Cornwall's 105 to 107 Itchy FM - Ofcom Licensing

Market Opportunity
BBC Radio 1 consistently performs strongly in Cornwall but is completely unable to represent the
“Cornishness” associated with the county’s distinct identity. Locally, Pirate FM continues to include a
significant proportion of its music output from pre-2000, and even pre-1990. On the day of our
monitoring its second highest genre was 1980’s music. This format, not surprisingly attracts a large
majority of its audience from the county’s over 35s. Indeed Pirate FM is still very much a traditional fullservice
ILR which, our research suggests, narrows the market gap at the older end of the market.
We have identified, and our research has substantiated, that in a county where 15-34s make up 20% of
the population, and where the vast bulk of listening hours to the heritage ILR are from 35+ adults, that
there is a compelling case and opportunity for a locally focussed, energetic music radio station. A radio
station targeting this demographic will clearly complement Pirate FM which, although very successful in
achieving a wide audience base, primarily appeals to a 35+ audience in its programming. Itchy FM will
achieve its reach forecasts by focussing predominantly on the county’s 106,841 local 15-34 year olds.
Business plan and assumptions
After having satisfied ourselves as to the likely success of the station with our target audience through
external research, we have also thoroughly investigated revenue levels, cost base and audience
marketing requirements. We believe that through a realistic capitalisation of the station, and well
planned staff structure plus a revenue plan encompassing local and national revenue the station will be
well constructed to ensure its long-term financial sustainability. The business plan for IMD Radio
Cornwall Ltd is underpinned by five basic assumptions:
1. Effective financial management
2. Audience attraction
3. Sponsorship & Promotions specialism
4. Non-traditional revenues
5. Integrated approach
Due to the limited amount of youth media within the county, IMD is convinced that a media channel as
significant as Itchy FM will be a “must-buy” for Cornwall’s youth communications market, with a range
of activities centred around the station, from local spots to sponsored events, from programme
sponsorship to outside broadcasts, plus non-traditional radio revenue and brand extension activity
(database rental, listener downloads, merchandising, listener publications, station CDs etc). This
commercial innovation reflects the changing face of commercial radio as it evolves to compete in a
multi-media on-demand world and IMD are confident this tactic will create strong margins within this
radio station.
We passionately believe that our genuine positioning of Itchy FM at the heart of the Cornwall youth
experience (both local and visiting) will enable the station to maximise client spend and trust from
launch.
Effective financial management
Commercial management team to launch the station
Our team has extensive experience of running small, profitable media businesses. Our cautious
approach to running the business on a sensible and scaleable overhead will be implemented via a team
experienced in launching / re-launching youth media businesses. We intend to make good use of
freelancers, shareholder resources, function outsourcing and extensive local relationships / goodwill
generated over the last few years. The launch team, lead by Ian Merricks, has good experience of
prudent revenue forecasting, cost controls and revenue growth, plus inventory and brand development.
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