, there will be a beach
volleyball tournament, children competing to ‘build the laregst sandcastle’ and
supervised water games.
Half a page is dedicated to BURN FM in the current edition of the Blackburn College
prospectus (initial print run of 12,000) as well as on 200,000 flyers distributed to local
households by the college. Blackburn Rovers’ newsletter is emailed to over 20,000
fans every week and will feature details of BURN FM’s sports coverage, as it did
during BURN FM’s four trial broadcasts.
BURN FM’s off-air marketing strategy will convey the image of ‘big station’ brand
values that are crucial to ensure potential commercial clients perceive the station as
a high-value purchase.
Budgetary provision has also been made for quarterly cash or holiday give-aways to
encourage new station listening and build hours and it is likely that further listener
promotions will be undertaken on a joint-promotion basis with BURN FM advertisers
once the station has launched. Mechanics will be implemented that not only produce
income but also enable the programming department to add features their budgets
would not normally allow. Such promotions will be carefully programmed to avoid on
air ‘clutter’ which can easily lead to listener fatigue.
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Station Premises
Blackburn Rovers will provide fully-serviced studio, office and conference
accommodation with parking and reception support. BURN FM staff will also be able
to enjoy preferential rates at the on-site Blues Café Bar and health club.
Many radio stations have small studio premises on an industrial estate which, whilst
functional, are not necessarily suitable for high-level client meetings or sales
presentations. BURN FM has already made use of Ewood Park’s extensive
banqueting and conferencing facilities for internal training and brainstorming
sessions. Ewood Park’s purpose built Media Theatre offers a unique 70 seat
auditorium – perfect for press conferences and special presentations. BURN FM’s
rent includes full use of these facilities on the same booking basis as employed by
Rovers’ as well as an executive box for clients and prospective clients of the station.
Studio construction will be contracted to Richard Lawley who oversaw the successful
build of Reading 107 FM’s studios at Reading Football Club’s Madejski Stadium to a
similarly high specification.
Staffing Policy – recruitment & retention
BURN FM acknowledges the need to offer competitive salary packages to attract
high-calibre staff, and the importance of ongoing training and development to retain
staff and maximise their potential.
The directors of BURN FM have committed to the welfare of their staff and, their
safety and enjoyment at work, by encouraging and investing in training and personal
development needs. BURN FM will have a strong commitment to equality of
opportunity and to empowering staff to achieve their objectives with ongoing training
and management support.
BURN FM will be most likely to maximise its potential as a business if all staff are
motivated and have a clear understanding of the company’s objectives and how their
work fits within this.
BURN FM will offer appropriate structured training to all staff. Both Milestone and
Newsquest offer in-house training schemes, and this knowledge and experience will
be made available to BURN FM, including access to the training programme of the
Commercial Radio Companies Association, which is tailored for smaller stations
Where appropriate, attendance at training courses will be extended to regular
external contributors to programming from the Lancashire Evening Telegraph or
Blackburn Rovers.
Regular evaluation and feedback will be delivered for staff by managers and, where
progress is achieved against an agreed plan, BURN FM staff will be appropriately
rewarded.
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Equal Opportunities – a real commitment
BURN FM will be an equal opportunities employer. BURN FM is conscious of the
under-representation of minority ethnic communities across broadcasting in general
and particularly in news. These statistics are repeatedly underlined by the annual
Skillset media industry census and separate research work by the Broadcast
Journalism Training Council (BJTC). It is also evident that while the BBC has made
greater strides in this direction, commercial broadcasters have tended to lag behind.
This will not be the case at BURN FM.
BURN FM’s ‘Asian Image’ programme strand will provide an important gateway role
in attracting members of the community into mainstream broadcasting, and offer a
range of programming experience to enable the pursuit of full time careers in various
areas of broadcasting. BURN FM’s Community Liaison Officer will be tasked to work
with a wide range of organisations to ensure that all sections of the community are
actively encouraged to participate in BURN FM’s everyday programming.
Managing Director
The Managing Director will be sales-led and dedicated solely to the success of
BURN FM, taking overall responsibility for the day-to-day running of the station
including budget achievement, sales and marketing strategy, cost control, personnel
issues, staff training and development and ensuring the station meets its legal and
regulatory obligations and responsibilities.
The Managing Director will recruit both a sales manager and a programme manager.
Often at stations of this size, the Managing Director takes charge of one of these
roles. However, the board believes it is important to justify additional investment in
experienced senior staff from the outset in order to quickly build a strong initial
advertiser base.
The Managing Director will develop and maintain positive links across the community
and build strong commercial ties with local business, personally managing key
accounts.
Sales Manager / Sales Executives
The Sales Manager will be responsible for all revenue streams to the company. The
Sales Manager will put in place the necessary procedures and controls to motivate a
sales team of four sales executives. Experience shows that stations sometimes
launch with too small a sales team and cannot compete effectively. BURN FM will
have a sales team of six from launch, including the Managing Director.
Consequently, if a sales executive leaves the company, the station will not risk the
loss of a large proportion of its revenue whilst a replacement is recruited. The size of
the sales team also reflects the need for BURN FM to be able to service a relatively
large number of sole traders.
All sales executives will be trained to offer their clients a ‘one stop shop’ selling all
station products including sponsorship. The sales representatives will be split broadly
by geographic area (Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn). One of the four sales
- 33 of 122 -

executives will be tasked with working particularly closely with the Asian Business
Federation, helping to ensure the benefits of BURN FM are fully communicated to the
large membership of this organisation.
Programme Manager / Presenters
An experienced presenter will take responsibility for BURN FM programming and
work closely with the sales team to develop station promotions and sponsorship
opportunities, helping to generate creative sales opportunities. With the benefit of the
guidance and support of Milestone Radio, the Programme Manager will be
responsible for all aspects of the station’s sound, maintaining standards and the
recruitment of key staff. The Programme Manager will act as Head of Music and also
present one of the main broadcast shifts.
The BURN FM policy of resourcing the station to ensure success will mean that two
other full-time presenters (one of whom will also act as Head of Production and the
other of whom will also act as Community Liaison Officer) will be recruited with one of
the three full-time journalists also having responsibility for presenting the drivetime
magazine programme.
The Community Liaison Officer (CLO) will work closely with the Asian community and
other minority interest and community groups within Blackburn, Darwen and
Hyndburn to ensure the whole community feels integrated within mainstream
programming. The CLO will provide a vital access point for press releases and
fundraising information. The CLO will present the weekday evening programme
giving both credibility and accessibility to listeners. The CLO will also have
responsibility for compiling the BURN FM community action features, giving
additional opportunities for groups to discuss issues relevant to their own community
of interest. The CLO will be responsible for coordinating station work placements with
the Programme Manager and News Editor.
News Editor / Journalists
A key role within the station, the News Editor will manage and edit the news, sport
and features output, organise on-air interviews and arrange coverage of special
features and events. The News Editor will report via the Programme Manager to the
Managing Director. The News Editor will recruit and manage two other full-time BJTC
qualified journalists (one of whom will also act as Sports & Features Producer) plus
freelance news and sport support staff. The News Editor, and the team, will play an
important role in the community and will be the liaison with the news and sports
teams of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.
By employing three full-time journalists BURN FM is confident it will be able to cover
issues as they arise in Darwen and Hyndburn, avoiding the danger of becoming
Blackburn ‘town-centric’ and fully catering for news and issues of interest to the
whole of the area’s multicultural community.
One of BURN FM’s three full-time journalists will be Sports & Features Producer,
presenting the station’s sports programming and the community-orientated weekday
drivetime magazine programme. This journalist will be responsible for setting up and
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preparing for daily interviews in their programme from across all sections of the
community, including big exclusives at Blackburn Rovers.
Staffing Structure
Accounting
Traffic
Reception
Support Services
BURN FM - ORGANISATION CHART
Board of Directors
Managing Director
Sales Manager
Sales Exec 1
Sales Exec 2
Sales Exec 3
Sales Exec 4
OFFICE SALES
SUPPORT
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Programme Manager
Presenter 2 / HOP
Presenter 3 / CLO
Freelance Presenters
HOP = Head of Production
CLO = Community Liason Officer
PROGRAMMING
Full-time programming staff – projected shift patterns
Head Of News
Journalist 1
Journalist 2
Sports Commentator
Freelance Journalists
NEWS
Times inclusive of breaks but may require adjustment when staff participate in out-ofhours
station promotions
NAME POSITION
Weekday
START
Weekday
END
Weekday
TOTAL
Weekday
TOTAL
Weekend
START
Weekend
END
Weekend
TOTAL
BURN FM’s shift patterns have been designed to give staff in both news and
presentation substantial hours where they are not broadcasting to ensure that
programming, news reporting and feature items are all well-prepared and other off-air
TOTAL
Presenter 1 Breakfast 5:30 13:10 6:55 34:35 7:50 12:15 4:25 39:00
Presenter 2 Daytime 10:00 17:30 6:45 33:45 7:50 13:05 5:15 39:00
Presenter 3 CLO / Evening 14:25 22:05 6:55 34:35 11:45 16:10 4:25 39:00
Journalist 1 Morning news 5:15 13:20 7:20 36:40 8:30 13:20 4:50 41:30
Journalist 2
& Sports
Producer
Head of
News
Drivetime
Magazine 12:00 19:15 6:30 32:30 12:40 19:10 6:30 39:00
Afternoon
news 12:00 20:05 7:20 36:40 8:30 13:20 4:50 41:30
every
other
weekend
every
other
weekend

duties not comprised. All three journalists will work between 1200-1300 weekdays to
enable them to hand-over to each other and plan the upcoming diary. One advantage
of BURN FM’s shift patterns is that, if and when local news breaks in the evenings or
on Saturday afternoons, BURN FM will have one of its three BJTC qualified staff
members working, capable of updating listeners with special (unscheduled) bulletins
if necessary. Journalists will also take turns to be ‘on call’ should major stories break
outside of these hours.
Work Placements
The help, advice and support offered by Michael Green, Head of Journalism at
University of Central Lancashire and Mike Henfield, Course Leader of the BA
Journalism course at the University of Salford, has been invaluable during the four
trial broadcasts of BURN FM. There will be an opportunity for at least one student
from these BJTC-approved courses within the North West region to be on a
structured and properly regulated work attachment at all times following the launch of
BURN FM.
Engineering / IT Support
An allowance has been made within station budgets for maintenance of studio
equipment by a local freelance engineer (for example, Paul Kaye who provided
engineering services during trial broadcasts or another third party engineer), ongoing
maintenance of transmission equipment to check the system against the statutory
engineering code (contracted to ADRT), and IT support (contracted to a local
provider).
Launch period
The pre-launch and launch period are arguably the most important period in the
development of any radio station. Using Milestone Radio’s experience of the
extremely successful launch of Rugby FM (2002), the intention is to recruit a
Managing Director approximately five months prior to launching the station and to
have the full sales team in the marketplace twelve weeks before launch.
In addition, during the period prior to the launch of BURN FM the services of Dan
Cass, Milestone’s Content & Development Director, will be engaged to assist in all
aspects of the launch process including negotiating and supervising the delivery of
the main capital expenditure contracts, overseeing the recruitment of key staff
(including the Managing Director with the board), establishing the launch marketing
strategy, organising programming and pre-launch training, and building commercial
contacts for the long term. Dan Cass has worked with the board since the company
was established and played a similar role at Rugby FM – a role that proved
invaluable to allow the station’s staff to focus on building sales and enabling Rugby
FM to launch substantially ahead of its original revenue projections.
The team which launched Rugby FM: Dan Cass, Andy Green (Milestone Group
Programme Controller) and Martin Mumford (Rugby FM Managing Director) has
been substantially involved in assisting the BURN FM board in compiling this
application and will provide ongoing support and advice to the station. With the
- 36 of 122 -

oard, they will be able to also call upon the support of former BBC Radio Lancashire
presenter Pat Gibson, who acted as Programme Controller of all four trial broadcasts
and has also been closely involved in this application.
Digital Radio
There is currently no DAB licence solely for Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn. From
day one, BURN FM will simulcast output on the internet. BURN FM will keep digital
broadcasting opportunities under review and explore the viability of broadcasting its
output on new platforms as and when such opportunities arise.
Total Survey Area / Marketing Area
In order to commission research BURN FM selected the postcodes in which good
coverage might be expected, and cross-referenced these with the coverage
projection provided by ADRT. Post launch, the Total Survey Area for RAJAR
purposes will be confirmed, based upon the experience of actual good coverage. The
postcodes selected are listed on the following page.
- 37 of 122 -

POST CODE POSTAL
DISTRICT
BB1 1 BLACKBURN
BB1 2 BLACKBURN
BB1 3 BLACKBURN
BB1 4 BLACKBURN
BB1 5 BLACKBURN
BB1 6 BLACKBURN
BB1 7 BLACKBURN
BB1 8 BLACKBURN
BB2 1 BLACKBURN
BB2 2 BLACKBURN
BB2 3 BLACKBURN
BB2 4 BLACKBURN
BB2 5 BLACKBURN
BB2 6 BLACKBURN
BB6 7 BLACKBURN
BB6 8 BLACKBURN
BB3 0 DARWEN
BB3 1 DARWEN
BB3 2 DARWEN
BB3 3 DARWEN
BB5 0 ACCRINGTON
BB5 1 ACCRINGTON
BB5 2 ACCRINGTON
BB5 3 ACCRINGTON
BB5 4 ACCRINGTON
BB5 5 ACCRINGTON
BB5 6 ACCRINGTON
For the purpose of business planning, the estimate of the total number of adults
served has been scaled back to 150,000, in line with the estimates included in
Ofcom’s guidance notes.
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Clitheroe / Ribble Valley
BURN FM does not intend to follow the trend set by some stations to ‘claim’ areas
outside of the station’s licenced Coverage Area for sales and marketing purposes.
However, transmission consultants ADRT believe that coverage of Clitheroe may be
technically feasible from either one (or both) of the transmission sites proposed in
this application.
For the purpose of business planning a ‘Total Survey Area’ has been selected that
encompasses Blackburn, Darwen and Accrington (Hyndburn) postal districts and
excludes outlaying areas such as Clitheroe. It is acknowledged that many people in
Clitheroe substantially ‘look towards’ Blackburn as a major local centre and there are
some proposals to extend Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council’s existing
boundaries to encompass parts of the Ribble Valley, an area of outstanding natural
beauty often described as “God’s country”.
BURN FM suggests that further consideration is given by Ofcom to the practicalities
and benefits of including Clitheroe within the Coverage Area of this licence. However,
since discussions cannot be finalised until after the licence award, any potential
coverage in Clitheroe has been entirely ignored in respect of financial projections.
It is to be expected that, if there were to be any agreed substantial BURN FM
transmission coverage in Clitheroe, this would necessitate additional staff resources
in the areas of sales and news.
Audience Projections and impact on existing stations
BURN FM commissioned the specialist radio research company CPResearch
International to supply substantial quantitative research to assist the group with this
application, including its compilation of audience projections.
In BURN FM’s research, looking at those who said they are very and/or somewhat
likely to try a new radio station, 25-44 year-olds are the age group most likely to try a
new station. The likelihood of trial dips slightly as age increases. Across the age
groups, net likelihood percentages range from a high of 91% to a low of 77%.
An estimate of BURN FM’s reach in the station’s first three years has been calculated
by CPResearch International using two methods of calculation – both producing
impressive results. These calculations are included in the Confidential Appendix to
this application. The estimated reach figures produced by CPResearch are ambitious
and, whilst potentially achievable, the board has adopted the following slightly more
cautious audience projections in line with the prudent approach taken throughout this
application.
RAJAR PROJECTIONS YEAR ONE YEAR TWO YEAR THREE
Weekly Reach (%) 19 22 25
Average Hours 7 7.3 7.5
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Building reach and hours simultaneously is a challenge and, therefore, only a small
growth in hours is projected. It is expected that programming such as football
commentary and Asian programming might gain an audience that cannot be
guaranteed to remain loyal to the station throughout other programme strands. The
objective will naturally be to seek to convert all such listeners to the station’s overall
output. Indeed, the experience of Milestone Radio as a shareholder in Reading 107
FM is that provision of information about Reading FC has assisted the station to build
average hours. The same might be anticipated for BURN FM in its provision of
exclusive Rovers news.
The following table presents data on existing stations’ contribution to BURN FM’s
total listenership base. Respondents who are very or somewhat likely to try a new
station named the station(s) they are likely to listen to less often to make room for
this newcomer. These cumulative contributions are then expressed as a percentage
of 100% (see notes below).
Contribution Made by Existing Stations to
BURN FM’s Total Listenership Base
Those Who Are Very or
Somewhat Likely to Try a New
Station Intend to Listen Less
to These Stations
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Percentages
Expressed as a
Proportion of 100%
BBC Radio 1 14.1% 19.4%
Century FM 11.6% 16.0%
BBC Radio Lancs 10.0% 13.8%
Rock FM 9.8% 13.5%
BBC Radio 2 8.8% 12.1%
Asian Sound 2.8% 3.9%
BBC Radio 4 2.7% 3.7%
2BR 99.8 FM 2.5% 3.4%
Smooth FM 2.4% 3.3%
BBC Radio 5 Live 1.6% 2.2%
Classic FM 1.2% 1.7%
BBC Radio 3 1.2% 1.7%
Magic 999 1.1% 1.5%
TalkSPORT 0.9% 1.2%
Virgin 1215 AM 0.7% 1.0%
Galaxy 102 FM 0.5% 0.7%
Digital / Internet 0.5% 0.7%
Key 103 FM 0.3% 0.4%
TOTALS 72.70% 100.0%

Among those who are very or somewhat likely to try a new radio station, 14.1% said
they would probably spend less time with BBC Radio 1 to make room for the
newcomer.
This 14.1%, expressed as a proportion of all percentages in the centre column
(72.7%), is equal to 19.4%.
This 19.4% represents the proportion of listening that Radio 1 contributes to the new
station’s total listenership base of 100%.
The following table is a corollary to the one above; in this case, the cumulative effect
of listenership losses among existing stations is tallied to achieve a cautious bottomline
estimate of BURN FM’s reach once the station becomes established.
Contribution Made to BURN FM’s Listenership Base
Due to Existing Stations’ Losses
Intending to
listen less %
Cume
decrease if
33%
stopped
listening
- 41 of 122 -
Past week
cume %
from total
sample
New
weekly
cume %
BBC Radio 1 14.1% 4.7% 22.6% 17.9%
Century FM 11.6% 3.8% 23.4% 19.6%
BBC Radio Lancs 10.0% 3.3% 23.7% 20.4%
Rock FM 9.8% 3.2% 22.8% 19.6%
BBC Radio 2 8.8% 2.9% 21.5% 18.6%
Asian Sound 2.8% 0.9% 7.6% 6.7%
BBC Radio 4 2.7% 0.9% 10.4% 9.5%
2BR 99.8 FM 2.5% 0.8% 4.8% 4.0%
Smooth FM 2.4% 0.8% 7.5% 6.7%
BBC Radio 5 Live 1.6% 0.5% 7.6% 7.1%
Classic FM 1.2% 0.4% 5.9% 5.5%
BBC Radio 3 1.2% 0.4% 2.5% 2.1%
Magic 999 1.1% 0.4% 2.8% 2.4%
TalkSPORT 0.9% 0.3% 3.7% 3.4%
Virgin 1215 AM 0.7% 0.2% 1.6% 1.4%
Galaxy 102 FM 0.5% 0.2% 1.7% 1.5%
Digital / Internet 0.5% 0.2% 0.8% 0.6%
Key 103 FM 0.3% 0.1% 0.5% 0.4%
Bottom line
cume for
BURN FM
Totals 72.7% 171.4% 147.4% 24.0%
The second column reiterates percentages from the first table above.

If one-third of those who intend to listen less actually stopped listening altogether to
make room for BURN FM, the percentages of decrease in cume are as they appear
in the third column.
The fourth column shows total-sample, past week listening (cume) percentages.
The cumulative amount of lost listening for existing stations, as shown in the fourth
column, is equivalent to an estimate of BURN FM’s potential reach approximately 2½
years following its launch (24%).
Whilst the above table is intended to illustrate the potential impact of BURN FM on
the reach of other radio stations, in practice, it is to be anticipated that people will not
entirely stop listening to one service for a new one and, also, that BURN FM will
attract some new (or longer) radio listening. Whilst it is impossible to fully and
accurately predict the impact BURN FM will have on existing radio services, the
above estimates illustrate that BURN FM potentially has the most to gain from
listeners of BBC radio services. In reality, BURN FM considers that a broadappealing
service will be capable of taking audience from a number of services which
currently fail to satisfy the desire for locally orientated content.
When the Rugby FM group worked on its application, it concluded that the station
was likely to launch with a reach of at least 30%. However, for the purpose of
business planning, an initial reach figure of half this amount was adopted for the
application. The station ultimately launched with a reach of 41%. Whilst the Rugby
market is different in many respects to Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn, there are
similarities in the desire of this area for its own commercial station and the
considerable station ‘start up’ experience of members of the Milestone Radio
executive team will be beneficial to the launch of the new station.
BURN FM’s financial projections are submitted to Ofcom as part of the Confidential
Appendix to this application.
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A BIG station sound in Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn
BURN FM has obtained competitive quotations from two leading suppliers for radio
transmission: Radica Broadcast Systems Limited and ADRT Limited, both of which
will be known to Ofcom. No corners will be cut in ensuring BURN FM has the biggest
and loudest permissible transmission in its coverage area. The systems will be
purchased outright by BURN FM and emergency support will be provided by North-
West based ADRT.
Site details
BURN FM proposes to use the O2 site at Revidge as the main transmitter site. The
site details are summarised in the table below.
Site Name National
Grid
Reference
Rishton Lanc
24
SD 672
291
Site Height
Above
Ordnance
Datum
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Antenna
Height
Above
Ground
Level
Radiated
Power (H/V)
Antenna
Pattern
220m 50m 250/250W See polar
diagram
In order to maximise coverage in the core areas of Blackburn, Darwen and
Hyndburn, and to minimise unwanted overspill in Preston, an antenna with the
following radiation pattern restrictions is proposed:
Bearing Restriction (-dB)
0 4.7
10 2
20 1.3
30 0.7
40 0.1
50 0.1
60 0.5
70 0.9
80 1.1
90 1.3
100 1.4
110 1.5
120 1.4
130 1.3
140 1.1
150 0.9
160 0.5
170 0.6
180 0.8
190 1
200 1.5
210 2
220 4.7
230 6
240 7.8
250 9.4
260 10
270 11
280 12
290 13
300 12
310 11
320 10
330 9.4
340 7.8
350 6

BURN FM has approached the site owner, O2, to request suitable antenna aperture
at 50m on the structure. The landlord has confirmed that this will be technically and
commercially feasible. Copies of the correspondence are included in the Confidential
Appendix to this application.
Local authority planning will be required for the installation. The relevant authority is
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. BURN FM’s application transmission
consultants, ADRT, contacted Justin Cove of the Planning Department on 2 nd July
2004 to discuss the prospective application. Mr Cove confirmed that the application
would follow the normal planning procedures, with a decision being announced six to
eight weeks after receipt of application. A planning application will be submitted on
award of the licence and, further to these discussions, BURN FM is confident that the
application will be successful.
Coverage prediction map
BURN FM commissioned ADRT to produce a computer generated coverage
prediction map, which is shown at the end of this section. The map was prepared
using Hertzmapper software, with a terrain resolution of 50m and variable clutter
algorithms. Whilst the usual caveats regarding computer projections apply, the
proposed arrangements can be seen to offer solid coverage of much of the core
Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn area, and no relay will be required to serve
Darwen. However, due to terrain limitations, there is a pocket of unsatisfactory
coverage around Great Harwood.
BURN FM will seek to address this issue using a low power rebroadcast link (RBL)
relay assuming that a suitable frequency can be found after the licence award, as
indicated by Ofcom in Section 2.10 of the licence advertisement. ADRT has identified
a suitable site at Wiswell (NGR SD754371) and has reached an agreement in
principle for site sharing with Mike Wharton from Your Communications (part of
United Utilities), the site operator. Following these discussions BURN FM is confident
that negotiations can be concluded satisfactorily. Local authority planning will follow
the normal procedures. A copy of the relevant correspondence is included in the
Confidential Appendix to this application.
Two further computer generated coverage prediction maps, projecting potential
coverage from the relay and a composite of the two proposed transmission sites, is
included in this section.
Ongoing compliance with the Engineering Code will be ensured by two annual
maintenance visits, contracted to ADRT. All key parameters will be checked against
commissioning records and any necessary adjustments recorded in the engineering
records of the station.
The system will be designed to exhibit a high degree of resilience by means of dual
drive chains, UPS protection of key components, ISDN backup of the studio
transmitter link and tertiary backup by means of a CD player. Service continuity is
thus ensured in all but the most severe fault conditions. BURN FM will seek to protect
the security of its transmission instillations through a separate full service contract
with ADT Security Systems.
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Corrective maintenance of the transmission system will be assigned to ADRT on a
call-out basis. ADRT will hold spares of critical items in stock.
Timescales
It is anticipated that it will take around 7-9 months to successfully launch BURN FM
transmissions following the award of the licence, subject partly to the timescale for
frequency clearance. One of the most unpredictable issues for new stations in
deciding a launch date is the time it can take to identify suitable premises and agree
commercial terms. This is not a factor for BURN FM as an agreement in principle is
already in place with Blackburn Rovers to locate the station within the Ewood Park
stadium complex.
The BURN FM board will put together a launch plan for the station within a week of
being awarded the licence. Such is BURN FM’s level of preparation that equipment
orders which require long lead times can be finalised within a matter of days of the
licence award.
It is the intention for BURN FM to start broadcasting reasonably early in the 2005
football season to maximise the benefit of the agreement to broadcast full
commentary of Blackburn Rovers games. The station will aim to launch ‘test’
broadcasts, as a taster to potential listeners and clients, during the pre-launch sales
period.
Overall, the board consider it is more important to launch correctly, with staffing and
forward sales in place, than to launch quickly and potentially regret the
consequences. The ‘critical path’ will be kept under continuous review during the prelaunch
period and key supporting organisations, including Ofcom, updated on
progress.
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Projected transmission coverage map – proposed Revidge
main transmitter
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Projected transmission coverage map – proposed Wiswell
relay transmitter
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Projected transmission coverage map – composite of
proposed Revidge and Wiswell transmitters
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BURN FM’s programming philosophy
BURN FM will be a BIG local station for Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn with
an exciting mix of current and classic hits of wide popular appeal broadcast a
alongside a first class service of news, sport, information and talk produced
with the support of a well resourced team of locally-based journalists, and
inclusive of programme content designed to appeal to and benefit all those
within the social and ethnic mix of the area.
“I wish there was one station that was different, and not like every other station you
tune into… by talking to an audience where there is a diversity.”
– BURN FM focus group contributor
INTRODUCTION
Long-term sustainability
BURN FM has taken immense care to compile a programme service of high quality
that it will be able to deliver and sustain 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, throughout
the course of the licence. Intensive consultations within the community both during
and subsequent to BURN FM’s four commercially successful trial broadcasts, as well
as a detailed independent research programme, have helped create and fine-tune a
programme service that is entirely in keeping with what Blackburn, Darwen and
Hyndburn wants from its very own radio station.
BURN FM will revolutionise the way local people interact with their own area. A lively
wide-ranging ‘magazine’ style format will engage listeners of all ages throughout the
coverage area. BURN FM will not sound or feel like ‘small’ radio. Exploiting the skills
and resources of its shareholders BURN FM’s local output will utilise production
values that sit comfortably alongside national and regional stations.
As the only dedicated radio service for Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn, BURN FM
will fill a void bringing the values of ‘full-service’ traditional independent local radio to
Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn. A rich and varied list of programme features and
items will appeal to a broad range of tastes and interests. BURN FM will be for the
listener, tirelessly pursuing the interests of local people and the organisations and
associations which reflect the diverse cultural, lifestyle, business and leisure interests
of Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn.
A STRONG LOCAL IDENTITY
A sense of local pride
All evidence suggests Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn requires a radio station that
reflects the unique identity of the area. The key philosophy that will underpin BURN
FM’s success is its local commitment, a commitment that extends on and off the air.
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BURN FM’s programming has a potentially pivotal role to play in the future business
and community development of the locality. BURN FM’s programming objectives are
ambitious – to contribute to, and enhance, the quality of local life in Blackburn,
Darwen and Hyndburn.
Many of the areas of the North West of England derive their sense of local identity
through sport. Arguably, nowhere is this more prevalent than in Blackburn itself,
where a love of football and loyalty to Blackburn Rovers underlines the pride many
people feel for their community.
In 2001 Rovers became the true local heroes as they qualified to play Premiership
football. Blackburn is one of the smallest towns in the country to house its own
Premiership Football Club – and is rightly proud of this achievement. Both football,
and cricket during the summer months, form a major part of people’s lives. Loyalty to
local sports teams reflects and enhances the strong loyalties and rivalries between
the areas of East Lancashire.
The identity of Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn today encompasses the local
economy’s loss of large scale manufacturing employment and slow uptake of service
and technological replacement industries; a deep rooted loyalty to the area; a feeling
of rivalry with neighbouring areas; a mixture of ethnic cultures and traditions; a strong
sense of friendliness and love of local personalities; and a passion for sport which
forms part of daily life.
BURN FM will enhance and reflect the unique sense of local spirit, humour and
character that marks Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn.
THE FOUNDATIONS UPON WHICH TO BUILD
Enhancing the social and economic development of the area
Blackburn College is a key player in improving the aspirations of the area’s next
generation. Currently, only 37% of students achieve A to C grades in their GCSEs
locally. 10% of sixteen-year-olds fall into the NEET category (‘not engaged in
education or training’) and, to all intents and purposes, wander the streets.
Regeneration of the community relies on development of the local economy and
business sector, which in turn requires a skills increase in the local workforce.
Blackburn Rovers Football Club recognises the part it has to play in supporting the
community and has two departments primarily tasked with community initiatives.
‘Educate At Ewood’ is a scheme whereby elements of the National Curriculum are
taught utilising football as a fun tool to achieve knowledge, with close working
relationships with local schools.
Rovers is also a member of the Cultural Harmony Forum, a group formed by
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council to develop a Community Cohesion strategy
for the area.
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BURN FM programming has been designed to reflect these existing community
initiatives and will act as the primary media tool, alongside the Lancashire Evening
Telegraph, in working with the Borough Councils and key organisations to champion
the social and economic improvement of the area. BURN FM programming will be
highly accessible to appeal to the widest audience, but highly locally targeted to have
maximum loyalty from within the area. Quite simply, BURN FM will reflect local life,
encourage new hope and aspiration for the future, and support all efforts for
community integration.
In addition BURN FM programming will be fun, bright, warm and sincere and provide
a positive outlook on Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn.
THE TARGET AUDIENCE
BURN FM is for the whole community
BURN FM proposes a family focused service, easily accessible to all sectors of the
community. Whilst not seeking to exclude any age groups, daytime programming will
be primarily targeted towards a core audience of 25-54 year olds. Recognising the
relatively young demographic profile of the area, and the propensity of younger
people to listen in the evenings, programming during evening periods will generally
target a slightly younger audience of 15-54 year olds, whilst seeking not to alienate a
typical daytime listener.
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Programming Detail
PRESENTERS & STYLE
Speech that is warm and mature, professional and family acceptable
BURN FM’s presenters will be engaged to provide speech content which relates to
the lives of the audience, is inclusive of the whole community and exudes
approachability. Regular presenter training will ensure the team are always focussed
on achieving this delivery.
Presenters will have good local knowledge and will feel equally comfortable
interviewing a local politician, a junior school pupil at an outside broadcast, or a caller
during a competition.
Speech will generally be provided in ‘bite size chunks’ to complement the music mix.
BURN FM research shows that 63% of people want more music and less talk during
their workday; however nearly 80% of those questioned have some interest in local
crime prevention and ‘crime stopper’ style features, and around 60% have some
interest in lifestyle topics and local jobs and training opportunities. The BURN FM
team is conscious of the balance between providing speech features of local interest
whilst maintaining the mix that is deemed most popular. This is reflected in BURN
FM’s programme schedule where the drivetime sequence is presented by a qualified
journalist with an ability to carefully control interviews and studio guests within time
constraints.
Presenters will be trained to be ‘self-producing’ on all shows (with the exception of
the Asian Image programme where the debate and discussion will be overseen by a
freelance producer).
LOCAL NEWS
BURN FM will provide a regular first class, fast and accurate local news service
covering all corners of its broadcast area – from 6am to 8pm weekdays
BURN FM’s proposed broadcast area is one of the busiest news areas in the
country, outside of the UK’s major cities. Every day is a ‘hard news’ day in the locality
as is evidenced by the need for Newsquest to employ over 20 ‘on the street’
reporters to contribute to the four daily editions of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph
(LET).
The local news agenda often makes national news stories – the recent MI5 antiterrorist
arrests in Blackburn being just one example.
Meanwhile, race relations are relevant with the growth of the British National Party in
the region; the delicate balance of power on Blackburn with Darwen Council is a hot
topic following Labour stalwart Sir Bill Taylor’s loss of office; increasingly the Friday
and Saturday night ‘booze mentality’ culture is under the spotlight; and local crime
provides a regular influx of news.
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Over the coming months and years the ELEVATE scheme, whereby housing market
renewal money is used to demolish older housing and replace it with modern rebuilds
or green spaces, will become a hot topic.
Unitary status in the 1990’s meant that Darwen lost its own council and became part
of the new Blackburn with Darwen unitary authority. This left many in Darwen with
the feeling of being ‘swallowed up’ by its larger neighbour. Indeed when the M65
services were built at Darwen there was local outrage that they were called
“Blackburn Services”, with numerous protests reported in the local papers.
Accrington town centre has changed substantially in recent years, with the arrival of
new shopping precincts in an attempt to lure shoppers from surrounding larger
centres. The borough of Hyndburn also contains the towns of Oswaldtwistle, Church,
Clayton-le-Moors, Great Harwood and Rishton. BURN FM fully recognises the
importance of ensuring these smaller conurbations are comprehensively covered by
its news operation.
The area has a good share of ‘quirky’ stories as well, with local spirit and humour
evident in daily life.
It is difficult to justify the brief references and headline facts that existing ‘local’
broadcasters give to stories from Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn, until you
balance this against the major metropolitan regions they cover. Even the most ‘local’
stations, Rock FM and Magic, do not only cater for much of Lancashire but also parts
of Merseyside and Greater Manchester.
Independent research commissioned by BURN FM shows that 47% of listeners think
it is very important to hear news bulletins compiled by a team of reporters and
journalists based in the area who are able to ‘go live’ to the scene – a further 38%
think this is somewhat important.
BURN FM is committed to providing its area with a first class radio local news service
and intends to staff its newsroom with three fulltime BJTC qualified journalists (one of
whom will also present the 4-6pm magazine programme). In addition BURN FM has
in place a news share arrangement with the LET, following the successful experience
of a similar arrangement during the four trial broadcasts.
BURN FM’s dedicated independent news team will have access to all the stories filed
by LET journalists to be used as leads. Together with independent news-gathering
information sources, BURN FM will be able to provide its listeners with the fastest,
most comprehensive and accurate news service in the area. BURN FM news will be
supported by the LET – not supplied by it, benefiting immeasurably from its direct
access to a large number of journalists across its broadcast area.
To even further enhance the news service there will normally be at least one trainee
in the newsroom on a work placement from the respected BJTC approved courses at
Salford University and University of Central Lancashire. Additional freelance
journalists for sport, weekends and holidays are fully budgeted.
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BURN FM’s research shows that currently the best source of local news is deemed
to be television (35%), with radio (28%) and newspapers (27%) following behind. Of
existing radio stations BBC Radio Lancashire stands out with 43% of those surveyed
selecting it as their best choice for local news on the radio. It is clear to see the role
BURN FM has to play in bringing a regular, quality local news service to the wide
populace, in a form that is widely acceptable to its target audience.
All BURN FM broadcast staff (both news and presentation) will participate in regular
training updates on broadcast regulations and law from an external trainer. This is
particularly important in an area which generates so much local news on a daily
basis.
BURN FM’s locally-sourced news service will broadcast at the following times on
weekdays:
* Every 30 minutes from 6am until 8.30am (inclusive)
* Hourly from 9am until 3pm (inclusive)
* Every 30 minutes from 4pm until 6pm (inclusive)
* Hourly from 7pm until 8pm (inclusive)
This commitment to local news from 6am until 8pm demonstrates the importance
BURN FM places on providing a truly local and up-to-date service for listeners.
Following the success of the four BURN FM trial broadcasts, each of which included
‘The Burn Reports’ – a 15 minute news magazine broadcast twice a day (often with
entirely different content) – BURN FM will provide two extended news programmes
each weekday of up to 15 minutes duration at lunchtime and early evening.
At weekends BURN FM proposes to broadcast local news as follows:
* Hourly from 9am until 1pm (inclusive)
At other times, national and international news will normally be provided hourly from
Independent Radio News.
National, international and regional stories will feature in bulletins, but local stories
will dominate. In all normal circumstances BURN FM news bulletins will aspire to
contain at least 70% local news, and not contain less than 40% local news. Top of
hour bulletins will usually be three minutes in duration although they will be extended
should local, national or international need arise. Outside of normal working hours a
member of the BURN FM news team will be on call should important local stories
break.
The option to provide specific Asian news programming (outside that included in the
weekly Asian Image programme) has been considered but it has been decided that
under the policy of ‘integration not segregation’, news of particular interest to Asians
will be an integral part of the main news mix.
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SPORT
BURN FM will be the number 1 choice for all Blackburn Rovers news and
match commentary together with the plethora of other sporting activities in the
area
Sport is a ‘religion’ in Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn. One of the biggest topics of
conversation in Blackburn is “who is playing” and “who has been signed”. The
fortunes of Blackburn Rovers is a daily talking point and the club itself is well
embedded in the fabric of the community through its strong youth policy, schools
learning schemes and other community focused activities.
Accrington Stanley also has growing following with up to 2,000 people attending their
Conference League football games. This season the team has returned to playing as
full time professionals – news that was broken first on BURN FM’s last trial
broadcast!
Outside the football pitch, cricket is popular with local teams playing in the Northern,
Lancashire and Ribblesdale leagues. 2,500 people recently turned up to watch
Haslingden play Lowerhouse. Additionally the Blackburn Hawks Ice Hockey team
play at the Arena and were featured on BURN FM’s trial broadcasts, as were local
table tennis, badminton, croquet and arm wrestlers! Elsewhere the area has
successful athletics clubs, golf clubs and, of course, everyone is proud of local motor
sport hero Carl Fogarty, who was crowned World Superbike champion four times.
During BURN FM’s trial broadcasts the station gained exclusive access to Blackburn
Rovers training ground and the players. The main weekly sports preview programme
was presented by ‘the voice of sport’ in the area, Keith Macklin, the well-known TV
and radio sports commentator.
BURN FM will be the primary radio partners of Blackburn Rovers FC. BURN FM will
be based in purpose built studios at Rovers Ewood Park complex and will have
priority access to new Manager, Mark Hughes, and his players, plus other club
officials.
On home and away match days BURN FM will provide full live commentary for the
duration of the game. The popularity of such home-match commentaries is already
demonstrated by Radio Rovers, the first AM sports match-day restricted service
licence in the UK. On average Blackburn Rovers record a gate of 26,000 for home
matches and, according to the 2004 edition of the Premier League’s Sportswise
research, 53% of Rovers fans live within ten miles of Ewood Park (88% within fifty
miles). Such local support for Rovers – amongst the highest levels of living within
walking distance of grounds of any football club in the Premiership – demonstrates
how crucial it is that any new station seeking to be a part of the area is integrally
involved with Rovers.
In addition to live full-match commentary BURN FM will also provide the match day
build-up and post match analysis. Whatever Rovers performance, BURN FM will be
the voice of fans – providing a platform for supporters to have their say.
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As demonstrated on BURN FM’s four trial broadcasts, the close links with Rovers will
not be to the detriment of other local football clubs or other sports. BURN FM
proposes a comprehensive service to reflect the importance local people place on
their sport:
* Weekday – relevant local and national sports news in all top of hour news
bulletins from 6am to 8pm inclusive
* Weekday - full sports updates at 6.30am, 7.30am, 8.30am, 4.30pm and
5.30pm
* Friday evening at 6.15pm – an extended sports discussion programme as
successfully tested during the four trial broadcasts
* Saturday during the football season – sports news every 30 minutes from
9am until 3pm inclusive of extended interviews and pre-match build up from
Ewood Park and elsewhere; from 3pm until 7pm full 90-minute Rovers match
commentary for home and away matches and post match analysis and
phone-in
* Saturday outside the football season – sports news within all top-of-hour local
news bulletins
* Sunday – local sports results at 9.30am and 10.30am, together with sports
news within all top-of-hour local news bulletins
* Live and post-match reports from all major local sports events – including
Accrington Stanley – utilising team stringers and the sports reporters of the
Lancashire Evening Telegraph
* Additionally the BURN FM schedule will be flexible enough to incorporate
those Rovers and Stanley matches scheduled outside of Saturday afternoons
N.B. To a significant proportion of the BURN FM audience, it is no exaggeration to state that it matters a
great deal that Burnley FC loses! It is also recognised that a small minority of the audience might
potentially be Burnley supporters. According to BURN FM’s independent fieldwork research, even in
Hyndburn postcodes (where support for Rovers was the least strong), around half of the residents who
support any football club support Rovers. The other half follow another club. Only 9 respondents in the
entire sample of 481 supported Burnley. Given the potential interest in how well Burnley is or is not
performing, BURN FM will provide unbiased reports on Burnley games and news as well, of course, as
all the other clubs in the North West and the Premier League.
One of the three full-time qualified journalists employed by BURN FM will have a
specific sports focus and will be responsible for establishing direct contacts with all
sports clubs in the area and putting together the dedicated BURN FM sports and
stringers team.
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RAJAR for Saturday Afternoon Sport
% of available audience
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
14.00~14.30
14.30~15.00
Saturday Afternoon Audiences
15.00~15.30
15.30~16.00
16.00~16.30
16.30~17.00
17.00~17.30
17.30~18.00
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An analysis of RAJAR (Q2,
2004) on Saturday afternoons
across Lancashire backs up
evidence of demand across the
wider region for sports coverage
at this time. This is
demonstrated by comparing the
percentage of the total
audience listening on a
Saturday against the numbers
listening to any particular
service. As is shown in the first
chart (taken from figures across the BBC Radio Lancashire Total Survey Area),
audiences show a gradual decline throughout the afternoon.
From the same
Total Survey Area it
can be seen that
the audiences of
the non-sports
services (Rock FM
and Radio 2) lose
audience whilst the
services supplying
football
commentary
maintain their
audiences until full
time. Of particular
note is the large
loss of Rock FM’s
audience at 3pm
000s
35.00
30.00
25.00
20.00
15.00
10.00
5.00
0.00
02.00 -
02.30pm
02.30 -
03.00pm
03.00 -
03.30pm
Saturday Afternoon Audiences
03.30 -
04.00pm
04.00 -
04.30pm
04.30 -
05.00pm
05.00 -
05.30pm
05.30 -
06.00pm
when BBC Radio Lancashire and Radio Rovers both begin their commentary service.
This RAJAR does not relate directly to BURN FM’s proposed coverage area, where
the evidence suggests there could be an even greater hunger for sports coverage. It
does, however, further enhance confidence that a commitment to extensive coverage
of Blackburn Rovers will be popular and particularly effective in terms of winning
significant audience at the weekends.
BBC Lancs
Century
Rock FM
Radio 2

COMMUNITY ACTION
BURN FM will give the area a voice, utilise its broadcasts to promote
development of local businesses, organisations and individuals, and
specifically provide a Community Liaison Officer to work in this area
With the comprehensive local knowledge and broadcasting expertise of the BURN
FM board, the role BURN FM will have to play in assisting in the development of the
local community is well understood:
* To promote education and skills development
* Offering interactivity, discussion and debate as a constructive local outlet
* Giving the community a voice to promote integration and understanding
* Identifying opportunities for the constructive use of time
* Facilitating opportunities for the development of the local economy
The importance of the role of community development is so pronounced in
Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn relative to many other areas that it is proposed to
appoint a full-time BURN FM staff member to the joint-role of Community Liaison
Officer (CLO) and presenter of the weekday evening programme.
BURN FM’s CLO will work with community organisations, businesses, the
emergency services and Borough Councils to ensure BURN FM maximises its ability
to promote initiatives throughout its broadcast area. Many smaller stations, for good
financial reasons, automate or syndicate their programming outside of daytime hours
or, at best, employ freelance ‘show and go’ music presenters.
BURN FM believes evening programming represents a key opportunity for the station
to make contact with and provide a voice to the area’s younger audience – and, at
the same time, to continue to provide news and sports coverage of interest to the
area.
The financial implications of producing a live and local evening programme against
the advantages of being able to continue to interact with the audience each evening
have been carefully considered. Due to the split nature of the CLO role the evening
programme will generally be broadcast live but some elements on occasions might
be automated in order to facilitate the completion of other responsibilities.
BURN FM already has in place an agreement that its CLO will work closely with
Blackburn College to help promote their “You Can Improve” initiative. Blackburn
College is keen for such an initiative to succeed as their previous experience with
commercial radio in the wider region is one of taking ‘advertising money’ and not
wanting any more significant involvement. BURN FM intends to implement its
promise of a real partnership with Blackburn College by:
* Providing all-encompassing packages to promote college social improvement
initiatives not only through advertising, but also through the use of social
action campaign feature weeks, outside broadcasts and age-group targeted
interviews
* The provision of interactivity for the college with the local community
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* Working with the college’s large media department to offer work experience
and placement opportunities at BURN FM’s Ewood Park studios
* Providing programme making opportunities for local people in partnership
with the college, including assisting with the production of BURN FM’s
Workplace of the Day hour
* The BURN FM annual appeal. Annually BURN FM will run an appeal to help
a selected local charity raise funds or goods
The CLO’s role will extend to working with other educational establishments and
beyond. A key part of the CLO’s role will be, alongside the BURN FM news team, to
work closely with the area’s Asian community leaders to ensure BURN FM fulfils its
commitment to serve all members of the community and provide a high proportion of
information on Asian community events and activities.
Specific community focussed regular BURN FM daytime programming elements will
include:
* BURN FM Noticeboard: Hourly free publicity for charitable and non-profit
making organisations, based upon the incredible popularity demonstrated for
such a feature during each of BURN FM’s four trial broadcasts
* BURN FM Campaign Weeks: Occasional special feature weeks with reports
through the day featuring specific relevant local topics such as drug
awareness, career progression, dealing with debt, race relations and starting
your own business
* BURN FM Hot Topics: A feature within the evening show during which young
people are given an opportunity to voice their concerns and make their
opinions known
* BURN FM Advice Days: Ad-hoc opportunities with partner organisations to
promote free and confidential off-air telephone advice with specialists located
in BURN FM’s Ewood Park studios. Subjects may include legal, health and
financial advice
* BURN FM Crimebusters: In BURN FM research over 40% of those surveyed
expressed an interest in crime prevention and crime watch style features.
This would be provided within the BURN FM Drivetime Magazine programme
in association with Eastern Division Police.
* BURN FM Job Watch: 24% of people noted a feature on job opportunities as
of particular interest. BURN FM’s Job Watch will run as a short item several
times throughout the day as a short packaged feature
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
Blackburn is the Christian Archdiocese town of East Lancashire covering an area as
far as Blackpool, and has its own cathedral. It is also an area where the values of the
Muslim faith are highly respected and the call to prayer at local Mosques is widely
followed.
During the four trial broadcasts representatives from a number of faiths all featured in
BURN FM programmes. BURN FM’s Thought For The Week on a Monday morning
at 7.15am will seek to embrace those of all religions – and of none – reflecting upon
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the week gone-by and promoting community cohesion and tolerance. A rota of
contributors will be created from local spiritual leaders, and those promoting harmony
in the community.
TRAVEL NEWS
BURN FM will provide regular and accurate local travel updates at peak times
and any other times of major incidents or events including match days
In Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn, the morning school rush is the primary period
of activity although traffic on the Blackburn ring road encompassing the M65 can
often be heavy. The A666 Blackburn / Bolton road is another hot spot being a single
carriageway with no ‘short cuts’.
Local roadworks are often ignored by stations with larger coverage areas, however,
they remain the bane of local people’s lives. Local roadworks will therefore be a key
part of BURN FM’s continuous travel news service. Further afield, incidents and
traffic levels on the M6 and major problems in Preston will be of interest to
commuters.
Whilst there is a significant regular movement for work, shopping and leisure
between Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn, the extent of the rivalry between many of
the different parts of Lancashire is underlined by the degree to which they are
independent of each other and do not regularly interact. By way of example, BURN
FM’s fieldwork research showed next to no regular travel between Blackburn,
Darwen and Hyndburn residents to the towns/districts of Blackpool, Bolton, Burnley
or Pendle.
Shopping Leisure Work/Study
Blackpool 0.1% 1.5% 0.4%
Bolton 2.9% 1.7% 1.5%
Burnley 1.5% 1.3% 1.5%
Pendle 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Research commissioned by Blackburn Shopping Centre shows that 60% of its
shoppers utilise a bus service to visit the centre, with only 40% using a car. This high
use of local buses indicates a need to ensure the inclusion of information about bus
services within daytime travel updates.
During the trial broadcasts travel updates were provided in conjunction with Silver
Line Taxis in Darwen Street. This agreement worked very well and it is intended to
establish similar such arrangements for the full-time service. This would be supported
by a full travel service from either Trafficlink or AA Roadwatch.
In October, local parking offences are to be decriminalised and in Blackburn town
centre itself between 18 and 23 newly appointed parking attendants will be operating.
This work will help to rid the streets of those parking on yellow lines and is also likely
to encourage greater use of the town’s car parks. BURN FM already has an
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agreement with Arnold Wilcox Wood, Blackburn Shopping Centre’s Manager, and the
person who oversees 1,500 car parking spaces in the town for the provision of
parking space news as part of BURN FM’s comprehensive travel service.
Bearing in mind the level of travel in the area BURN FM is proposing a peaktime
travel service every 15-20 minutes during weekday breakfast and drivetime and
hourly during the day on Saturdays. Needless to say, additional bulletins will be
added during busy periods (eg. Christmas, Blackburn Rovers matches played at
times other than Saturdays), and whenever major problems arise.
BUSINESS ACTIVITY
BURN FM will provide innovative programming elements to promote and
encourage business growth and awareness
BURN FM will provide the following business focused programming:
* Business news, with a local focus as an integral part of the news service with
special reports in two daily extended news programmes
* Opportunities for business interviews as part of the Drivetime Magazine
programme
* BURN FM’s workplace of the day – a local workplace takes over the weekday
10am hour and gives an insight into its main activities, end products,
community involvement, and the people that work there
* Regular outside broadcasts to promote special events, open days or raise
awareness of a business (including live coverage of the annual business
awards of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and the Asian Business
Federation)
* The creation of a BURN FM loyalty card scheme with on-air promotion and
discounts for those utilising it
Arnold Wilcox Wood, the General Manager of Blackburn Shopping Centre has
pledged his support for the BURN FM licence application and in the spirit of
partnership that already exists between the two companies has promised to promote
BURN FM by playing station output on the shopping centre public address system
should this application be successful.
WEATHER
BURN FM weather will be easily understandable
47% of people questioned in BURN FM’s independent research cited weather as a
very important element of programming. That said, it was noted at Focus Group
sessions that there was not much enthusiasm for detailed weather updates. BURN
FM will therefore provide easily understandable, accurate updates avoiding ‘Met
Office’ speak and succinctly giving listeners enough information to help them decide
what to wear, and what to take, to be suitably equipped for the coming 12 – 24 hours.
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BURN FM weather will be broadcast as follows:
* Twice an hour weekdays from 6am to 9am
* Hourly weekdays from 9am to 4pm
* Twice an hour weekdays from 4pm to 7pm
* Hourly from 7pm to 10pm
* At weekends from 8am until 5pm (inclusive) and at other times during major
local sporting or other events
BURN FM AT TIMES OF EMERGENCY
BURN FM will be the first port-of-call for listeners as the number one source of
up-to-date and accurate information
As the radio station at the heart of the community BURN FM will respond
immediately to local circumstances making BURN FM the focal point, and first portof-call,
for everyone in the area.
Normal programming will be suspended in favour of extended special coverage
should the need arise. As examples:
* During the winter freeze the team will quickly mobilise the BURN FM
snowline, with essential travel, school closure information, good neighbour
advice, liaison with the electricity, gas and water companies and essential
services
* Should a major local incident occur such as a fire, accident or other
emergency the BURN FM team will broadcast regular and accurate updated
information
* BURN FM will forge links with Blackburn with Darwen and Hyndburn Borough
Councils who operate their own emergency plans
In all cases BURN FM will provide the resources and facilities to enable the
community to communicate via the station and, if appropriate, will include updates in
languages other than English.
BURN FM recognises that, in the event of a serious local incident, people depend
more than ever upon their local radio station to keep them informed. Many smaller
stations economise by not employing power-generating back-up devices to cope with
an emergency loss of power. BURN FM will put such devices in place at its studio
and transmission sites, together with the latest security devices to ensure its
equipment is kept as safe as possible so that, whatever happens outside the station’s
premises, BURN FM listeners will always be able to find out about it.
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LIFESTYLE & ENTERTAINMENT
BURN FM will reflect the lifestyle chatter that forms a daily part of people’s
conversations
Few would deny the people of Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn are chatty and
normally want to be the first to know what is going on!
BURN FM programming will seek to truly reflect the lifestyle discussion points of the
day:
* TV highlights – details of what can be seen that evening
* Movie roundup – films currently being shown at Apollo Cinema in Blackburn
or the Vue Cinema in Accrington
* BURN FM’s Hot Showbiz – the latest gossip from the world of celeb
* Gig guide – details of concerts locally, whether it be a local Banghra band
appearing at King Georges Hall, or Blue appearing at Ewood Park
* BURN FM Paperclips – a look at the main stories, and some of the more
quirky items in the days national and local newspapers
DRIVETIME MAGAZINE
BURN FM will create a magazine style drivetime programme presented by one of its
journalists at 4pm each day. At the end of the workday this programme will offer a
balance between ‘bite size’ speech content, including local interviews and features,
and more in-depth coverage of local news, sports and cultural activities, alongside
the popular BURN FM music mix. This will contrast with the ‘low-value’ speech and
sweeps of music that are generally to be found on some other commercial stations at
this time.
During BURN FM’s trial broadcasts TV chef Nigel Smith, who ran the Fielden Arms in
Mellor was a popular guest. For the full time service Nigel may cook up more of his
delights for BURN FM listeners one day, whilst Blackburn MP, Jack Straw could be in
the studio on the next. Rovers’ Chief Executive, John Williams, in the studio would
put Rovers’ boss in direct contact with Rover’s fans; and the Very Reverend
Christopher Armstrong (Dean of Blackburn) would continue to take part in our
programmes, as he did during the trials. The programme will have links with the
Lancashire Evening Telegraph’s specialist writers on issues such as health,
education and local government.
BURN FM’s drivetime magazine will be a genuine voice for local people to interact
and have their say on ‘down to earth’ local issues within a popular, music-led
programme format.
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ASIAN PROGRAMMING
BURN FM’s programming embraces the whole community – including time
dedicated to focus on specific Asian topics and interests
Having run four trial broadcasts and completed comprehensive research BURN FM
believes that the vast majority of station output should be as widely accessible as
possible. Specialist programming, by its nature, whilst of large potential appeal to a
proportion of the audience, will alienate others. The size of the population covered by
BURN FM dictates that the vast majority of programming must have the widest
possible audience appeal in order to make the station’s business model work.
It is crucial that, as is the general ethos across BURN FM’s programming proposals,
‘integration rather than segregation’ is the key to making all ages and cultures feel a
part of their local station. BURN FM’s every day programming will be inclusive of
local information and features likely to be of particular interest to listeners of Asian
origin.
During BURN FM’s four trial broadcasts a radio ‘masthead’ version of Newsquest
Lancashire’s popular Asian Image newspaper aired. The radio programme,
broadcast mainly in English, contained Asian news and information, Asian lifestyle
and cultural features, lively debate and phone-ins, together with a selection of
popular Asian music to appeal to all ages – and not just Asians - including a
Bollywood Classic section.
Some Asian families can feel isolated within the community. As demonstrated during
the trial broadcasts, access to studio guest experts (such as a lawyer) within a locally
produced and presented Asian programme makes that advice accessible to a wider
audience.
Whilst BURN FM’s proposed coverage area falls within the local transmission area of
Asian Sound radio BURN FM has decided to include the popular locally-produced
Asian Image radio show in its weekly programming. During the trial broadcasts the
programme received a substantial amount of business and commercial support,
including that received through sponsorship and advertisements, as well as providing
a forum for issues affecting Asians to be aired on a mainstream platform, and also
encouraging Asian listeners to sample the everyday output of BURN FM.
WEBSITE
BURN FM’s window to the World
BURN FM will continue to operate a website at www.burnfm.co.uk which will be
regularly updated and fully reflect the on-air sound of the station. This will be
regularly promoted on-air as a key element in getting more information about the
station, or contacting it. It will also act to promote the use of new technology as a skill
set in Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn.
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Site content will include:
* Local news and weather updated daily
* Local sport (including Blackburn Rovers news) updated as it happens
* A comprehensive list of roadworks and travel problems
* BURN FM Noticeboard items – gaining additional free publicity to local
organisations
* A BURN FM calendar of events showing where and when to catch the station
out and about in the area
* Details of all programmes, presenters and behinds the scenes team members
* On-line interactivity with the studio and presenters
* Applications for schemes such as the BURN FM loyalty card and special
offers
* Key links to other organisations in the area
* Advertiser links
* On-line simulcast streaming for those unable to listen via FM radio, or local
people outside the broadcast area wishing to stay in contact with their home
area (evidence from the trial broadcasts showed that audio streaming brought
in responses from homesick expatriates in Australia, South Africa and the
USA)
* An opportunity for listeners to provide feedback, comments, views and
suggestions on the station
The new BURN FM website will continue to be contracted to Touch – the marketing
and design agency owned by Blackburn Rovers.
MUSIC OUTPUT
BURN FM will play widely accessible popular music from the past three
decades – a brilliant selection of current and classic hits!
BURN FM’s ‘Unique Selling Point’ is, and, as media choices proliferate – always will
be – localness, deep knowledge and understanding of the area, and a long term
commitment to the community.
BURN FM aims to provide a broad appeal family focused service and within this
remit music must be familiar, popular, emotive and relevant. The station promises to
play a wide variety of hits from the past thirty years in a contemporary mix that
reflects life in the BURN FM area. BURN FM will play “Your Favourite Music” from
the 70s to today – and, reflecting the clear preference in research, will not be overdominated
by current chart hits on very high rotation.
BURN FM will have full access to the music programming expertise of the Milestone
Radio group to support in defining and implementing the sound of the station.
Recognising the importance of targeting a viable mainstream audience, BURN FM
did not test very niche music formats on its trial broadcasts or in its application
research. Rather, it was felt important to consider the levels of support that existed
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for three broad mainstream music groupings that could potentially fit within a smaller
station’s Format: Pop, Classic and Middle of the Road (soft / gold-based music).
In seeking to identify a local commercial market ‘gap’ it is safe to say that the Pop
audience segment appears best catered for by Rock FM and its popularity is greatest
amongst the under-35s. The MOR segment represents an opportunity, but one that is
heavily skewed 45+, and this was amongst those surveyed the least popular of the
three styles.
It was concluded that the Classic segment represents a strong audience target for
BURN FM, given its demographic composition and strength in the heart of the 25-54
market. Its musical range could easily cover classic rock and pop styles from any
decade, including more recent years, since it is as much reflected by style as by era.
By mixing this segment with elements of Pop (and to a lesser extent MOR) BURN
FM will provide a radio service that has broad popular appeal in Blackburn, Darwen
and Hyndburn.
With regard to song era within the three age brackets that make up a target audience
range of 25-54 in BURN FM’s research (25-34s, 35-44s, 45-54s), the choice of 80s,
90s, love and current rock music was universally popular across all three groups; 70s
and classic rock was popular amongst the oldest two of the three groups; chart,
dance and r’n’b was popular for the youngest two groups.
BURN FM will encapsulate a far wider variety of songs than is heard on other
commercial stations. This is backed up by research where nearly 80% of those asked
stated that local radio would be better in the area with more variety and less
repetition of the music.
BURN FM intends to retain the flexibility to adapt and evolve its music in response to
audience feedback and research during the course of its 12 year licence. Utilising
RCS Selector® for music scheduling the database will initially be set up for a typical
daytime hour (excluding themed hours and additional spice tracks) as follows:
Category No of songs Each hour Average
rotation
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Approximate
Percentage of
output
Current A list 6 1 6 hours 8.5%
Current B list 10 1 10 hours 8.5%
Recurrent (up to
18 months old)
36 1 1½ days 8.5%
2000s 100 1 4 days 8.5%
Classic 90s 300 3 4 days 25%
Classic (15 – 25
years old)
350 3 5 days 25%
Gold (25 + 200 2 4 days 16%
years old)
Totals 1002 12 100%

In addition, at least a further 1,500 tracks will be reserved in a ‘held’ category which
will be regularly used to refresh the station’s daytime music universe. These will be
all time classic hits, the vast majority of which will have reached the upper regions of
the UK charts.
The following tracks are illustrative of each category:
Current A list:
Current B list:
Recurrent:
2000s:
Classic 90s:
Classic:
Gold:
* Jo Jo – Leave (Get Out)
* Bryan McFadden – Real To Me
* Dido – Sand In My Shoes
* Avril Lavigne – My Happy Ending
* Shining – Kristian Leontiou
* Sugababes – Too Lost In You
* Anastacia - Left Outside Alone
* Will Young - Your Game
* Black Eyed Peas - Where Is The Love
* Coldplay - Trouble
* Enrique Iglesias - Hero
* Ronan Keating - Lovin Each Day
* Take That - Back For Good
* Texas - Summer Son
* REM - Losing My Religion
* Womack and Womack - Teardrops
* Madonna - Like a Prayer
* Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls
* Candi Staton – Young Hearts Run Free
* Abba - Dancing Queen
* Elvis Costello – Oliver’s Army
Genre specific programmes that complement the main mix – such as a Saturday
night dance and soul programme or a classic rock programme – may also be tested
from time to time (mostly outside of daytime). BURN FM will not seek to alienate its
core audience with a substantial level of niche specialist music programming.
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Locally originated programming
BURN FM will provide a programme platform for local news, issues and topics
of general interest
BURN FM is proud of being a station originating from the area, and supported by the
major business players from the area, together with a forward thinking experienced
radio group.
The vast majority of programming will be locally originated and produced by BURN
FM staff from the Ewood Park studios, with occasional syndicated programmes
which clearly add significant value to the programming mix, such as:
* Sunday afternoon from 4 until 7pm – Hit 40 UK, delivered by satellite
* Sunday evening from 9pm until 11pm – Pat Sharp’s Totally 80s, delivered
electronically for local playout from Blue Revolution
There are no plans to share programming with any other station as it is thought this
would generally compromise the ability of BURN FM to deliver a quality locallyfocused
service to Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn.
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Automated local output
Optimising technology to always sound local
The vast majority of BURN FM programming during daytime hours will be broadcast
fully live and will not be pre-recorded or ‘automated’. Some use of modern
automation systems may be employed in daytime, for instance to provide the
opportunity for regular staff meetings, training and personal development. BURN FM
does not see ‘automated’ programming as a labour-saving device, purely to save on
costs but rather an opportunity to assist multi-skilled broadcasters to complete their
responsibilities effectively whilst maintaining high-quality locally-compiled content.
BURN FM plans to install the PSquared ‘Myriad’ computer playout system, based on
the experience of using the same system on the station’s trial broadcasts. Having
examined alternative systems it has been concluded that Myriad, when properly
implemented, is capable of providing automated programming which, to the listener,
is almost indistinguishable from live presenter programming.
An advantage of the Myriad system is to be able to time shift speech features,
information items and public service announcements from the daytime output into
other times, serving a wider audience with quality local content.
However, there is no substitute for broadcasters being on site to quickly respond to
calls, events, and situations in the locality. BURN FM plans to operate well within the
daytime automation limits set by Ofcom. BURN FM will operate a live local service as
far as is practical into the evening, although the joint role of this presenter as the
Community Liaison Officer means some elements of the programme (including its
second half) might need to be automated on occasions.
BURN FM’s investors recognise that Ofcom intends to hold a detailed forthcoming
consultation on localness but, as an observation, feel that a distinction should be
made between automated sequences made up of pre-recorded ‘generic’ links and
other automated sequences with local content that is compiled sometimes only a
very short time before it goes ‘live’ to air.
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Balance between music and speech
BURN FM believes that quality and not just quantity is important in speech
content to enhance a station’s localness
The following section details speech percentages as a projected proportion of
programming (non-commercial) airtime.
Monday to Friday:
* Breakfast 6am to 9am – Minimum 25%, Maximum 45%
* Daytime 9am to 4pm and 6pm to 7pm – Minimum 20%, Maximum 40%
* Drivetime 4pm to 6pm – Minimum 25%, Maximum 50%
* Non daytime 7pm to 6am – Minimum 5%, Maximum 25%
Saturday and Sunday:
* Daytime 8am to 2pm – Minimum 15%, Maximum 35%
* Non daytime 2pm to 8am – Minimum 5%, Max 35%
Note the Friday sports programme will contain a maximum speech content of 70%
and, during the football season, coverage of Blackburn Rovers home matches on
weekend afternoons or weekday evenings would raise the maximum speech content
to 100%.
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Existing Local Commercial Station Output
BURN FM is familiar with the music and speech content of all local and national
stations available within Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn, both commercial and
BBC.
In order to help illustrate the differences between BURN FM’s proposed service and
that of the existing local commercial services identified by Ofcom (Rock FM, Magic
999, Century 105.4 and Smooth FM) the radio consultancy The Steve Harris Agency
were contracted to undertake a station monitoring exercise.
Speech Content Analysis
The output of the two North West regional stations, Century and Smooth, was
monitored on 28 th July 2004, and the two Preston-based commercial stations, Rock
FM and Magic 999 the following week, on 4 th August 2004. The latter turned out to be
the day on which the main local news story, the arrest of terror suspects in
Blackburn, was also the main national news story, and therefore the results of the
monitoring were skewed towards this one incident. In order to demonstrate how
much time is allocated to issues in the Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn areas on a
more typical news day further monitoring of only the news output on these two
stations was undertaken on 9 th September 2004.
Monitoring of speech content was confined to the main ‘drivetime’ periods of 6-9am
and 4-7pm when the proportion of news and other speech content is generally at its
highest. Monitoring of these periods indicate that the music to speech ratios of each
station during these drivetimes was as follows:
Rock FM 70/30
Magic 999 66/34
Century 46/54
Smooth 71/29
Of all the speech outlined above, particular attention was paid to any material which
is directly related to BURN FM’s proposed broadcast area of Blackburn, Darwen and
Hyndburn.
News
During the first monitoring of Rock FM on 4 th August, only one story ran (other than
the arrests in Blackburn) that was local to BURN FM’s proposed coverage area. This
related to a bank raid in Darwen. The story ran through the main drivetime bulletins,
was never longer than 15 seconds and carried no audio.
BURN FM’s focus groups drew attention to the degree of repetition in the news
bulletins of Rock FM. Monitoring tends to endorse this impression, with the same
non-national stories used 4-7pm.
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With the same newsroom staff at its disposal, the news output on Magic was very
similar to Rock FM’s. Again, the only non-national story covered on Magic (apart from
the arrests) was the Darwen bank raid. The longest duration was 17 seconds, again
with no audio.
The average time of the Rock FM bulletins was 1 minute 22 seconds, with the
longest bulletin running 2 minutes and 2 seconds at 4pm. The average bulletin time
on Magic 999 was 2 minutes 35 seconds, the longest being 3 minutes 25 seconds at
8am and 9am. Although Magic’s bulletins were nearly a minute longer on average
than Rock FM’s, they only appeared to cover one additional non-national news story
and that was about a firefighter in Blackpool.
BURN FM carried out a second period of monitoring of just the news on Rock FM
and Magic on 7 th September 2004, again examining the peak drive time periods.
The average bulletin duration on Rock FM was 1 minute 24 seconds and the longest
bulletin was 1 minute 53 seconds. The average bulletin duration on Magic was 1
minute 36 seconds, with the longest bulletin being at 7am when the duration was 2
minutes and 51 seconds. This time, without the headline grabbing arrests there were
only two stories from the Blackburn. Darwen and Hyndburn area – both concerned
Blackburn Rovers and appeared in equal measure at roughly the same time on both
stations.
The average bulletin length on Century on 28 th July was 3 minutes 30 seconds.
National stories and celebrity news took priority – the proportion of non-national
regional news across the hours monitored was just 26.6%, this percentage includes
the local/regional sport. Celebrity stories included Catherine Zeta Jones (5 times),
Michael Jackson (8), Big Brother (6), Gay Simpsons episode (1), Louise Redknapp
(1), Kylie Minogue (2) and Courtney Love (1). The only stories relevant to the
Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn area were two sports stories about Blackburn
Rovers. Even during the hour long sports phone-in, there was only the briefest
mention of Blackburn Rovers and none of the callers were from Blackburn, Darwen
or Hyndburn.
Smooth is principally a jazz and easy listening station, and as a result average
bulletin lengths on 28 th July were only 1 minute 49 seconds. There were 46 news and
sports stories during the monitoring period and of those 12 were regional and 9 were
regional sports stories. As a result in duration ‘non-national’ regional news made up
78% of the output, and this was achieved partly by following basic journalistic
principals of finding local angles on national stories. There were no stories relating
directly to the Blackburn, Darwen or Hyndurn area.
Across the four stations, the only sporting coverage relating to Blackburn concerned
Rovers. No other local clubs or sports were mentioned.
Travel
The number of traffic items directly touching on the Blackburn, Darwen or Hyndburn
area was limited across all four stations. Rock FM reported slow traffic moving out of
Blackburn at 4.39pm and problems on the A666 out of Blackburn – but all in relation
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to the security alert. As for Century and Smooth, there were no mentions of any
traffic problems of any kind in the Blackburn, Darwen or Hyndburn area.
Other local speech in programming
In line with their music and entertainment remits, on 4 th August the main event locally
in Rock FM and Magic’s programming appeared to be, not the arrest of terror
suspects in Blackburn, but a station night out at the local bowling rink. On Rock,
particular attention was being paid to a series of forfeits one of the presenters had to
pay to obtain the release of a toy Garfield, which was mentioned at 4.09pm, 4.17pm,
4.39pm, 5.25pm and 6.48pm.
We did note on Magic there was one link which featured local/regional events – this
was at 9.46am and featured a Festival of Flowers at Stoneyhurst, to the north of
BURN FM’s proposed broadcast area. There was a sports event promoted on Rock
FM – this was the opportunity to win two tickets for that evening’s Blackburn Rovers
friendly match. All the lucky winners had to do was go across to the Red Rose
studios in Preston to pick up their tickets – and then go back to Blackburn for the
match.
On Smooth FM there was a regional entertainment guide, Life in the North West,
which was broadcast at 7.21am, 4.17pm and 5.16pm during our monitoring period. It
featured no events in the Blackburn, Darwen or Hyndburn areas.
In summary, outside the main news and sports bulletins, neither Century or Smooth
made any reference in their peak time programming to BURN FM’s proposed
broadcast area.
Advertising Content
In the monitoring, the extent to which local advertisers are using the respective
services was also considered. The following were the only examples of local
advertisers in the BURN FM proposed broadcast area during our monitoring period.
4 th August 2004
Rock FM
Blackburn College, Blackburn (7.13am, 8.44am and 6.42pm)
Bowker BMW, Accrington (at 7.56am, 8.25am, 4.55pm)
Heaven and Hell nightclub, Blackburn (at 7.15am)
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Music Analysis
BURN FM acquired from Music Control a list of all music played in the 7 days
beginning 1st August 2004 on what are currently the two most popular local
commercial services in BURN FM’s proposed broadcast area: Rock FM and Century.
This confirmed Rock FM relies on high rotation of the most current songs (with A list
tracks receiving up to 45 plays per week). Over 50% of the entire music output
consists of just 40 songs, and the majority of these are less than six months old.
Across the whole station Rock FM has a slight bias towards urban music (30% of
output) and rock (29% of output), followed by chart (23%) and dance (18%).
Century has a much more mainstream pop-hits focus with 57% of the output from
this genre, with the rest of the mix made up of urban (23%), dance (12%) and rock
(8%). Century has a much smaller number of high rotation songs than Rock and
these are generally of a recurrent nature of between 3 and 9 months old. The playlist
is generally made up of music from the 90s and 2000s, with the odd spice track from
the 70s and 80s.
Of the 20 most played tracks on Rock FM, only two received significant play (more
than 3 times during the week) on Century FM – they were Christian Leontiou, Shining
(with 4 plays on Century) and Gabrielle, Ten Years Time (3 plays).
Six of the most played tracks on Century received significant play on Rock FM. They
were:-
Joss Stone – Super Duper Love 6 plays
Anastacia – Left Outside Alone 12 plays
No Doubt – It’s My Life 11 plays
Mario Winans – I Don’t Wanna Know 13 plays
The Corrs – Summer Sunshine 10 plays
Jamelia – Thank You 9 plays
In general, BURN FM’s monitoring confirms that, in very broad terms, Rock FM and
Century cater for the two ‘mainstream’ music formats that are most commonly served
by FM radio stations (other than those targeting a particular niche) and, therefore, it
reemphasises the importance of BURN FM’s commitment to developing quality local
speech content as its main ‘USP’.
Magic 999 is primarily a classic hits station playing music from the sixties through to
the present day. However, the predominant era is the 70s, with the 80s close behind.
More than 70% of the music played during the monitoring period came from these
two decades. Magic demonstrates some growing similarities with the evolving
Smooth FM playlist. While there are some notional ‘jazz’ tracks on Smooth these are
largely confined to crossover artists like Diana Krall and Jamie Cullum and the whole
dinner jazz genre. Mainstream soul / pop on Smooth includes Gabrielle, Lisa
Stansfield and Simply Red.
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BURN FM – Key Differences
As a family-orientated station BURN FM’s speech will be mature but fun, focussed on
the issues that interest and matter to people living in Blackburn, Darwen and
Hyndburn.
News stories relating to Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn will dominate BURN FM’s
bulletins. News or sports flashes will be included within programmes, where
appropriate, when news breaks. Sports coverage will be broader than just Rovers,
and will include 90-minute live match commentary on all Rovers games. We note that
Rovers commentaries have now been dropped by Century.
BURN FM will continue the fine service established during its four trial broadcasts,
the BURN FM Noticeboard, listing local events every hour through the day.
The majority of the advertisers on BURN FM will be from Blackburn, Darwen and
Hyndburn.
BURN FM will combine many of the most popular musical elements of Rock FM,
Magic 999, Century and Smooth in one station. BURN FM’s broad music mix will
encompass more classic hits, less brashness and less repetition than Rock FM
(BURN FM will play music from the 70s onwards), more contemporary music from a
larger playlist than Magic (BURN FM’s playlist will include more of today’s most
popular current and recent singles), a wider variety of music than Century again from
a larger playlist (BURN FM will play more 70s, 80s and adult rock) and a wider range
of genres than Smooth (BURN FM will include rock and chart hits). As a
consequence, BURN FM will have broad family appeal to all ages.
Furthermore, whilst Rock FM has a clear female bias, BURN FM will be careful to
construct a mixture of music and speech that is likely to have broad balanced appeal
(including sports programming which tends to have a male bias).
By providing wide-appeal programming that is engaging, entertaining and includes
high quality speech content (including news and sport produced with the support of
the Lancashire Evening Telegraph) BURN FM will seek to take a substantial
audience from those who currently choose BBC local or national services, in
preference to the currently-available local commercial choices, and, to a much lesser
extent, those that do not currently listen to the radio at all.
The schedule which follows is only intended to illustrate some of the features that
may initially be included within BURN FM programming. The station will continuously
review its output in line with audience feedback throughout the course of the licence.
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PROGRAMME SCHEDULE
Number 1 for News, Sport & Music in Blackburn, Darwen & Hyndburn
Monday to Thursday
BURN FM Breakfast – Presenter 1 (live)
An entertaining and informative start to the day in Blackburn, Darwen
and Hyndburn!
* Local news, sport and weather every thirty minutes;
0600 –
0900
0900 –
1000
1000 –
1100
1100 –
1600
* Travel news every twenty minutes;
* BURN FM paperclips reviewing the days national and local papers;
* BURN FM Noticeboard with free publicity for local organisations;
* KIDZ Talk – daily interview with primary schoolchildren;
* Thought For The Day on Monday at 0715;
* BURN FM showbiz news at 0850;
BURN FM’s Retro Rewind – Presenter 1 (live)
A chance to identify the two mystery years from the local news and
music clues. To ensure accuracy and authenticity the local history
information for this feature will be provided from the extensive archives
of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.
* Local news, sport, and weather every hour;
* BURN FM Noticeboard with free publicity for local organisations.
BURN FM Workplace of the Day (automated)
A chance to meet some of the people that work at a local company,
learn about what they do, the company’s activities, and hear some of
their favourite songs
* Local news, sport, and weather every hour
BURN FM Daytime – Presenter 2 (live)
* Local news, sport, and weather every hour
* BURN FM Noticeboard with free publicity for local organisations
hourly;
* BURN FM Coffee Break – an easy-going local lifestyle and advice
feature at 1120 giving residents the chance to put their questions to
local experts;
* BURN FM showbiz news at 1150, 1350 and 1550;
* BURN FM Community Action at 1250 – providing local groups the
opportunity to appeal for help or assistance;
* BURN FM Gig Guide at 1450;
* BURN FM’s Lunchtime Music Fest from 1310-1400 with listener
dedications and requests
Including BURN FM Reports – Journalist 1 (live)
1300 –
1310 Extended lunchtime edition
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1600 –
1800
BURN FM Drivetime – Journalist 2 (live)
An engaging end to the day!
* Local news, sport, and weather every thirty minutes,
* Extended reports on local news and sport including live discussion and
analysis on breaking news;
* Local live guests;
* Travel news every twenty minutes;
* BURN FM Noticeboard with free publicity for local organisations
hourly;
* BURN FM Movie Roundup at 1650;
* Soundtrack to your life: Prominent local people choose their favourite
song of all time at 1745
1800-1815 BURN FM Reports – Journalist 3 (live)
BURN FM’s flagship comprehensive local, national and international
extended evening news and sport
1815 –
2200
2200 –
0100
0100 –
0600
BURN FM Interactive – CLO / Presenter 3
The interactive music and entertainment show
* Local news, sport, and weather every hour until 2000;
* BURN FM People – daily interview with someone locally in the
community making the news
* BURN FM’s Gig Guide at 1915;
* BURN FM’s Hot Topics at 1945;
* BURN FM’s Hot 3 - three new songs battle for listeners’ votes to be the
most popular new release around at the moment – at 2000
* BURN FM’s jukebox between 2000 and 2200.
The BURN FM Chill (automated)
Great chilled tunes to end the day
* National news every hour on the hour.
BURN FM Overnights (automated)
Your favourite music all night long
* National news every hour on the hour.
Friday As Monday to Thursday except
1815 –
1900
BURN FM Sport (following BURN FM Reports) – Journalist 2
The place to get the lowdown on the weekend’s sports activities in
Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn.
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Saturday
BURN FM Early Breakfast – Presenter 1 (automated)
0600 – * National news every hour on the hour;
0800 * BURN FM Noticeboard with free publicity for local organisations
hourly.
0800 –
1300
1300 –
1900
BURN FM Sports Warm-Up – Presenter 2 (live)
* National news at 8am;
* Local news and weather at the top of every hour from 0900;
* Local sports news at least every 30 minutes;
* Travel news hourly;
* BURN FM Noticeboard with free publicity for local organisations
hourly.
BURN FM Sport – Journalist 2 & Freelance Sports Reporters (live)
* Local news at 1300; National news hourly elsewhere (except during
football commentary);
* Weather hourly;
* Travel news at least hourly;
* Exclusive sports news live from Ewood Park as Blackburn Rovers
fortunes unfold*;
* Updates from all the area’s local sports teams;
* Live match coverage of Blackburn Rovers games – home and away*;
* The post match debate, phone-in and exclusive interviews
* season only
1900 – Saturday Night Party – CLO / Presenter 3 (automated)
0000 A mix of current and classic dance and soul for a Saturday night
0000 –
0600
Sunday
BURN FM Overnights
Your favourite music all night long
* National news every hour on the hour.
BURN FM Early Breakfast – Journalist 2 (automated)
0600 – * National news every hour on the hour;
0800 * BURN FM Noticeboard with free publicity for local organisations
hourly.
0800 –
1200
The BURN FM Sunday Chill – Presenter 1 (live)
* National news at 0800;
* Local news, sport and weather at the top of every hour from 0900;
* Full local sports results at 09.30 and 10.30;
* BURN FM Noticeboard with free publicity for local organisations
hourly.
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1200 –
1600
BURN FM Sunday Afternoons – CLO / Presenter 3 (live)
* Local news at 1200 and 1300; National news hourly elsewhere;
* Weather at the top of every hour;
* BURN FM Noticeboard with free publicity for local organisations
hourly;
* The best of BURN FM’s Hot Topics.
1600 – Hit 40 UK
1900 Simon Hirst and Katie Hill count down the UK’s hottest 40 tunes
1900 –
2100
2100 –
2300
2300 –
0000
0000 –
0600
Asian Image – Freelance 1 & Freelance Producer (live)
Music, news, discussion and phone-in
* National news every hour on the hour;
* Weather every hour
Pat Sharp’s Totally 80s
Pat replays the biggest hits form the decade that style forgot!
* National news on the hour, every hour
The BURN FM Chill (automated)
Great chilled tunes to end the day
* National news on the hour.
BURN FM Overnights
Your favourite music all night long
* National news every hour on the hour.
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BURN FM – Realistic Promises
BURN FM shares with the whole of the radio industry (and, we imagine, Ofcom) a
desire to see smaller stations adopt flexible Formats that enable them to adapt to
changing local circumstances and audience response during the course of their
twelve year licence. Even with strong pre-launch audience research, there is no
substitute for listener feedback gained once a station is on-air full time. This also
applies in the case of BURN FM despite the benefit of local knowledge gained over
four commercially-successful trial broadcasts.
The plan to employ three full time radio journalists will be vital not only to the success
of BURN FM but also to the station’s contribution to the development of the wider
community. In the proposed Format, forming part of this application, BURN FM
commits to employing three full-time journalists for at least the first two years
following launch. In practice, we anticipate the success of BURN FM’s news and
sports content to be such that at least this level of newsroom staffing (unusual for a
small station) remains throughout BURN FM’s licence.
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BURN FM PROPOSED STATION FORMAT
Licence Outline
Station Name BURN FM
Licence Area Blackburn & surrounding area (as defined in Ofcom’s Measured
Coverage Area map)
Frequency T.B.C.
Service Duration
& Staffing
24 hours a day – at least 18 hrs locally produced/presented which may include
some pre-produced ‘automated’ elements which, unless otherwise agreed, will
comply with standard Ofcom policy for ILR stations. The station’s news gathering
operation will be locally based and the station will directly employ at least three
radio journalists on full-time contracts (or the equivalent in job-share) for at least
its first two years of broadcasting.
Definitions
Speech “Speech” excludes advertising, programme/promotional trails &
sponsor credits, and may be calculated across daytime or nondaytime
Peaktime(s) “Peaktime(s)” refers to Weekday Breakfast and Afternoon
Drivetime output, and Weekend Late Breakfast.
Daytime “Daytime” refers to 0600 to 1900 weekdays, and weekend output
from 0800 to 1400.
Locally produced/presented Production and presentation from within the licence area. All
requirements for locally produced/presented output must include
peaktime.
EXCEPTIONS TO THE ABOVE A special service may be provided on public holidays or in other
exceptional circumstances such as major local or national
events.
Character of Service
BURN FM WILL HAVE A STRONG FOCUS ON LOCAL NEWS AND SPORT
PROVIDING A TRUSTED, LOCALLY BASED SOURCE OF INFORMATION
AND TALK THAT ENCOMPASSES THE WHOLE COMMUNITY OF
BLACKBURN, DARWEN AND HYNDBURN AND PROVIDES A MIX OF
CURRENT AND CLASSIC HITS OF WIDE POPULAR APPEAL.
Detail
BURN FM will be a music-based community-focussed local station.
Bespoke local news bulletins will be broadcast hourly during weekday daytime and
weekend peaktime, with two extended weekday bulletins. Local sport is an important
element of the station’s output and reports will feature during weekday and weekend
peaktimes together with a full weekend sports programme.
Speech will account for at least 20% of weekday daytime output.
BURN FM will reflect the major issues, interests and concerns of local people, including
those from ethnic minorities, through an entertainment and information mix that will
provide opportunities for listeners to interact with the station including: regular travel
reports; events listings; promotion for charities and voluntary groups; ad hoc social
action, opinion and advice features; an annual local community appeal.
BURN FM music will be a broad selection of popular, familiar music from the past thirty
years and the best of today. Some specialist programmes may also be aired, primarily
outside of daytime.
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The Proposed Format
The proposed Format has been written in plain English for the benefit of both Ofcom
and the general public. Having been tried and tested on four commercially-successful
trial broadcasts, this Format will remain as a reference document for Ofcom and
BURN FM’s audience for the duration of the licence.
BURN FM has proposed through its proposed Format:
* A challenging, but wholly achievable, commitment to the community which
can best be fulfilled through the support of BURN FM’s well-resourced
investors and partners
* To only include in the most important key characteristics of the service during
core times, not the many other items that BURN FM intends to include in dayto-day
programming over and beyond these core commitments
BURN FM has not proposed:
* To commit the station to levels of speech or live local programming that might
become unsustainable during the course of the licence during which time
changes in the manner in which people consume their media are
unpredictable
* To base the station in studios outside of its Coverage Area – or source news
from journalists that are not locally based
It is anticipated that, over the coming months and years, Ofcom will continue to
consult with radio stations on issues such as networking, automation, news hubs and
other similar ‘inputs’. This Format does not seek to pre-judge conclusions from these
consultations.
It is the view of BURN FM that a Format indicates the minimum requirements
expected from a radio station – not the maximum. BURN FM will comply with the
spirit of the Format promise to be a radio station that is “community focused”.
There is one further promise – BURN FM hereby promises not just to broadcast but
also to listen, with a variety of ongoing consultation mechanics implemented to
ensure the programming laid out within this Format is tailored to best meet the
ongoing needs and wishes of the local audience.
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An evidence based station
Having run four trial broadcasts between September 2001 and April 2003, a
substantial amount of information on local radio preferences had already been
collected by BURN FM prior to Ofcom’s advertisement of the permanent licence.
There was widespread demand to know more about BURN FM and, over the same
period, the BURN FM team attended and participated in a substantial number of
community based events and one-to-one meetings.
In order to further influence the proposals in this application BURN FM commissioned
two major pieces of independent audience research. The first was a quantitative
market research survey undertaken by Chris Porter of CPResearch International and,
the second, a qualitative Focus Group analysis from consultants The Steve Harris
Agency. The demographic analysis of the marketing area was derived from a
specially commissioned survey provided by CACI.
In addition, the publicly available RAJAR data for Rock FM, Century 105.4, Magic
999, Smooth FM and BBC Radio Lancashire have been analysed from the past five
years, in order to note trends in the listening profiles of each of these stations within
their own broadcast areas (including the gender, age and social class of their
listeners). Station by station current RAJAR summaries are included in the
Confidential Appendix submitted to Ofcom with this application.
It is particularly noteworthy that in all of the RAJAR ‘Total Survey Areas’ analysed for
this application Radio 2’s total hours make it the clear overall market leader. This,
together with BURN FM’s specially commissioned research in its own proposed
broadcast area, further confirms the decision not to focus on an audience under-25
(the age segment in which Preston-based Rock FM performs best) but rather to
position the new station at what sometimes used to be described as a “localised
Radio 1½ “ – targeting a core 25-54 audience and, in effect, the whole community.
We do note, however, that Rock FM’s Measured Coverage Area only encompasses
parts of BURN FM’s proposed broadcast area, partly as a result of the 14dB
restriction on Rock FM’s antenna towards the area. Consequently, and reflecting the
preferences of BURN FM’s 25-54 core audience, the station will incorporate current
music in its overall playlist as set out in section five of this application. By providing
musical variety (both familiar classic hits and current popular music) and a strong
community focus with an emphasis on local news and sport, BURN FM’s objective is
to take audience from BBC Radio 1 at one end of the market – and BBC Radio 2 at
the other, a mix that, the research suggests, would also appeal to a proportion of
partisans of BBC Radio Lancashire.
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Trial Broadcasts – Market Testing
Between September 2001 and April 2003, BURN FM ran a series of commercially
successful four-week trial broadcasts on a succession of Restricted Service
Licenses. A variety of programming was tested, with a mixture of some very well
known and new presenters to the area, and each successive broadcast period
provided an unparalleled opportunity to get to know and assess the local
marketplace.
There was little room for doubt, even after the first of the trial broadcasts, that there
was a real enthusiasm and demand for BURN FM’s mix. A small number of selected
highlights are listed below.
1st Trial broadcast – 17th September to 14th October 2001
30 local companies bought spot advertising and sponsorship packages
250 local community and charitable events were promoted through the BURN
FM Noticeboard
A special appeal for toys on behalf of Blackburn Lions produced more than
200 donations
Roadshows were staged at Blackburn Shopping Centre, Darwen Market and
Blackburn Lion’s Gala
BURN FM publicised details of the Wired-Up Project, the initiative to expand
IT skills to local residents in deprived areas
2nd Trial Broadcast – 5th March to 1st April 2002
40 local companies bought spot advertising and sponsorship
In conjunction with Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Blackburn
Rovers and The Lancashire Evening Telegraph, BURN FM helped to
distribute 75,000 “I Love Blackburn” car stickers
Three roadshows were staged in Blackburn Shopping Centre, Darwen Market
and Asda Accrington
BURN FM teamed up with Coca Cola to help launch their new energy drink
“BURN”
An expanded website attracted 55,000 hits and nearly 6,000 page views –
with live streaming of BURN FM output
The main research project carried out by the School of Marketing at
Blackburn College, between 25th and 28th March 2002 showed a station
reach of nearly one third of those interviewed. Nearly 80% of those
interviewed agreed with the proposition that the local area needed a new
independent radio station.
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3rd Trial Broadcast – 21st September to 18th October 18th
2002
A series of major and successful sponsorships were completed including:
* Breakfast Show – Wilkinson Cameras
* Weather - CD Bramhall Ford
* Traffic & Travel - Bowker BMW
* Sport - Lookers Vauxhall
* Time - Peter Jackson Jewellers
More than 250 local events and charities were featured on the BURN FM
Noticeboard including Only Foals and Horses, an animal sanctuary which
received an incredible response to their open day publicity on-air
The BURN FM team took part in one of the five East Lancs Magic Eye Appeal
fundraising walk
Research carried out towards the end of the period between 16th and 18th
October 2002 showed a remarkably solid reach of 30%
4th Trial Broadcast – 1st April and 28th April 2003
40 local companies bought advertising and sponsorship packages
A BURN FM eight page colour supplement was published by the Blackburn
Citizen
Sir Bill Taylor, then Leader of Blackburn Council, praised and highlighted the
work of the news team.
BURN FM attended the Blackburn Chamber of Commerce Exhibition at
Ewood Park
Detailed reports from the trial broadcasts were submitted to the Radio Authority and
are available to Ofcom upon request.
The launch of a full time BURN FM service will not be a new market entry but the
return of an old, familiar and, most importantly, trusted friend.
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Area Profile
In addition to the board’s substantial local knowledge, a number of sources have
been used to provide an area profile of Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn in order to
help inform BURN FM’s research programme – a CACI demographic analysis based
on the 2001 Census; population projections and economic analysis produced by
Lancashire County Council; and the East Lancashire Economic Review, produced by
PricewaterhouseCooper in December 2003 for Elevate – East Lancashire Pathfinder.
The town of Blackburn’s heritage as a working class textile centre has contributed to
an image of the area by outsiders of ‘cloth caps and clogs’. Printing, publishing and
mechanical and electrical engineering historically made up the mainstay of the rest of
the area’s manufacturing based economy. Times change though and between 1981
and 1996 24% of all jobs were lost in this sector as a result of economic recession
and structural decline.
Many local business people believe that whilst other areas adapted to ‘the new world’
Blackburn in particular was slow to adapt from manufacturing to service industries.
However, following the demise of ‘King Cotton’, the local economy has reinvented
itself and manufacturing remains one of the area’s mains strengths.
The construction of the M65 motorway opened up a corridor of opportunity for
commerce and industry and a network of business parks have attracted companies
that have created thousands of jobs.
The economies of both Blackburn with Darwen and Hyndburn have diversified and
there is a growing financial services, telecom and information technology base.
In Blackburn with Darwen, world-class companies such as Crown Paints and acrylics
specialist Lucite International are located alongside rapidly-expanding firms such as
cake-manufacturer Interlink Foods, whiteboard developer Promethean which is
transforming the way our children are taught, and Capita which now employs more
than 1,000 people in the area. Aerospace is also a significant employer although the
major bases are to the west and outside the borough.
Hyndburn is home to leading companies such as Senator International, Europe’s
largest manufacturer of office furniture; corporate uniform group Simon Jersey;
Hollands Pies; and the Fraser Eagle group which is now Britain’s biggest provider of
replacement coach services to rail companies.
Demographic & Economic Summary
CACI projections indicate that the core editorial area of the new station will cover
Blackburn with Darwen and the most populated parts of Hyndburn producing a total
population of 210,169, and an adult (15+) population of 162,171.
- 89 of 122 -

The main features of this core demographic is a substantial skew towards the
Age
Variation
from
Group average
0-4 +24%
5~9 +24%
10~14 +17%
15~19 +11%
20~24 -4%
25~29 +2%
BURN FM area – age
Distribution 0 to 29
younger age groups, which are all well above the national
average. Those under 20 make up nearly 30% of the
population, while at the other end of the scale, the
proportion of those aged 65 and over is 13 per cent
below the national average. The proportion of those aged
under 16 is the tenth highest of all local authorities in the
UK.
One of the most distinguishing features of the
demographics of the area is the proportion of citizens of
Asian or Asian British origin, which is 386% of the
national average, and makes up more than 15% of the
population. In Blackburn with Darwen alone, 77.9% of the
population are from the white ethnic grouping, which is the lowest of any borough in
the North West. In Hyndburn, the proportion of Asian or Asian British is 7.44%, still
nearly double the national average. Throughout BURN FM’s four trial broadcasts, the
station has regularly served this very significant and distinctive part of the community,
and it plans to continue to do so in the future.
Other ethnic groups, particularly Afro-Caribbean and Chinese are very small,
numbering no more than 350 in total.
The third most significant feature is that the social structure of this core editorial area
is predominantly lower middle and working class. Among economically active
households, the proportions of Higher Managers (70% of the norm) and Higher
Professionals (51% of the norm) are significantly below the national average. The
most significant occupations are Lower Supervisory, Semi Routine Occupations, and
Routine Occupations, which reflect the continuing predominance of manufacturing in
this area. The number of those working as Process, Plant and Machine Operatives is
74% above the national norm
%
for
Looking forward, it is
projected by Lancashire
County Council that there
will be some population
growth in the area,
reflecting the current high
Variation
from
Social National
Class area average national
AB 17.6 24.9 71% -41.5
C1 24.9 29.6 84% -18.9
C2 20.8 18.3 114% 13.7
D 29.0 20.5 142% 41.5
E 7.7 6.7 114% 14.9
%
variation
- 90 of 122 -
Those involved in Skilled
Trades Occupations (19%) and
Personal Service Occupations
(23%) are both well above the
national average. The total
population of the area has
been relatively stable for the
past twenty years.
1981 1991 2001 Change
Blackburn 109,564 105,994 105,085 -4.1
Darwen 30,883 29,864 31,570 2.2
Accrington 36,459 36,466 35,203 -3.4
TOTAL 176,906 172,324 171,858 -2.9
proportion of those aged under 20. While the population of England is expected to
increase by nearly 4% by the year 2010, there is likely to a small decline in the North
West region and only a small increase in both Blackburn with Darwen (1.5%) and
Hyndburn (1.2%)

Population in ‘000s 2000 2001 2006 2008 2010 Change
2001-10
England 49,997 50,225 51,167 51,550 51,947 + 3.9%
North West 6,894 6,892 6,877 6,875 6,876 - 0.3%
Blackburn with
Darwen
138.1 138.4 139.4 139.8 140.2 + 1.5%
Hyndburn 78.9 79.1 79.5 79.7 79.9 + 1.2%
SKILLS BASE
The area has also suffered from low capital investment in recent years, a factor
which has only been exacerbated by the loss of EU Objective Two status. The level
of educational attainment is particularly low compared to the rest of the North West.
Minimum
Qualifications
None Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4+
Blackburn with
Darwen
37.2% 17.5% 18.1% 6.0% 13.8%
Hyndburn 35.5% 18.2% 19.3% 5.9% 12.7%
North West 31.9% 16.7% 19.4% 7.7% 17.2%
England 28.9% 16.6% 19.4% 8.3% 19.9%
VAT REGISTERED COMPANIES BY TURNOVER
There are 95 VAT registered companies in Blackburn with Darwen alone with annual
turnovers of at least £5 million. The figure of 50 for Hyndburn is also well above the
average for the rest of the North West and for the UK as a whole.
Turnover Blackburn with
Darwen
Hyndburn North
West
U.K.
Figures in £000s No % No % % %
0-49 425 15.3 250 15.2 19.1 21
50-99 670 24.1 435 26.5 24.7 24.5
100-249 790 28.4 445 27. 26.2 25.6
250-499 335 12 200 12.2 12/4 12
500-999 220 7.9 135 8.2 7.7 7.4
1,000 – 4,999 245 8.8 125 7.6 7.4 7.2
5,000 plus 95 3.4 50 3.0 2.5 2.4
TOTAL 2,785 100 1,640 100
Source : Small Business Service at VAT Registrations and de-registrations 2003
TRAVEL TO WORK DATA
Figures show that, travel to work time in the core editorial area is generally much
shorter than in the UK as a whole. Nearly 52% of the working population travel less
than 10 kilometres (less than seven miles). Around 70% of the working population
are probably spending roughly 15-20 minutes or less travelling to work.
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Less
than
2km
2km
to 5
km
5-10
km
- 92 of 122 -
10-20
km
20-
30km
30-40
km
40-60
km
Blackburn
with Darwen 25.6 27.1 17.4 12.4 3.4 1.9 1.1 1.0
Hyndburn 27.9 23.0 18.5 11.4 3.6 1.4 1.4 1.7
England and
Wales 20.1 20.1 18.3 15.3 5.4 2.4 2.2 2.6
OTHER HEADLINES
The average weekly wage in Blackburn with Darwen district is £344 (2003
New Earnings Survey) compared to the national average of £403. In
Hyndburn, the average weekly salary is lower at £312.
In Blackburn with Darwen, the proportion of those stating that they do not
have a religion is 8%, significantly lower than the national average of 14.8%.
63.3% are Christians, and 19.4% are Muslims, the third highest ranking of
Muslim residents in England and Wales. In Hyndburn, at 9.2%, the proportion
of those stating they do not have a religion is also significantly lower than the
national average of 14.8%. 76.3% are Christians, 7.2% are Muslim, which is
the 28th highest ranking score in the UK, and the seventh highest in the North
West region.
In general the level of crime is lower than average across the area – though in
Blackburn with Darwen, there has been a worryingly steep increase in
violence against the person which has risen nearly 50% from 14.5 per
thousand in 2001/02 to 21.4 per 1,000 in 2003/04, against a national average
of 18.2. In Hyndburn the rate of burglaries is also significantly higher than the
national average, at 26.94 per thousand households compared to the national
average of 14.83.
Over
60km

Quantitative Research
The key objectives of the Quantitative research
The overall objective of the quantitative Radio Market Perceptual Study
commissioned by BURN FM was to examine the relative popularity and importance
of a comprehensive series of speech and music programming issues, among the
broad 15+ population of the Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn area, in order to
recommend a course of action and programming to inform the establishment of a
new station that would be most acceptable, and with the greatest chance for
success, among local residents.
Specific Research Questions
The emphasis of the research was placed heavily on the speech content of the
proposed new station, though the opportunity was taken to test musical preference to
help to achieve the most appropriate balance of music styles and era to deliver the
best possible audience reach and share.
The broad areas of investigation designed to address the study’s overall objectives
included:
* Station Listening and Favouritism
* Programming Elements & Programme Topics
* Sports
* Local News Sources
* Community Focus
* Likelihood of Trial for New Radio Station
* Music Styles & Audience Segments
To inform the business plan a clear indication about the willingness of the potential
audience to try a new service was sought.
A complete list of the specific questions asked in thequestionnaire
is contained in an
Appendix to this application.
The size and composition of the sample
The universe of males and females aged 15+ was surveyed for purposes of this
Radio Market Perceptual Study. Representatives of London-based Field Facts
International conducted 481 telephone interviews for this study during early August
2004.
All respondents spend at least an hour per day listening to the radio. Otherwise, no
other entry requirements were placed on this study's respondents.
The sample is balanced proportionately by age, gender, ethnicity, geography, and
socioeconomic status, based on the population makeup of BURN FM’s anticipated
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oadcast area of Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn. The anticipated and actual
sample percentages are detailed in the next table.
Population of TSA % of Population % of Survey Sample
15 – 29 40,716 25.1 25.9
30 – 44 45,872 28.3 29.1
45 – 59 36,850 22.7 22.7
60 + 38,596 23.8 22.3
Total 15+ 162,034 100% 100%
Asian Sound
Asian 33,117 15.8 15.6
ABC1 54,812 42.5 43.9
C2DE 74,304 57.5 52.8
Refused N/A N/A 3.3
Total 16-64 129,116 100% 100%
Summary of the Main Research Findings
Magic 999
talkSPORT
2BR
Classic FM
Smooth FM
BBC 5
BBC 4
BBC 2
BBC 1
Rock FM
Century FM
BBC Lancs
Stations Listened To Within The Past Week--By Total (%)
0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18% 20% 22% 24%
- 94 of 122 -

Station Listening and Favourites
Weekly reach appears broadly equally divided between the five most popular stations
in Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn. The highest reach is shown for BBC Radio
Lancashire which for its first ten years was branded as Radio Blackburn (it currently
remains the only station
based in the area).
Perhaps the most
interesting finding in the
survey is that Century
FM edges ahead of
Rock FM, the ‘heritage’
local commercial
station in terms of weekly reach.
ROCK FM
POPULARITY
(SOURCE: CPR)
While not comparing like with like, the contrast between Rock FM’s reach in this
survey compared to its headline RAJAR reach, suggests the station is most popular
in other parts of its wider broadcast area. This survey showed that Rock FM and
Century are both weakest in Hyndburn – where BBC Radio Lancashire is strongest.
In BURN FM’s overall broadcast area Radio 2 is beaten by Radio 1, the latter
potentially due in part to the popularity of BBC Radio Lancashire.
Nearly half of the total sample do the bulk of their radio listening at home, while onethird
are most likely to listen in the car.
On average the sample listened to just 1.7 radio stations a day. This could indicate
greater loyalty and sustained listening when an audience is attracted and tuned in to
its favourite stations – and hence potentially higher hours tuned if a station manages
to appeal correctly to its target. Indeed the average time tuned is high at 3.9 hours
per day with the 25-34s most above-average at 4.9. Partisans of BBC Radio
Lancashire and Century FM, along with the 45-54s, are also heavy radio users. The
youngest respondents are the lightest radio listeners.
25-54s are most likely to change stations during the day, potentially indicating a level
of dissatisfaction with the current choices available and a desire for variety in output.
When listeners were quizzed on their favourite stations it became clear that BBC
Radio Lancashire failed quite badly in terms of music, while Rock FM was strong
amongst its audience for the music it provides.
Demographically, Century has the most balanced spread by age group, though Rock
FM and BBC Radio One have significant segments in the 25-34 age group. By
contrast 75% of the audience for BBC Radio Lancashire is over 55.
- 95 of 122 -
Blackburn Darwen Hyndburn
Weekly Reach 24.8% 28.5% 17.5%
Music Fav 16.8% 12.5% 12.3%
Overall Fav 16.4% 15.7% 9.8%

Comparing weekly reach as measured by BURN FM’s survey in its proposed
broadcast area against the weekly reach headline figures using RAJAR’s (different)
methodology in the Rock FM survey area shows a significant increase for BBC Radio
Lancashire and BBC Radio 1 at the apparent expense of Rock FM and BBC Radio 2.
BURN FM’s survey also suggests the reach of BBC Radio 4 in Blackburn, Darwen
and Hyndburn is significantly (9.4%) below the national reach achieved by this station
in RAJAR across the UK, in part reflecting the relatively young and low ABC1 profile
of the area.
BBC
Lancs
Century Rock BBCR1 BBCR2 BBCR4 BBCR5 Smooth Classic Magic
CPR/ BURN
TSA
23.7 23.4 22.8 22.6 21.5 10.4 7.6 7.5 5.9 2.8
RAJAR/Rock
TSA
16 21 28 16 37 15 13 8 11 5
Variation +7.7 +2.4 -5.2 6.6 -15.5 -5.4 -5.4 -0.5 -5.1 -2.2
Proposed Programme Elements
Respondents were asked how they rated a variety of proposed programme elements,
and the responses demonstrably indicated a strong demand for more Blackburn,
Darwen and Hyndburn news, weather and events, all recording more than 80%
among those rating these elements very or somewhat important. The research
suggested Asian respondents placed an even greater importance on all categories of
news and information. Sports news is also important across all ages, particularly
local sport headed up by Blackburn Rovers.
When respondents were questioned specifically about sport, there was a high level of
watching sport – with 17% watching regularly and 41% watching occasionally. As
confirmed by the focus groups there was a broad consensus about the importance of
Blackburn Rovers and coverage of their games and regular news from the club. 40%
of those questioned described themselves as Rovers fans. One third of that number
attend most home matches, which expressed as a proportion of BURN FM’s total
target adult audience of circa 160,000 adults produces a figure of around 20,000
people. This corresponds with average home gates at Ewood Park last season
which were 24,375 (of which 3,418 was away support).
Researchers then asked about programme topics and crime prevention came
through very strongly. This concern is even more strongly expressed among Asian
respondents.
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The survey also asked respondents what changes they would require to improve
existing services, and it was clear here – just as it was with the subsequent focus
groups – that the most important improvement would be more presenters who know
the area well. This scored highly with more than three quarters of respondents along
with a desire for a more varied and less repetitious mix of music, a point also strongly
endorsed at focus groups.
The best source of local news on the radio was seen to be BBC Radio Lancashire –
an impression underlined at the focus groups where many participants clearly gave
their reason for listening to BBC Radio Lancashire as its coverage of local news and
sport. However the margin of the station’s superiority was impressive. BBC Radio
Lancashire leads with 43% naming it as their best source for local news, a finding
which skews even higher among men and those aged 35+. Rock FM is far behind in
second-place with just 13%.
Music
Competitions & giveaways
Accrington Stanley info
Business & financial news
Asian community magazine
Local sports (not football)
Behind-the-scenes Rovers info
National sports
Local events & What's On
International news
Traffic & travel
Local/live news bulletins
National news
Local weather
Local news
Programming Element Importance--By Total (%)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Very important Somewhat important Not very important
A benefit of telephone based research is the ability to play music montages down the
telephone. BURN FM investigated a range of potential mainstream music styles to
assist in the process of developing a music policy and playlist that will maximise
listening to the new station.
All respondents rated a series of eleven music style montages for personal appeal,
using 10-point scales, where the higher the number, the more appealing the style of
music. Each style was represented by three hooks and the appeal ratings ranged
from a high of 6.2 for the 90s montage, to a low of 4.8 for the MOR montage. The
classic 90s montage was also particularly strong with those aged 25-64, the main
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demographic target of BURN FM, but particularly with the 35-44 and the 55-64
segments, where it scored an approval rating of 6.6.
Impact on Existing Services
39%
DK
Others
Magic 999
BBC 3
Classic FM
BBC 5
Smooth FM
2BR
BBC 4
Asian Sound
BBC 2
Rock FM
BBC Lancs
Century
BBC 1
Likelihood of Trial For New Radio Station--By Total (%)
6%
5%
3%
Very Likely
Somewhat Likely
Somewhat Unlikely
Very Unlikely
DK/NA
Stations Listened To Less With New Station--Total (%)
0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18% 20%
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47%
Examining the likelihood of trial of a new station, 47% are “very likely”, and this is
then supported by a further 39% who declare that they are “somewhat likely” to try a
new service. Several sub-groups are above-average in willingness to try, including
the 25-39 and 45-54 year-olds – both principal target groups for BURN FM.
The survey then asked respondents which station, if any, they would be likely to
listen to less often to make room for this newcomer. As noted in section 3, it is clear
that a significant proportion of BURN FM listening is likely to come from BBC

services, both local and national.
Perhaps the best way to examine the results is to look behind the total sample data
and explore the extent to which stations’ partisans admit that they will relinquish
some listening to their favourite station to make room for a market newcomer.
For instance, 44% of Century FM partisans admit they would spend less time with
Century in order to accommodate a new station. Among Rock FM partisans, this
figure is just 25%; they are more likely to drop another station first, such as BBC
Radio 1 or Century FM, rather than their overall favourite.
The survey suggests that 45.3% of the BURN FM audience will come from BBC
Radio 1, BBC Radio Lancashire and BBC Radio 2, compared with 29.5% coming
from Rock and Century, with the impact on Century being proportionately higher. The
impact on other services will be minimal – that is less than 4%.
Full data tables and a comprehensive summary of all responses are supplied to
Ofcom as part of the Confidential Appendix to this application.
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Qualitative Research
In order to cross check the findings from the quantitative research, BURN FM carried
out two lively and well attended focus groups on 8 th September 2004 in the Red Rose
Suite at Ewood Park, the home of Blackburn Rovers.
A total of 30 people attended the two sessions, drawn partly from those who had
participated in the original Field Facts market survey and others recruited specially
for the event. The composition of the groups reflected the main target audience –
aged between 25 and 54, drawn roughly equally between male and female with a
proportion of Asian participants reflecting the demographic make up of the proposed
broadcast area.
The moderator was Mike Green, head of Broadcast Journalism at the University of
Central Lancashire, an experienced journalist who has worked for a number of the
region’s leading commercial radio stations prior to entering higher education
teaching.
The purpose of these sessions was to explore, on a qualitative basis, programme
content ideas which had emerged from the first research process and from drafts of
the programming section of this application. It also offered an opportunity to talk
directly to potential listeners to BURN FM to see whether they could offer ideas and
initiatives which might enhance the delivery of the new radio service.
Some very strong messages came from the two sessions – notably that the new
station should feel free to experiment and to break the mould.
Key findings:
More variety and less repetition across the board – with news, music, nonnews
speech content and advertisements.
Presenters do not have to be local and do not have to have local accents, but
they must be knowledgeable about the area. They must relate to the
audience.
The station should be at the centre of the local community and could play a
significant part in local awareness and regeneration.
Sports coverage is crucial, in particular Blackburn Rovers. In addition
Accrington Stanley, but also kids football – and other sports, for instance
there should be coverage of the town’s successful Ice Hockey team.
The radio station should play an active part not only in promoting local events,
but also in instigating local events.
The station should take the initiative in promoting local music and music
events, and perhaps assist in the process of attracting better bands and acts
to the major venues in the town, such as King George’s Hall.
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Respondents perceived an opportunity for a new local station to increase the
quality, amount and variety of the ‘news’ package for Blackburn, Darwen and
Hyndburn. There was broad interest and approval of the involvement of both
Blackburn Rovers and the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.
As far as programming elements were concerned, there was broad approval
of traffic and travel bulletins during peak times, though less enthusiasm for
very detailed weather forecasts.
There was broad support for any programme support offered to crime
prevention initiatives or neighbourhood watch schemes.
And rather than clutter the air with long slabs of information, the station or its
associates could offer off-air phone lines or website information.
Suggestions were expressed about programming for children and one
suggestion was to run a ‘swap shop’ for X-box and other electronic games,
perhaps mid afternoon when children come home from school – or during the
holidays.
Asian interests should not just be ghettoised, the Asian community is part of
the wider community, and its interests should be reflected in wider community
issues and news, as well as special programming. There was a clearly
expressed interest in Asian music and culture, and a broad acceptance that
there was greater crossover in the field of popular music between mainstream
pop and young Asian music genres, which could feature in mainstream
programming.
There was real enthusiasm for the aspiration of the station to find and develop
mainstream presentation talent in both news and music from the Asian
community.
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Evidence of Support
Local people agree “BURN FM is the best choice”
In addition to the support and demand demonstrated for BURN FM’s proposals by
the company’s comprehensive market research and four trial broadcasts, BURN FM
is proud to have been able to collect 1,185 letters or emails of support for its licence
campaign from across the community (this figure excludes signatures on supporter
petitions).
A small sample selection of some of these letters is included in the Confidential
Appendix accompanying this application, together with a database listing all
communication received. Copies of all correspondence is available to Ofcom on
request.
The following are some selected quotes from BURN FM supporters and advertisers:
Sir Bill Taylor – September 2004
As a local councillor for Blackburn with Darwen for nearly 25 years, I have supported the
drive for a local FM radio station and have watched with interest the efforts of the Burn FM
team as they have worked to bring local commercial FM radio to the area.
Now that the licence has been advertised, I commend to those in Ofcom responsible for
awarding the FM radio licence for the Blackburn area, the team behind the Burn FM
application. I look forward to the time when local commercial radio for the area is a
permanent feature and hope that it is the Burn FM team that is chosen to run it.
Eric Whalley, Chairman, Accrington Stanley Football Club – September 2004
I would like to take this opportunity to pledge Accrington Stanley’ Football Club’s full support
to Burn FM’s bid to deliver local commercial radio. The Partnership between various local
businesses and organisations is a positive step in promoting a sense of community
throughout Blackburn and the surrounding region, whilst also proving a popular choice with
listeners as a commercial radio station. The success of the previous trial broadcasts
highlights the potential that Burn FM has of becoming a highly successful venture for the
board and indeed the listeners. I wish Burn FM every success with the bid – both individually
and on behalf of Accrington Stanley Football Club.
Kamruddin Kothia, Managing Director eBusiness UK – September 2004
I would like to take this opportunity to offer my support to Burn FM. Following their successful
RSL broadcasts in the past, it has been evident that Burn FM can deliver a highly
professional, innovative media coverage. Burn FM will serve a highly diverse community and I
feel that their presence will make a great difference to our local community. I am confident
that Burn FM’s hard work and efforts will lead them to being East Lancashire’s No 1 radio
station. I am hopeful and trust that Burn FM’s application will prove successful.
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The Very Rev Christopher Armstrong, Dean of Blackburn – September 2004
I’m sure there is room in our local community for a second radio station and I would welcome
Burn FM as a permanent fixture. Their enthusiasm and ingenuity cannot be faulted and
whereas other media strands may wish to turn their backs on organised religion – and the
Christian religion in particular, I’m pleased to say that Burn FM are very happy to cover
church events and especially the work and witness of the Cathedral.
John Shepherd, Chairman, Radio Hospitals Blackburn – August 2004
I am happy to say that Radio Hospitals Blackburn is pleased to support your bid to win the
licence for the Blackburn area. This will provide more healthy competition to the existing
stations and so promote quality programmes.
John Heritage, Director of Commercial Development, Prince’s Trust – August 2004
I am writing on behalf of The Prince’s Trust in support of your application for a licence to
transmit Burn FM. I have heard a number of test broadcasts made by Burn FM and have
been extremely impressed by both the quality and range of issues covered in the broadcasts.
The consortium and the individuals within it have an impressive track record in providing
quality services to the community of Blackburn with Darwen and across East Lancashire.
One such partner, Blackburn Rovers FC and a number of the Directors, including yourself and
Tom Finn, have been long-time supporters of the Prince’s Trust. I on behalf of The Prince’s
Trust and I am delighted to endorse the consortium’s bid and look forward to hearing a
successful outcome.
Carol Tapp, Granada television – August 2004
The Granada Blackburn Office has enjoyed the input Burn FM has had on the local
community, which is demanding and should receive a permanent service. Your excellent
coverage of all regional affairs, be it news, sport or community based groups, proves that you
can run a successful and sustainable local radio station. We wish you every success in your
endeavour.
Bill Ferguson, President Blackburn Lions – July 2004
You have now helped us consistently over the past three years and in return, I want to
express the support of Blackburn Lions for Burn FM in your forthcoming licence application.
You have demonstrated that you can run an entertaining local radio station and possess a
willingness to become involved in helping local organisations such as ours. I feel confident
that you would make a success of running our local FM radio station and look forward to your
first broadcast if awarded the licence.
Arnold Wilcox-Wood, Blackburn Shopping Centre Manager – August 2004
Since my original letter, and the subsequent trial broadcasts of the Burn FM and others I feel
as strongly as then that, one, Blackburn needs it’s own radio station and that two, Burn FM is
best placed to run the licence.
Dennis Taylor, Chief Executive, East Lancashire Partnership – August 2004
I am delighted to offer the Partnership’s support to your bid to deliver a local commercial radio
station to Blackburn with Darwen. The majority of businesses on the Board of Burn FM are
also represented on the East Lancashire Partnership and so we have first hand knowledge of
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the roles they play in community life here in the sub-region. I wish you every success with
your application and, if successful, assure you of our continued support.
Michael Damms, Chief Executive, Chamber of Commerce East Lancashire – August
2004
We are happy to offer our continued support to Burn FM’s application to obtain a permanent
radio station for Blackburn with Darwen. Our belief is that the trial broadcasts over the past
four years show that the Burn FM team have the skills to be able to deliver a sustainable
commercial radio station, and that the composition of the Board demonstrates representation
from many local organisations and businesses. We wish you success in your application.
Neil Livesey, Great Harwood Windows Ltd – April 2002
I am writing to thank you for the time, effort and creativity that you and your company put into
the advertisements for our Easter Sales Event… ……The advertising brought in more people
that last year… …..More new customers… …More sales leads… ….
I hope that you are granted the licence for Blackburn and Darwen so that we can work
together again.
Mebs Ahmed, Minority Recruitment, Lancashire Police – May 2003
Just a quick line on the marketing FM 106 The Burn has carried out for us. The jobs fair held
at Blackburn Shopping centre was an absolute success, we had approximately 200
expressions of interest and on the day we saw over 300 people. We believe you made a huge
impact for us, keep up the good work and look forward to working with you in the future.
Julian Dunn, Action Factory Community Arts – July 2002
We trust that your application will be successful based on the significant impact the trial
broadcasts received. The Burn Notice Board is a very useful and powerful tool of
communication for the local community.
Sandra Bladen, Director, The Samaritans – March 2002
I wish to thank you for your support in inviting me to appear on your mid-morning programme
and for running a series of free advertisements on The Burn. I have listened regularly to the
various programmes and found them to be bright, bubbly, informative and an excellent
service to the community.
Claire Turner, Marketing and Tourism Manager, Blackburn with Darwen Borough
Council – April 2002
Can I express my thanks for The Burn’s help and involvement in the Blackburn Town Centre
shopping initiatives Easter Shopping festival. It was extremely successful and well received
by shoppers and businesses alike. The Roadshow’s presence throughout the week-end along
with the promotional activity on air played a large part in helping to bring local shoppers into
the town centre and boosting the local economy. My team and I support your application for a
permanent licence wholeheartedly.
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Mike Green, Head of Broadcast Journalism, University of Central Lancashire – May
2002
I had to write and congratulate you on the success of The Burn over the past few weeks. I
was particularly pleased with the quality of the news output and I must thank you for the
opportunity you gave to one of my students… to help organise the news output. Although we
try to make our training as realistic as possible, nothing beats hands-on practice. It is
encouraging that you attach so much importance to providing local information, news and
features. I hope we can work together again in the future.
P M Holland, Chief Fire Officer, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service – April 2002
I would like to thank you for allowing station officer Russell to appear on Burn FM to talk about
fire safety. It is very important to us to reach a large local audience whenever we need to
emphasise an important fire safety message or after serious incidents have occurred.
Research has shown that campaigns are more successful when backed by local media
coverage, particularly when we need some form of access into the home, as in some cultures,
females will not allow us without a male member of the family present.
Cllr Ronald O’Keefe – June 2003
I am writing to say I fully support your application to the Radio Authority for a permanent
licence. As a councillor on Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, one of the most popular
programmes is The Burn Noticeboard which publicises local community and charitable
events.
David Heys, East Lancashire Table Tennis League – July 2002
I am writing to say how excited we are about a truly local radio station. Our roots are in the
Blackburn and Hyndburn areas, and the prospect of gaining publicity from Burn FM would be
invaluable for keeping local members and the public at large, informed of our league and
events.
Jim Kenyon, The Lancashire Football Association, December 2001
We fully support FM 106 The Burn as it will be an asset to local businesses and will bring
community information, sport and local news relevant to the people of Blackburn and Darwen.
We hope you will become a permanent fixture.
G A Dixon, Secretary, Accrington and District Golf Club – November 2001
The Captain and Members of Accrington Golf Club wish to support FM 106 The Burn and
have found it to be most informative on local sport and community issues.
Cllr Chris Holtom, Leader of Ribble Valley Borough Council – June 2002
I am happy to give my support to FM 106 The Burn. Good luck and I look forward to tuning
in.
Karen Matula, Head of Arts and Media, Accrington and Rossendale College - December
2001
Congratulations on the success of your launch broadcast, we wish you every success in your
bid for a permanent licence and we will be delighted as a media department to build up links
with you.
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John Green, Director, East Lancashire Centre of Excellence - November 2001
May I offer my support. We are working in the local community to the lifelong learning agenda
and believe that support of a quality local radio station will be of great benefit. As you are
aware, we have already used your station to raise awareness of our training and education
provision. The response was excellent and we intend to use local radio to bring the work of
the East Lancashire Centre of Excellence to the public in future. As a result of your recent
visit, we are working on plans to sponsor a slot in your schedule covering IT skills
development.
Cllr Mahmood Tahir, Blackburn with Darwen Council – September 2001
This is great news for Blackburn, I think it certainly will be a great success. Please if you
require any assistance with news items, I will try my best to help you. Good Luck.
Phil Watson, Chief Executive Blackburn with Darwen Council – November 2001
Whilst the Council would be neutral during any bidding process to provide a Radio service to
the Borough, we have been encouraged by the local response to The Burn. The Burn’s varied
broadcast programmes including local news, entertainment, job information and coverage of
local sport proved popular with citizens because it focussed directly on their Borough. The
Burn NoticeBoard was particularly successful, providing an important resource for the
voluntary and community sector within the Borough. The Borough has a vibrant mix of
communities and cultures. The Burn’s broadcast output, including the Asian Image
programming, both reflected and catered for the diversity within our local population.
Zubair Hussain, Right Price Cash & Carry – May 2002
I would like to thank radio Burn FM for recent advert. Public have listened to it and told us
about it. We miss it now, please come back on-air again. Business people need quality radio.
Phil Richards, Chief Executive, Twin Valley Homes Ltd. – October 2002
Thank you for inviting me to provide our customers with information about Twin Valley
Homes. As a local radio station, the focus of your work is about the community of Blackburn
and Darwen. As the largest provider of rented homes, it is very important to help people
understand how to apply and what we offer. Twin Valley Homes certainly supports Burn FM.
Peter Jackson, Director, Peter Jackson Jewellers Ltd. – October 2001
During the trial period, I both listened to and spoke to many people who had listened to the
Burn. Without exception, I heard praise and many compliments about a station that was only
to be on air for a few weeks. As a key player in the Blackburn Business community, I have
had many dealings with the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and I cannot think of any
organisation more able to run Blackburn’s independent radio station.
Paul Baker, Managing Director, Thwaites Brewery – December 2001
Thank you very much indeed for coming to my office today and explaining your aims and
objectives for The Burn. I am fully supportive of these and I was extremely impressed by the
inclusive nature of your programming and you will hopefully be a catalyst in bringing all parts
of the community together.
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Chris Hamer, Managing Director ADZ Media – June 2002
I have spoken to our clients Richard Court Motors, since we tried The Burn FM and they were
delighted to hear their ads in their local area. You can expect to be included on future
schedules. Good luck with the licence, we really need you.
Roy Lomas, Lomas Office Furniture – November 2001
I had the pleasure of advertising on the station and was delighted with the response. The help
and advice given on preparation of this and the end result, exceptional.
Mike Tighe, Whittaker’s Butchers, Blackburn Market – April 2002
I was extremely pleased with the advertisement that you broadcast. The content and
presentation were first class and many people who visited our stall mentioned having heard
the ad.
David Parkinson, Director, Wilkinson Cameras – April 2002
I thought I should write to pass on my congratulations to you and The Burn for a very
successful advertising and promotion campaign which has just come to a close. From sales
and footfall numbers, it would appear that these have increased as a direct response to our
radio advertising. We have also had excellent feedback from the competition which ran with
the advertising. I wish you every success with your application, and when this happens, you
can count on our support.
Graham Chillingworth, Bowker BMW and Mini Accrington – April 2002
It is a testament to the station that all our staff listened during March and are now asking me
when you are next on-air. Our radio adverts and traffic and travel sponsorship formed a key
part of our marketing mix, as at last we had a medium which could target our Blackburn
based Stakeholders.
Peter Hobkirk, Managing Director, Hobkirk Sewing Machines Ltd – April 2002
Once again, we have used the medium of The Burn radio for our advertising and once again
we have found it beneficial to our company.
BURN FM – A SOUND BUSINESS CASE FOR A BIG LOCAL STATION.
And finally, a message to our supporters…
BURN FM would like to take this opportunity to thank all the friends, supporters and
listeners who have helped contribute to this application. We look forward to being
able to continue to work with you towards delivering the station we promised when
we first launched the company in 2001 – a station that strives to be your number 1 for
news, sport & music in Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn.
THE BURN FM BOARD
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We confirm, to the best of our knowledge and belief that BURN FM Limited (“the
applicant”):
Richard Matthewman
BURN FM LIMITED
(i) is 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);
(ii) 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;
(iii) no person involved in the 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
included in it, or the operation of a radio station if the applicant is
granted a licence; and
(iv) any matters which might influence Ofcom's judgement as to
whether the directors and substantial shareholders involved in the
application are fit and proper persons to participate in a radio licence
have been made known to Ofcom
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Age/Gender
What is your exact age?
Record Male or Female from observation
May I have your post code please? [CHECK CODE AGAINST QUOTA LIST AT END… CODE
RESPONSE INTO ONE OF 3 LOCATIONS]
Radio TSL
Considering that you can listen to the radio at home, at work, in the car, and elsewhere, in a typical day,
is your combined listening time to radio...less than 1 hour [THANK & CLOSE] or 1 hour or more?
Station Listening & Favouritism
Which radio stations have you listened to in the last week? (Code from list at end… do not read from
list or prompt listening)
Is most of your radio listening done: (1) at home; (2) at work; (3) in the car; or (4) elsewhere?
Is most of your radio listening done: (1) at breakfast, before 9am; (2) middays, from 9am to 4pm; (3)
afternoons, from 4 to 7pm; or (4) in the evening after 7pm?
Within the last 24 hours, how many different radio stations did you listen to? (Record actual number so
that results will provide a mean. If "none", ask how many respondent listens to in a typical day)
Within the last 24 hours, how much time did you spend listening to the radio, that is, all stations
combined? (Record estimate in minutes or hours so that results will provide a mean… If "none",
ask how long respondent listens in a typical day)
Which one radio station have you listened to most often in the last week? (Code from list at end… do
not read from list or prompt listening)
Which radio station is your favourite for music? (Code from list at end… do not read from list or
prompt listening)
Which radio station is your favourite for breakfast-time listening before 9am? (Code from list at
end… do not read from list or prompt listening)
All things considered, which one radio station is your overall favourite? (Code from list at end… do not
read from list or prompt listening)
As an overall favourite station, would you say you are: (1) Very satisfied; (2) Somewhat satisfied; or (3)
Not very satisfied with _____ ? [INSERT STATION NAMED IN LAST Q]
Considering all aspects of the programming on _____ [INSERT SAME STATION USED IN LAST Q],
what is the primary reason for naming this as your overall favourite radio station? [DO NOT
READ… CODE ONE RESPONSE AS CLOSELY AS POSSIBLE FROM LIST]
* Music
* Presenters/DJs
* Local news
* All other news mentions (not local)
* Local sport
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* All other sport mentions (not local)
* A particular programme/specialist show
* Speech programming (talk/discussion/phone-ins/drama/etc.)
* Traffic and travel reports
* “What’s On”/Local Events and Information
* Adverts
* Other
* Don’t know
Which one aspect of the programming on ____ [INSERT SAME STATION USED IN LAST Q], if any, do
you like the least? [DO NOT READ… CODE ONE RESPONSE AS CLOSELY AS POSSIBLE FROM
LIST]
* Music
* Presenters/DJs
* Local news
* All other news mentions (not local)
* Local sport
* All other sport mentions (not local)
* A particular programme/specialist show
* Speech programming (talk/discussion/phone-ins/drama/etc.)
* Traffic and travel reports
* “What’s On”/Local Events and Information
* Adverts
* Other
* Don’t know
Music Styles: Part 1— Montages 1-6
I'm going to play some music segments for you to rate. Each segment contains a few short song pieces,
which represent a style of music. Listen to this first segment, and then I’ll ask for your opinion of it.
[PLAY FIRST STYLE MONTAGE… THEN ASK MONTAGE Q PARTS A & B… DO NOT READ MUSIC
STYLE NAMES]
* MONTAGE Q PART A: Using a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means you DISLIKE this style of
music a lot, 10 means you LIKE the style a lot, and 2 through 9 are somewhere in between, how
appealing is this style of music to you? Please rate the style of music the songs represent, not
just the songs used as examples. Remember, the higher the number, the more you like the
style of music. [CODES: 1 TO 10 or "X" = DK]
* MONTAGE Q PART B: Which one radio station, if any, comes to mind first when you think of
this style of music? [RECORD STATION FROM PRE-CODED LIST]
[FOLLOWING MONTAGE #1 AND THE 2 QUESTIONS, PROCEED WITH MONTAGE #2 AND THE SAME
2 QUESTIONS… CONTINUE IN THIS FASHION THROUGH PART 1 MONTAGES, WITH THE SAME
QUESTIONS ASKED FOLLOWING EACH ONE]
Element Importance
Please tell me whether the following items are: (1) very important; (2) somewhat important; or (3) not very
important at all to you when you listen to the radio. (X = DK or No Opinion)
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* How important are local weather forecasts?
* How important are traffic and travel reports?
* What about local news reports covering the Blackburn-Darwen-Accrington area?
* National sports coverage?
* Competitions and giveaways?
* Coverage of local events & “what’s on” activities information?
* A magazine programme for the Asian community?
* National news reports?
* News bulletins, compiled by a team of reporters and journalists based in the area, who are able
to go live to the scene?
* Behind-the-scenes news, commentary, and reports on Blackburn Rovers games?
* Business and financial news?
* News and reports on Accrington Stanley games?
* International news reports?
* Local sports coverage other than on the professional football teams?
Speech:Music Ratio
Using a 10-point scale where 10 means ALL MUSIC, 1 means ALL SPEECH, and 2 through 9 are
somewhere in between, which number on this scale represents the mix of music to speech on your ideal
radio station? [RECORD ONE NUMBER OR "X" FOR "DK/Don’t Listen Then"]
Speech Programming Topics of Interest
How interested are you in hearing radio stations address the following topics?
1 = Very interested
2 = Somewhat interested
3 = Not very interested
X = DK/No opinion
Entertainment news, movie reviews, and celebrity interviews
Issues of interest to the Asian community
Love and relationships advice
Local opinion, interviews, political topics, phone-ins
Local musician showcases
Lifestyle topics on such things as home improvements, food & drink, parenting, health & fitness, and
holiday planning
News on local charities, community groups, and social & activity clubs
Sports discussions and phone-ins
Local jobs and training opportunities
Local crime prevention and crime-watch-style features
Local Station Agree/Disagree
Please tell me whether you AGREE or DISAGREE with the following ideas for improving radio stations in
this area:
1 = Yes/Agree
2 = No/Disagree
X = DK/No Opinion
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[READ:] Radio stations in this area would be better with...
…presenters who are local, or who know the area well
…more local news and information than is currently available
…more variety and less repetition of their music
…more music and less talk during the work day
Work, Leisure & Media Choices
Do you watch local sporting events (1) regularly; (2) occasionally; or (3) never?
Do you participate in sport activities (1) regularly; (2) occasionally; or (3) never?
Do you consider yourself to be a supporter of the Blackburn Rovers?
* [If “no”, ask:] Do you support a different football club?
[If “yes” to previous Q, ask:] Which club? [Record as text verbatim]
[If “yes” to Rovers supporter Q, ask:] Regarding attendance at Rovers matches, do you… [READ]
* Attend most home and away matches
* Attend most home matches
* Attend occasional matches
* Don't attend matches
In which town or city do you do most of your shopping? [Do not read from code list]
In which town or city do you pursue most of your leisure and recreation activities? [Do not read from
code list]
In which town or city do you conduct most of your work or study? [Do not read from code list]
* Accrington
* Blackburn
* Blackpool
* Bolton
* Burnley
* Chorley
* Clayton-Le-Moors
* Clitheroe
* Darwen
* Great Harwood
* Leeds
* Liverpool
* Manchester
* Pendle
* Preston
* Other
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For your needs, which medium is the best source of local news and information— (1) TV; (2) Radio; (3)
Newspapers, or (4) the Internet?
Which one newspaper is your best source of local news and information? [DO NOT READ LIST]
* Accrington Observer
* Asian Image newspaper
* Blackburn Citizen
* Burnley Express
* Chorley Citizen
* Chorley Guardian
* Clitheroe Advertiser & Times
* Hyndburn Citizen
* Lancashire Evening Telegraph
* Lancashire Evening Post
* Shuttle Council Publication
Which one radio station is your best source of local news and information? [CODE FROM STATION
Trial
LIST]
Assume that a new radio station came on the air, dedicated to serving the tastes, interests and needs of
the Blackburn-Darwen-Accrington area, with music and speech programming that suited your tastes.
How likely would you be to listen to it? [READ]
1 = Very likely
2 = Somewhat likely
3 = Somewhat unlikely
4 = Very unlikely
X = DK/No opinion
[If “very” or “somewhat” likely, ask:] Which one radio station, if any, do you imagine you’d spend
less time with to make room for this new station? [CODE FROM LIST]
[If “very” or “somewhat” likely, ask:] This new radio station may be owned by one of several
business groups. Which of these two ownership possibilities sounds most appealing to you as a
potential listener and supporter of this new station? [READ]
Group 1’s shareholders come from the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, the Asian Image newspaper,
Blackburn Rovers Football Club, and an experienced radio station company.
Group 2’s shareholders come from companies which own radio stations in places such as Burnley,
Bolton and Morecombe Bay.
Music Style Montages: Part 2— Montages 7-11
Finally, I'm going to play a few more music segments for you to rate. As before, each segment contains
a few short song pieces, which represent a style of music. Listen to this next segment, and then I’ll ask
for your opinion of it. [PLAY STYLE MONTAGE #7… THEN ASK MONTAGE Q PARTS A & B… DO
NOT READ MUSIC STYLE NAMES]
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* MONTAGE Q PART A: Using a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means you DISLIKE this style of
music a lot, 10 means you LIKE the style a lot, and 2 through 9 are somewhere in between, how
appealing is this style of music to you? Please rate the style of music the songs represent, not
just the songs used as examples. Remember, the higher the number, the more you like the
style of music. [CODES: 1 TO 10 or "X" = DK]
* MONTAGE Q PART B: Which one radio station, if any, comes to mind first when you think of
this style of music? [RECORD STATION FROM PRE-CODED LIST]
[AS BEFORE, PROCEED WITH REMAINING MONTAGES & QUESTIONS]
Socioeconomic Status (ABC1/C2DE)
Retain phone number and respondent’s first name for possible re-contact
Ask if respondent may be re-contacted regarding participation in a follow-up study in early September,
by representatives of a firm other than Field Facts
Classify ethnicity
ETHNICITY Q AS PER UK CENSUS…
Q. What is your ethnic group?
White
British
Irish
Other white background
Mixed
White & Black Caribbean
White & Black African
White & Asian
Other mixed background
Asian or Asian British
Indian
Pakistani
Bangladeshi
Other Asian background
Black or Black British
Caribbean
African
Other Black background
Chinese or other ethnic group
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Chinese
Other background
SURVEY ENDS…
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1. Montage List
1. 80s
Human League – Don’t You Want Me
Phil Collins - Sussudio
Madonna – Into The Groove
2. Dance & R’n’B
Mis-Teeq - Scandalous
LMC v U2 - Take Me To The Clouds
Justin Timberlake - Rock Your Body
3. Classic Rock
Survivor – Eye of the Tiger
The Eagles – Hotel California
Queen – I Want To Break Free
4. 70s
Abba - Dancing Queen
Candi Staton - Young Hearts Run Free
Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel – Make Me Smile
5. Chart
Will Young - Your Game
Dido – Life For Rent
Atomic Kitten - Whole Again
6. 50s/60s
Beatles - Hey Jude
Supremes - Baby Love
Bill Haley – Rock Around The Clock
7. Love
Wet Wet Wet - Love Is All Around
Ronan Keating - When You Say Nothing At All
Marvin Gaye – Sexual Healing
8. Rock
David Gray – Babylon
Keane - Everyone's Changing
Coldplay - Trouble
9. 90s
Robbie Williams - Angels
M People – Search For The Hero
Oasis - Don't Look Back In Anger
10. MOR
Frank Sinatra— I've Got You Under My Skin
Natalie & Nat King Cole— Unforgettable
Enya— Only Time
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11. Feel-Good
Chesney Hawkes - The One And Only
Bananarama – Love In The First Degree
S Club 7 – Reach
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