SLR - Ofcom Licensing

An Application to Ofcom for the FM 

Independent Local Radio Licence for 

Shrewsbury and Oswestry 

November 2005

General Information 

Details of applicant 

(a) Name of Applicant, Address, Telephone and Fax Nos., E-mail address 

Name: Shrewsbury Local Radio Ltd 

Address: 2 Crowther Road 

Washington 

Tyne & Wear 

NE38 0BW 

Telephone: 01694 781689 

07850 100155 (Mobile) 

Fax: 01694 781692 

E-Mail: chairman@shrewsburylocalradio.com 

Company Registration number: 05223461 

(b) Main Contact (For Public Purposes) 

Name: Alan Clayton 

Telephone: 01694 781689 

07850 100155 (Mobile) 

Fax: 01694 781689 

E-Mail: alan@laserbroadcasting.com 

Address: Alcaston Barn 

Alcaston 

Church Stretton 

Shropshire 

SY6 6RP 

(c) Proposed Station Name (if decided) 

Shrewsbury Local Radio is a working name and not necessarily the one that will be 

used on the air 

(d) Brief Description of Programme Service 

A lively, full service local radio station for 35 to 64 year olds, focused on Shrewsbury, 

Oswestry and the surrounding areas, playing a wide range of popular hits from the 

last 40 years with local news, information and interviews forming an essential part of 

the output. 

(e) Main Contact (For Ofcom Purposes) 

This is to be found in Confidential Appendix 2. 

1

Section 105(A): Ability to maintain proposed service 

1. Ownership and control of company, which will operate the licence 

a) Board of directors 

(i) Provide the name, occupation, other directorships, other media interests, background and 

relevant media experience of each director (executive and non-executive), including the 

proposed chairperson. 

Shrewsbury Local Radio’s board is unrivalled in terms of its commercial acumen, local 

understanding and sheer wealth of experience in running locally-focused radio stations, 

much of it in the local market. The board is utterly confident that its vision to create, finance 

and sustain a successful and valued local business will become a reality. This confidence 

has grown over recent months in light of our research findings and the gathering of empirical 

evidence of healthy listener and advertiser demand for our proposed new station throughout 

Shrewsbury and Oswestry. This research, which is referred to throughout our application, 

has proved to be invaluable in helping us evolve our original plans into what we truly believe 

will become one of commercial radio’s big success stories in this latest phase of 

development. 

Central to our philosophy from the very outset was the need to assemble the strongest 

possible independent local board representing a pre-defined balance of skills including 

relevant radio experience and financial strength, allied to an intimate knowledge of the area 

and its psyche. 

We are delighted to have achieved that ambition and believe that the individuals described 

below symbolise our vision to deliver local radio for the people of Shrewsbury and Oswestry 

by the people of Shrewsbury and Oswestry. They are all totally committed to making the 

station part of the fabric of the community through the provision of outstanding local 

programme content. 

2







Alan Mullett 

(Chairman) 

Occupation: 

Other 

Directorships: 

Other Media 

Interests: 

Brings to SLR 

Board: 

Background 

and relevant 

media 

experience: 

Local Businessman 

Instep UK Limited, Realstreets Limited, The IMS Partnership Limited 

7.5% shareholder in internet company Realstreets Limited 

Local knowledge, over twenty years commercial radio experience and 

extensive leadership and management expertise. 

Alan started his career working for the Wolverhampton Express and 

Star before joining Beacon Radio in 1976 as a Sales Executive before 

becoming Sales Director six years later and then Managing Director in 

1987. During his time at Beacon’s helm he lobbied for and then 

successfully launched the station’s Shrewsbury service that remains 

the town’s only local commercial radio option. 

During his nine year tenure as Managing Director Alan increased 

annual turnover from £1.6 million to £3.9 million, dramatically improved 

profitability and consistently achieved market dominance for 

independent Beacon’s radio brands despite fierce competition from 

overlapping GCap and Chrysalis stations). 

Alan successfully re-applied for an extended licence covering 

Shrewsbury, was Chairman of Radio Advertising Awards in 1987 and 

1988, became a founding Director of the industry’s marketing 

organisation and personally designed sales training and administration 

systems which were accepted and used throughout the industry. A 

huge factor in Beacon’s success story was Alan’s commitment to local 

programme content and providing a professional service for local 

advertisers. Many other commercial stations subsequently adopted 

Alan’s blueprint for effective local advertising packages. 

After negotiating the sale of Beacon to GWR, Alan founded The IMS 

Partnership, a company that provided a strategic consultancy service, 

(including business planning and raising finance), to a variety of 

organisations. He also formed an association with Telstar Holdings 

Limited to apply for a number of regional radio licences in addition to 

independently applying for the local Wolverhampton licence. 

Following the completion of a number of projects in the exhibition, food 

and transport sectors, Alan moved on to his current role as Managing 

Director of Instep UK Limited. Operating for over twelve years, Instep 

is a company that specialises in management and organisational 

consultancy for both the private and public sectors. 

3




Alan has 25 years experience of successfully managing and leading 

people. He has designed and delivered seminars and workshops on 

subjects ranging from ‘Communicating at a Distance’, through 

“Leadership Skills’, to ‘Winning Corporate Cultures’. Alan has worked 

for clients that include Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society, 

Nicholls Foods Plc, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, British Telecom 

and Glaxo Smith Kline plus a number of SME’s. 

His approach is experience based and pragmatic dealing with the real 

issues, both commercial and personal, that leaders and managers face 

in the day-to-day operation of their businesses. 

Living locally, Alan is committed, post award, to playing an active 

role in the development and operation of the station. His 

experience of applying for and successfully operating the only 

commercials service dedicated to the area will greatly assist in 

creating a thriving station for listeners, advertisers and 

shareholders alike. He will devote a minimum of half a day a week 

to the radio station. 

4




Stuart Linnell MBE, Hon MA 

(Non executive Director) 

Occupation: 

Other 


Other Media 

Interests: 


Board: 

Background 

and relevant 

media 

experience: 

Company Director 

Warwick Local Radio Ltd 

Stuart represents Laser Broadcasting Ltd on the SLR board which has 

a 72.25% holding in SLR. 

35 years commercial radio experience with a strong programming bias. 

Stuart is one of the UK’s most experienced radio professionals with 35 

years involvement in the media, the majority of them in the midlands. He 

was a member of the launch team when BBC Radio Birmingham 

became the region’s first local radio station and since then he has 

worked in commercial radio in Sheffield, Coventry, Birmingham, Leicester 

and Derby. 

Stuart was sports editor at Radio Hallam in Sheffield at its launch in 

1974. In his 6 years at Hallam, he also became a regular contributor to 

Yorkshire Television’s Sunday afternoon football highlights programme. 

In 1980, the prospect of a senior role at Coventry’s new ILR station, 

Mercia Sound, was enough to lure Stuart back to his native West 

Midlands. During his 15 years at Mercia Sound Stuart became 

Programme Controller and later Managing Director, before the company 

was taken over by the GWR Group in 1994. A renowned champion for 

local causes Stuart founded Mercia’s ‘Snowball’ Charity which, over the 

last 20 years has raised in excess of £2-million for local chronically sick 

and handicapped children. Throughout the 1980’s Stuart also presented 

programmes for the local Coventry Cable Television service. 

When Mercia Sound merged with Birmingham’s BRMB to form Midlands 

Radio Stuart was appointed Operations Director for the new group. Soon 

afterwards, further expansion occurred bringing-in the Radio Trent Group 

from the East Midlands. In the two years following that merger, Stuart’s 

remit was further broadened when he became Programme Controller 

and Managing Director at Leicester Sound in addition to Mercia. During 

that time, both stations won programme format awards at the 

International Radio Festival of New York. 

The merged group of West and East Midlands stations were later 

acquired by Capital Radio and then, with the exception of BRMB, they 

were sold to the GWR Group. Some six months into that new ownership 

structure Stuart was appointed launch director for RAM FM in Derby, 

hitherto a relay service of Radio Trent in Nottingham, seeing the station 

through its pre-launch phase and into its first few months on-air. 

5




In 1995, Stuart returned to front-line presenting with BBC radio and 

television in the Midlands. His radio programmes won 3 major awards, 

including the prestigious Sony Gold Award for Best Speech-Based 

Breakfast Show for his BBC WM programme in 1997. Having won the 

Silver Award in the same category the year before, Stuart became the 

first presenter to win Silver and Gold in the same category in successive 

years. He was also part of the BBC WM on-air team that won the Sony 

Gold as Regional Radio Station Of The Year In 1998. 

For BBC television Stuart was the presenter of three series of The 

Midlands at Westminster (BBC2) and weekend editions of Midlands 

Today (BBC1). On national radio he has been a presenter, producer and 

reporter for BBC Radio 5 Live. 

Stuart now combines his broadcasting with work as one of the UK’s 

leading conference moderators and facilitators. His consultancy, 1st 

Principles Media Services, provides a range of services, including media 

training and PR. 

He is also a freelance TV reporter for Sky Sports News, and for the past 

three seasons he has reported on Premiership football in England for the 

Irish national commercial radio station Today FM. This season (2005- 

2006), he is covering Premiership matches for the recently launched Irish 

service of Setanta Sports TV and he is the match-day corporate 

hospitality host for Coventry City Football Club. 

Stuart was made an MBE for services to broadcasting in the New Year 

Honours in December 1994. He was further recognised when Coventry 

University conferred on him an Honorary Master of Arts Degree in 1999, 

citing his work as a broadcaster and his wider contribution to the 

community in Coventry and Warwickshire. 

Stuart is working with Laser Broadcasting as Project Director with 

Shrewsbury Local Radio Ltd. Post award he will continue to be 

involved as part of Laser’s contract to spend a minimum of 30 

hours a month supplying support services to SLR. His role will be 

to oversee all aspects of the stations programming. 

6




Nigel Reeve 


Occupation: 

Other 


Other Media 

Interests: 


Board: 

Background 

and relevant 

media 

experience: 


Laser Broadcasting Limited, Banbury Local Radio Limited, Chorley 

Local Radio Limited, Exeter Local Radio Limited, Fresh Broadcasting 

Limited, Hereford Local Radio Limited, Harmony Radio Ltd, 

Humberside Local Radio Limited, Ipswich Local Radio Limited, Oxford 

Local Radio Limited, Swansea Local Radio, Warwick Local Radio 

Limited 

Chief Executive & shareholder in Laser Broadcasting Limited which 

has a 72.25 holding in SLR 

35 years of media experience, including 30 years in radio advertising 

sales 

Nigel Reeve brings more than 35 years of media experience to the 

Board. He began his career with the local newspaper in Ipswich in 

1969, transferring to the fledgling Radio Orwell in 1975. After six years, 

Nigel joined 2CR in Bournemouth as Sales Manager. In 1983, he 

became Sales Director at Guildford’s County Sound, before oving to 

Invicta Sound in 1985. Later, as Managing Director of Invicta, he 

helped deliver a £1m profit and subsequent stock market flotation. 

Between 1989 and 1992 Nigel was Chairman of the Commercial Radio 

Advertising Awards, where he championed improvements in the 

standard of radio commercials. 

During this same period he headed up a radio sales training company 

that held monthly sales training courses for local sales staff in the UK 

radio industry. Between 1986 and 1988 Nigel trained over 66% of all 

local sales staff in UK radio. 

In 1991, Nigel joined the launch team of Classic FM, the UK’s first 

national commercial radio station, with responsibility for all sales and 

marketing at the station. During this period the station delivered 

revenue far beyond expectations largely due to the innovative policies 

introduced by Nigel. He was responsible for securing the largest ever 

radio campaign in the history of UK commercial radio – a three year 

sponsorship and airtime package sold to Cross and Blackwell valued 

at over £3 million. He also introduced a quarterly advertising creative 

award that paved the way for today’s Radio Aerials award. 

In 1995 Nigel also took responsibility for all sales and marketing at 

Classic FM’s radio stations in Holland, Sweden and Finland. 

7




After a highly successful five years, Nigel was approached by London 

News Radio to become Chief Executive there in 1996, transforming a 

loss-making station into a profitable business by 1999. At the end of 

1999, Nigel established Fusion Radio Holdings, purchasing two radio 

stations in London and a third in Oxford. In September 2001, Nigel 

merged Fusion with Milestone Radio Limited, giving the new company 

controlling interests in additional stations in Newbury, Rugby and 

Basingstoke. 

Nigel formed Laser Broadcasting Limited in 2002, to bid for local FM 

radio station licenses and acquire minority holdings in existing 

commercial radio businesses, as part of the company’s long-term 

strategy to build interests in a group of locally focused radio stations. 

Nigel is an experienced media sales trainer, radio station manager and 

businessman. 

He brings this expertise, and over 30 years of radio-based knowledge, 

to the Board of Shrewsbury Local Radio. 

Post award Nigel will continue to be involved as part of Laser’s 

contract to spend a minimum of 30 hours a month supplying 

support services to SLR. 

8




Alan Clayton 


Occupation: 

Other 


Other Media 

Interests: 


Board: 

Background 

and relevant 

media 

experience: 


Alan Clayton Concerts Ltd. 

None 

40 years experience of the ‘hard nosed’ entertainment business. 

Alan has enjoyed over 40 years in the entertainment business. His 

career started in the early 60s managing a number of groups during 

British pop’s boom period. In the mid 60s he joined Astra International, 

an artiste management agency, later becoming a Director. Astra 

represented a range of top artistes including Jasper Carrott and Robert 

Plant. They also had a strong concert promotion division organising 

concerts for acts such as David Bowie, Elton John, The Who, Black 

Sabbath and David Essex. 

After leaving Astra, Alan worked freelance within the industry until the 

formation of Hermitage Productions at the end of the 80’s. Hermitage 

promoted concerts for many national and international artists including 

Van Morrison, The Everly Brothers, Hall & Oates, Bob Geldof, Michael 

McDonald, Elkie Brooks, Joe Longthorne, and Daniel O’Donnell. 

During this period Alan promoted Jim Davidson in concert and in 1993 

was responsible for his hugely successful 26 venue First Farewell 

Tour. Following this success Alan began to work more closely with Jim 

Davidson and when Jim was approached to take over The Wellington 

Theatre, Great Yarmouth in the summer of 1994 Alan joined him on 

the project. They began a major refurbishment programme and the 

theatre opened with a Gala Performance in April 1995. In 1996 Jim 

formed Effective Productions with Alan and Rick Price in order to 

combine various aspects of theatre production, including lighting and 

sound, under one roof. 

Whilst with Effective Productions, Alan was responsible for the 

promotion and production of seven of Jim Davidson’s UK concert 

tours, four Summer Seasons at Great Yarmouth and twelve major 

pantomimes at venues across the UK Within Effective, Alan was also 

involved in West End productions of The Lady Boys of Bangkok, 

Jolson, Great Balls of Fire and the touring musicals Summer Holiday 

and Oh What a Night. 

In 1999 Alan formed his own company, Alan Clayton Concerts Ltd. In 

2001 a number of concert tours were promoted including Fist of the 

Dragon – from China a presentation of Martial Arts, Dusty-The Concert 

starring Karen Noble and Flash Harry – Ireland’s top Queen Tribute 

show. In January 2003 Spirit of the Horse was promoted at the Dubai 

Shopping Festival. 

9




This show starred 30 horses and 60 personnel from all over the world. 

A tour of The Lady Boys of Bangkok in 2003 culminated with sell out 

shows at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. 

In conjunction with Mark Howes and Robert Pratt, he has promoted 

two national tours of the highly successful This Lonely Heart – The 

Musical Biography of Roy Orbison starring Larry Branson. More 

recently Mark and Robert have also had great success with UK tours in 

2001, 2003 and 2004 of Ladysmith Black Mambazo who first came to 

internation notice when they featured on Paul Simon’s Graceland 

album and now play to sell-out audiences throughout the world. 

Throughout 2000 to 2003, Alan also formed a successful partnership 

with Russel Winston of Lollipop Productions to present the children’s 

shows Bananas In Pyjamas, The Adventures of Paddington Bear and 

a live version of ITV’s popular game show Family Fortunes. 

Between 2000 and 2005, a total of 814 shows were promoted by Alan 

and his team across the whole of the UK and Dubai. 

Alan has been an exceptional driving force behind SLR taking the 

prospective radio station’s ideas to all aspects of the local 

community. He has run over 30 presentation meetings this year 

alone finding out what people want from their new radio station. 

Alan will remain a Director post award and will continue to build 

the profile of the company amongst the local population. 

10




David Bickle 


Occupation: 

Other 


Other Media 

Interests: 


Board: 

Background 

and relevant 

media 

experience: 

Finance Director 

Laser Broadcasting Ltd, Angel Biotechnology plc 

David is a director of Laser Broadcasting Ltd which has a 72.25% 

holding in SLR 

35 years experience in business ownership, entrepreneurship and 

finance 

David Bickle started his career with an accounting and business 

apprenticeship at Trimoco Plc. Following graduation in financial 

accounting standards Cima and Acca he became a financial 

troubleshooter with Marconi Plc. After this he set up a team of 

specialists to buy a rubber manufacturing company from Hanson Plc. 

He took the role of Financial Director and Company Secretary for 10 

years before becoming Chief Executive. After 4 years he was 

responsible for overseeing its successful sale to the trade competitor. 

David then took his MBA and set up a consultancy specializing in 

business turnarounds and startups. He has recently taken Angel 

Biotechnology to the AIM while also successfully refinancing and 

restructuring a number of SME businesses. He is currently working on 

two projects to bring technology companies out of a university 

environment as well as starting up his own businesses in venture 

mentoring. 

Post award David will oversee all financial aspects of the 

business as part of Laser’s service agreement. 

11




Will Westley 


Occupation: 

Other 


Other Media 

Interests: 

Background 

and relevant 

media 

experience: 


None 

Will is also a shareholder in Laser Broadcasting Ltd and has a 20.83% 

holding in SLR. 

Will has over 20 years board level leadership experience, specialising 

in new business ventures including an Internet Service Provider, 

Software Development House and Convergent Technology. 

For the last 15 years he has lived in Shropshire dividing his working 

time between Shrewsbury and London, as both investor and business 

executive. 

Will is currently delivering the UK’s first live DAB TV and radio 

broadcast (to mobile phones) for BT Livetime. 

He brings a high level of knowledge about the expected 

technological opportunities faced by the radio industry. These are 

advances that will improve the quality of local programmes and 

improve local station profitability. This knowledge will be 

essential to SLR over the life of the licence. 

(ii) If there are firm plans to appoint any further directors, provide information (with details of 

any specific individuals in mind). This information may be submitted in confidence. 

Post award we will be appointing a Station Director who will join the board. 

12



b) Proposed Investors and Shareholding Structure 

Full details of the proposed shareholding structure should be provided, including: 

(i) Names and addresses (the latter may be submitted in confidence) of all existing or proposed 

shareholders. 

A full list of shareholders appears below: 

Laser Broadcasting Ltd Crowther Road, Washington, Tyne & Wear, NE38 0BW 

Stuart Linnell 63 Craven Street, Coventry, CV5 8DS 

Alan Mullett 

The Butlers House, Patshull Park, Burnhill Green, 

Abrighton, WV6 7HY 

Will Westley 

Glen Cottage, Evenwood, Cound Moor, Shrewsbury, SY5 

6BE 

Alan Clayton Alcaston Barn, Alcaston, Church Stretton, SY6 6RP 

Sheila Allum 9 Manor Way, Belvedere Paddocks, Shrewsbury SY2 

Jeremy Taylor The Withies, 29 Underdale Road, Shrewsbury, SY2 5EG 

Stephen Bunting 108 Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury SY2 6BA 

Roger Parry 2 Worrow Drive, Shrewsbury SY3 5DJ 

(ii) Total number, class/classes of shares and issue price of shares (specify voting, non-voting, 

preference, other etc.). 

200,000 shares will be issued at an average price of £2.80 per share. All shares are ‘A’ 

Ordinary Shares 

(iii) All voting shareholders and holders of 5% or more of non-voting shares and loan stock 

should be named. State the number, class/classes and price of shares to be issued to each 

investor. 

Name Total Shares Price Payment Percentage 

Laser Broadcasting Ltd 144,500 £2.74 £396,275 72.25% 

Will Westley 41,667 £2.95 £122,917 20.83% 

Alan Clayton 1,250 £2.95 £3,688 0.62% 

Stuart Linnell 3,000 £2.95 £8,850 1.50% 

Alan Mullett 8,333 £2.95 £24,583 4.17% 

Sheila Allum 313 £2.95 £922 0.16% 

Jeremy Taylor 313 £2.95 £922 0.16% 

Stephen Bunting 313 £2.95 £922 0.16% 

Roger Parry 313 £2.95 £922 0.16% 

200,000 £2.80 £560,000 100.00% 

13



b) Proposed Investors and Shareholding Structure 

(iv) Outline any shareholders agreements or arrangements which exist. 

A shareholders agreement is in place containing standard terms. A copy can be supplied if 

required. 

(v) Where a corporate body other than a current Ofcom licensee will be providing 30% or more 

of the required funding, details should be given of its directors and main shareholders, and of 

its activities. 

Laser Broadcasting Limited is the only corporate shareholder with a holding of more than 

30%. 

Laser Broadcasting Limited was established in 2002 to bid for local FM radio station licences 

and acquire minority holdings in existing commercial radio businesses, as part of a long-term 

strategy to build interests in a group of locally focused radio stations. Shrewsbury Local 

Radio would be pleased to provide more information upon request. 

Laser Broadcasting’s main shareholders are: (Directors are marked with an asterisk): 

Full Name Holding 

Hugh Morgan Williams* 1.90% 

Nigel Reeve * 18.25% 

NEL Ltd * 36.56% 

Charles May * 13.42% 

Keith Rawlings 6.20% 

John Roberts 8.69% 

Tim Jones 4.58% 

Susan Hall * 0.50% 

Misc Shareholders 9.89% 

100.00% 

(vi) Ofcom may request additional information (e.g. a banker's letter, statutory/management 

accounts) regarding the shareholders, or any other providers of finance, listed in the 

application. 

Further information can be supplied if required. 

14



c) Involvement of the Applicant in Specified Activities 

Details are required of the involvement by the applicant and its participants (including shareholders 

or other subscribers of more than 5% of the applicant's total funding requirements) in any of the 

activities listed below, and the extent of the interest. For these purposes, the applicant includes 

associates of the applicant (i.e. directors and their associates and other group companies). 

(a) Advertising agencies; 

None 

(b) Newspapers; 

None 

(c) Other broadcasting interests; 

None 

(d) Bodies whose objects are wholly or mainly of a religious nature; 

None 

(e) Bodies whose objects are wholly or mainly of a political nature; 

None 

(f) Local authorities; 

None 

(g) Other publicly-funded bodies. 

None 

15


2. Financial and Business Plan 

Provide a concise summary of how the applicant considers it is able to establish and maintain, 

throughout the licence period, its proposed service, and how this licence fits in with the investors’ 

strategy. 

Overview 

Shrewsbury Local Radio’s board combines a solid understanding of – and passion for – this 

special part of England with its strong sense of community and unrivalled levels of highly 

relevant radio industry experience. This unique blend of skills and knowledge will ensure the 

creation of a successful radio station driven by the clear understanding of the importance of 

meeting the demands of local listeners and advertisers alike whilst demonstrably broadening 

choice in the market. SLR has applied substantial resources in order to clearly identify the 

type of programming content that will directly appeal to listeners in the Shrewsbury and 

Oswestry areas. Our all-embracing programme of consultation and detailed market research 

is summarised in Section 6 of this application. 

Despite the existence of an established heritage AM/FM ILR service for Shropshire, we are 

confident that Shrewsbury Local Radio’s unique ability to focus purely on the needs of the 

listeners and advertisers, who populate our two towns, will enable the station to establish a 

substantial audience and client base within a relatively short period of time. The local 

business community has already been educated on the potency of radio advertising by the 

existing stations, and our face to face research with local business leaders has, once again, 

confirmed that radio is now acknowledged as a cost-effective marketing tool. However, we 

also detected a perception that the audiences delivered by Beacon Radio and Classic Gold 

WABC are too narrow in demographic terms and scattered over a very large geographical 

area. The view that advertising in general and radio advertising in particular is becoming 

increasingly expensive was also expressed. However, Shrewsbury Local Radio’s broader 

target profile and tighter geographical fit allied to a more focused community-orientated 

offering were very well received. The research also suggested that SLR’s promise of 

competitive rates compared with existing stations and the local press, and a commitment to 

professional production standards and client service from the outset, will encourage 

advertisers to use the station. 52% of the businesses we spoke to said they would be “very 

likely” or “quite likely” to advertise their business or service on a new local radio station of the 

description given to them. 

Our unique new advertising proposition in a developed and educated marketplace makes us 

supremely confident about the station’s viability. We do recognise, however, the commercial 

realities of launching a new station in a market of less than 120,000 adults. The strong local 

press and the existing commercial radio operators have been around for a number of years. 

We expect them to use every method possible to retain their share of local business. This is 

a long-term project for SLR, though, and we are confident that the station will evolve and 

grow in standing and profitability with the passage of time. The SLR board has the necessary 

energy, drive and resource to nurture and support the company throughout the licence 

period. 

1. The SLR Licence Area 

The license area encompasses 20 postcode sectors centred on the two major towns of 

Shrewsbury and Oswestry comprising a population of 118,352 adults. Of these 68,500 live in 

the county town of Shrewsbury and 15,600 in Oswestry some 18 miles to the North West. 

Communications between the towns are excellent by virtue of the A5 which links the two. 

16



The broadcast area has the following characteristics: 

• 51% of the population is female; 

• Just over half of the adult population falls within the station’s 35 to 64 year old target 

age group; 

• Ethnic minorities comprise only 1% of the population; 

• 51% of the population is within socio-economic group ABC1, while 49% are within 

group C2DE; 

• 14% of employed adults are managers and senior officials, while 11% are 

professionals and 13% are associated professionals and technical staff; 

• 54% of the adult population are part- or full-time employees, 10% are self-employed, 

6% are students and 15% are retired; 

• 72% of households are owned either outright or with a mortgage. 

The proposed SLR footprint includes parts of two local authority areas – Shrewsbury & 

Atcham Borough, centred on Shrewsbury, and Oswestry district, both of which are within the 

county of Shropshire. 24% of the county’s population live in Shrewsbury, while 6% live in 

Oswestry. The population of Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough is projected to fall from 96,300 

in 2004 to 95,000 in 2021, while the population of Oswestry district is projected to rise from 

36,600 to 39,200 over the same time period. Both areas will experience an ageing 

population that will increase both the number and proportion of those aged 45+ within the 

area. 

2. A Gap in the Market 

Analysis of RAJAR ratings data (see Research Project 2, full details in Appendix 6) has 

highlighted changes in the local radio market that have convinced the SLR Board that a clear 

gap in the market exists for a truly locally-focused radio station serving Shrewsbury and 

Oswestry: 

• Total radio listening has fallen from 88% to 84% reach during the last five years; 

• Commercial radio’s share of listening has fallen from 51% to 49% during the last five 

years; 

• Local (not regional) commercial radio’s share of listening has fallen from 31% to 18% 

during the last five years; 

• Beacon FM’s share of listening has fallen from 12% to 9% during the last five years; 

• Classic Gold WABC’s share of listening has fallen from 4% to 1% over the last five 

years. 

Market research commissioned by the Board (see Research Projects 3 and 5, full details in 

Appendix 7 and 10 respectively) has demonstrated that demand exists amongst the local 

population for a source of news and information that is wholly focused on their own locality. 

The research confirmed that this demand is not currently being adequately satisfied by 

existing local commercial radio stations, which is why BBC Radio Shropshire currently 

achieves an 18% share of listening within its survey area (substantially more than Beacon 

FM and Classic Gold WABC combined within their survey areas). 

17



Analysis of the demographics of hours listened to Beacon FM and Classic Gold WABC 

demonstrated that the age group least catered for by existing local commercial radio stations 

is 45 to 54 year olds. 

INDEX 100 =normal distribution 

220 

0 

DISTRIBUTION OF HOURS LISTENED BY AGE [indexed 

by population] MARKET GAP 

Beacon FM 

Classic Gold 

WABC 

15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+ 

The station’s proposed target audience of 35 to 64 year olds was carefully selected by the 

SLR Board after reviewing all available data. This target group represents just over half of 

the adult population of the area and is sufficiently large to render a local commercial radio 

station economically viable. Although the graph shows that Classic Gold WABC’s audience 

is skewed towards 55 to 64 year olds, the overall impact of the station is negligible because 

its share of listening within its broadcast area has fallen to only 1%. Even within its key 55 to 

64 demographic, Classic Gold WABC only achieves a 2% share. 

Shrewsbury Local Radio believes that it has identified a viable gap in the radio market and, 

as a result, it has carefully produced an achievable business plan and a set of programme 

proposals that will satisfy the demand of local people for a new local radio station that caters 

for their distinctive tastes and interests. 

3. Skills & Experience to Maintain the Service 

The Board of Shrewsbury Local Radio Limited and the staff of major shareholder Laser 

Broadcasting Limited bring together an unrivalled range of radio management skills and long 

term commitment to the industry, both in the Shropshire market and elsewhere, to ensure 

that the station will maintain the highest standards during the entire twelve-year period of its 

licence. 

In addition to the directly relevant experience of its Directors [see answer to Question 1(a)], 

the Board is able to draw upon a wider range of skills and services. The Board has agreed to 

contract Laser Broadcasting Limited to supply Shrewsbury Local Radio Limited with a full 

accounts service, commercial traffic system, commercial production, sales training, IT 

support and a minimum of 36 hours per month of management time during the launch 

period, and then 30 hours per month thereafter. The contracted provision of these essential 

back-office services will ensure that Shrewsbury Local Radio can concentrate its efforts on 

delivering the local radio station that the people of Shrewsbury and Oswestry are 

demanding. 

18



The following key executives with substantial radio experience will ensure that Shrewsbury 

Local Radio Limited has the ability to successfully launch and maintain the service 

throughout the duration of the licence: 

Alan Mullet 

Managing Director of nearby Beacon 

Radio for 10 years. 20 years radio 

experience. Turned Beacon into a 

market leading station. Successfully 

launched Beacon (Shropshire), the only 

existing commercial service for the area. 

David Bickle (Non-Executive Director) 

Very experienced Financial Director 

specialising in new business start-ups 

and turnarounds. 

Grant Goddard (Laser Broadcasting) 

20 years radio programming, 

management and research experience in 

the UK, Europe and Asia. 

As with any business, the launch period is critical, which is why Shrewsbury Local Radio has 

assembled an experienced launch team to ensure that the station achieves the highest 

possible standards during the first twelve months after the award. Alan Mullett is the only 

person ever to manage the successful launch of a commercial radio service for the area. 

4. Board Structure 

Stuart Linnell (Laser Broadcasting and 

Non-Executive Director) 

35 years radio experience, including 20 

years senior radio management and 

programming experience. Former MD of 

Mercia Sound. 

Nigel Reeve (Laser Broadcasting) 

30 years radio sales and management 

experience. 

David Mortimer (Laser Broadcasting) 

10 years radio management and 

programming experience. 

The Board of Shrewsbury Local Radio Limited has been structured to ensure that the 

company benefits from an appropriate balance of radio experience and business experience. 

The Directors represent 99.36% of the share issue of Shrewsbury Local Radio Limited. The 

decision was taken to structure the Board with only six Directors to ensure that the decision 

making process is kept simple and easy to manage, allowing Shrewsbury Local Radio to 

react quickly to any changes in the market. 

It is the Board’s policy to aim to pay the first dividend after five years of trading, which will 

further ensure that long-term retention of shareholdings remains attractive to the investors. 

The stability of this corporate structure enables the Board to plan and develop the company 

over the twelve-year period of the licence. 

19



5. Necessary Funding 

The shareholders and board members of Shrewsbury Local Radio have gone far beyond 

simply offering their skills and experience to develop the business plan for the proposed 

radio station. They have spent time and money investing in a trial broadcast, awareness 

building, research and consultations [see answers to Questions 6 and 7]. Over the last 18 

months, they have invested over £90,000 in the project. Post-award, existing shareholders 

have committed a further £470,000 in order to launch the station and maintain it for the full 

period of the licence. 

Based on the projections detailed in the profit and loss account, these sums will be sufficient 

to avoid requiring an overdraft facility, even when a sensitivity test is applied that reduces 

projected revenues by 20%. However, the company’s banker, Lloyds TSB, has indicated that 

an overdraft facility could be arranged, if required post-award. A copy of this letter can be 

supplied on request. 

As an emerging radio group, Laser Broadcasting Limited’s substantial shareholding provides 

the company with the financial support and long-term commitment requisite for a radio 

station launch in a relatively small local market. In addition, Laser has agreed to underwrite 

any required funding, if shares in Shrewsbury Local Radio were to be made available and 

provide further funding support when and if it is required. Laser Broadcasting is backed by 

financial institution Northern Enterprise Ltd. who are supporting Laser’s plans for this and a 

number of other applications across the UK. 

As per the shareholders’ agreement, any shares in Shrewsbury Local Radio that become 

available must be offered to the existing shareholders in the first instance. 

There exists a clear commitment from the shareholders, including Laser, to the long term 

financing of the company. 

6. Accounting Policies 

The Board of Shrewsbury Local Radio Limited has produced an achievable business plan 

that is based on the following assumptions: 

• Conservative audience forecasts, with a projected weekly reach in Year One of 17%, 

rising by Year Three to 19%, based upon empirical evidence of recent local station 

start-ups of comparable size [see answer to Question 2(d)]; 

• Conservative revenue projections based upon a static Total Survey Area of 118,352 

adults, rather than including allowances for the area’s projected population growth; 

• The historical benchmark industry average revenue of £31 per 1000 hours per annum 

listened was used to produce the financial forecasts, with a year-on-year growth 

progression applied using the average values of Advertising Association projections for 

UK radio revenues (see table below); 

RADIO REVENUE: Year-On-Year Growth Projections (%) 

High option Low option Average 

2005 3.0 7.7 5.4 

2006 2.7 2.0 2.4 

2007 9.3 2.2 5.8 

2008 9.2 4.7 7.0 

Source: Advertising Association forecasts, November 2004 

20



• Realistic expenditure projections for the station launch that include £9,000 of nonsponsored 

local promotions and advertising in Year One and £15,000 for marketing in 

the pre-launch period; 

• A projected operating profit in Year Three; 

• Projections that require no overdraft, even if revenue shows a shortfall of 20%; 

• The first dividend to be paid to shareholders after five years. 

These are the policies on which the Shrewsbury Local Radio Limited business plan is based. 

It is the Board’s stated intention to deliver a profit in Year Three, not to have to resort to any 

form of working capital borrowings, and to pay a dividend to shareholders after five years. 

The financial planning involved in Shrewsbury Local Radio’s business plan has been 

rigorous, detailed and is based on reasonable assumptions. 

7. Investor Strategy 

The strategy of the company’s investors has been discussed and agreed upon by both the 

Board and shareholders. The main points of Shrewsbury Local Radio Limited’s investor 

strategy to date are: 

• The focus of the enterprise is to build a successful local radio station in Shropshire for 

the residents and business community of Shrewsbury and Oswestry; 

• The company will remain focused on long-term growth and the integrity of its product; 

• Shareholder Laser Broadcasting Limited has a long-term commitment to developing 

interests in an emerging group of genuinely local radio stations; 

• Investors are involved for the potential long-term returns rather than immediate shortterm 

gains; 

• The company should remain fully funded with no working capital borrowing 

requirement; 

• A shareholder agreement requires that any shares for sale are offered, in the first 

instance, to existing shareholders in proportion to their existing holdings; 

• Dividends will be returned to shareholders after Year Five; 

• Shareholders are committed to the establishment, funding and maintenance of the 

business for the full duration of the permanent licence; 

• Simulcast opportunities via internet and cable streaming are acknowledged as 

important ways of extending the station’s potential audience; 

• Opportunities to increase the radio station’s penetration through DAB (Digital Audio 

Broadcasting) in the Shropshire area will be pursued when multiplexes become 

available; 

• An ongoing programme of market research will ensure that the station remains 

relevant and focused on the listeners and advertising community in Shrewsbury and 

Oswestry at whom it is aimed. 

21



b) Funding 

Detail the sources of finance that will be used to fund the licence, under the following headings: 

(i) Share capital 

Post-award, 200,000 shares will have been issued in the company, raising a total of 

£560,025. 

(ii) Loan stock 

Shrewsbury Local Radio has no plans to issue loan stock. 

(iii) Leasing/HP facilities (capital value) 

Three company vehicles with a capital value of £30,000 will be leased. 

(iv) Bank overdraft 

Shrewsbury Local Radio Limited’s business plan does not anticipate the need for an 

overdraft. However, the company’s banker, Lloyds TSB, has indicated that such a facility 

would be made available. 

(v) Grants and donations 

None 

(vi) Other (please specify) 

None 

Where relevant, provide information on: 

(i) Loan terms (e.g. interest rate, repayment terms, redemption/conversion terms) 

Not applicable 

(ii) Assets leased 

Shrewsbury Local Radio Limited will lease three company vehicles over a three-year period. 

A written quote for these is available upon request. 

All of the funding above should be confirmed to the applicant. Explanation should be 

provided if this is not the case. 

22



c) Financial Projections 

This question is to allow the applicant to demonstrate its understanding of the market. 

The forecasts should be based on reasonable assumptions that are logically applied and justifiable. 

Understanding the Market - Population & Economy 

Once the third most important town in England, the trade and merchant centre for the entire 

region, a prominent gateway to the Welsh Marches and the financial and administration 

capital of a wealthy agricultural area, Shrewsbury has bounced back from the degeneration 

and decline of the past few decades and is now demonstrably meeting the rigorous demands 

of the 21 st century economy. The demise of the local manufacturing base, declines in 

traditional industries and dramatic shifts in the agricultural economy upon which the county 

town was built created years of recession and stagnation, but Shrewsbury is now succeeding 

in building a modern and dynamic economy and reshaping its local industries in the face of 

economic and social changes and little eligibility for high levels of grant aid. SLR will become 

a vital and valued player in local business and will act as a catalyst for further growth. 

45% of Shropshire’s employee jobs are located in the town of Shrewsbury, where there are 

some 48,000 people working in approximately 3,800 businesses. Health and social work is 

the town’s largest employer, accounting for 26% of the workforce, followed by wholesale and 

retail trades that employ 20%. Nearly a third (31%) of the workforce is employed in large 

businesses of more than 200 employees. 

The town’s economic renaissance is being driven by its strong sense of individuality, an 

entrepreneurial community stretching from the award winning Local Authority to the growth 

of successful SME’s. Shrewsbury has the fastest rate of increase in self employment in 

Shropshire, 20 per cent more small businesses now than three years ago, and the highest 

regional growth in start-up technology businesses. One in five (19%) of the workforce is 

employed in small businesses of between 1 and 10 employees, which account for 82% of 

the town’s businesses. Here, too, SLR will fulfil an important role through offering affordable, 

targeted advertising opportunities to this expanding raft of smaller organisations. 

Shrewsbury has come of age in terms of its business landscape and has shown a real sense 

of ambition in recent times. For example, in October the town was awarded runner-up status 

in the national finals of The Enterprising Britain 2005 competition, recognising and rewarding 

the town’s success in creating an enterprise culture that improved social and environmental 

conditions as well as making a big difference to the local economy. Earlier in the year 

Shrewsbury beat off stiff regional competition from Coventry, Birmingham and 

Wolverhampton and can boast a higher number of business owners per head of population 

than any of the other contending locations. 

The number of employee jobs in Shrewsbury increased by 12% between 1998 and 2003, a 

significant change compared to the Shropshire average of 5% and the West Midlands 

average of just 2%. During this time, the number of jobs in manufacturing fell by 35%, in 

transport and communication by 24% and in financial serves by 22%, while jobs in health 

and social work have increased by 63%, in education by 44% and in mining, energy and 

water by 32%. The average gross weekly pay in the Shrewsbury & Atcham borough is £447, 

compared to an average £485 in England. 

The “West Midlands Towns Intervention Study” identifies Shrewsbury as a “town economy 

dominated by the service sector [that] plays a key role as a sub-regional shopping centre 

and tourist destination.” It earmarks Shrewsbury as “a sustainable location for housing and 

employment growth outside the region’s conurbations; and a longer term contingency 

location for higher level of housing growth if conurbations are unable to accommodate 

planned levels of house building post-2011.” The report identifies the following companies as 

23




likely to expand operations in Shrewsbury: Co-op Supermarket, Tesco (if planning enquiry is 

successful) and Shropshire County Council Social Services Directorate (following 

restructuring). 

Towards the North West of the broadcast area, Oswestry comprises 6% of the county’s 

employee jobs, employing 6,000 people in approximately 700 businesses. The biggest 

employer is the wholesale and retail trade, accounting for 30% of employee jobs, followed by 

health and social work (13%) and education (13%). 81% of local businesses comprise ten or 

fewer employees, who employ 27% of the workforce. 

In Oswestry, the number of employee jobs fell by 5% between 1998 and 2003, the opposite 

of the trend in Shrewsbury and the rest of the county. Over that time period, 40% of jobs in 

manufacturing were lost, along with 32% in construction. Jobs in education increased by 

32% and in hotels and restaurants by 5%. The average gross weekly pay in Oswestry 

borough is £440. 

Oswestry is a market town serving a wide rural area, and industries such as food packing, 

clothing, cold storage, road haulage and metal fabrication are numerous. A number of 

regeneration projects have been approved by the district council, including Medi Parc that 

will build on the orthopaedic hospital as a national centre of excellence, new facilities and 

improved attractions for visitors, and a market town initiative. (See Research Project 7 in 

Appendix 12 for data sources). 

In November 2005 one of the town’s biggest employers, the successful IT company TNS, 

was the target in a takeover swoop by British Telecom. This very recent development bodes 

well for local employment as BT has announced their intention to expand the business which 

already employs 92 and has assets of £9.1 million. TNS also owns a football club in nearby 

Llansantffraid, Powys but has plans to move it across the border into a new 3,000-seater 

stadium in the centre of Oswestry. 

The Local Newspaper Market 

All but one of the daily and weekly newspapers available in Shrewsbury and Oswestry is 

owned by the giant Midlands News Association, (MNA), group which mushroomed out of the 

Wolverhampton-based Express and Star. The common ownership of the areas main press 

titles means local businesses are restricted in their choice of newspaper advertising. 

Despite Shrewsbury’s standing as the county town, Shropshire’s daily newspaper is based 

15 miles away in Telford. Launched in October 1964 the Shropshire Star is distributed 

throughout the county and is available well into Mid Wales. Essentially the ‘launch’ was a rebranding 

exercise for what had previously been the Shropshire edition of Wolverhampton’s 

Express and Star. Since then the newspaper has flourished, proving beyond doubt that 

Shropshire has a strong thirst for dedicated local news and information. Inheriting a nightly 

circulation of around 19,000 from the former title, the new paper saw amazing circulation 

growth. By the mid-1980s sales were around the 100,000 mark, and the paper had 

expanded from an initial two editions, to eight. Nowadays it sells in the region of 79,000 

copies a day with an impressive average issue readership of 219,000, (52% of adults), one 

of the highest penetration rates in British regional press, with over 82 per cent of all copies 

published being home delivered. The current published rate for a mono quarter page ROP 

advertisement is £688. The paper’s website claims to attract one million page views a month. 

Our own research confirmed the popularity of the Shropshire Star as a valued source of local 

information. These latest Jicreg figures are broadly in line with our own findings, (full details 

in Research project 5 at Appendix 10), in which 57% of 35-64 year olds named paid-for local 

newspapers as their main source for local news. 

24




The Shrewsbury Chronicle is one of the oldest weekly papers in the country and was first 

published in 1772. Over the centuries the paper has had many different owners and offices 

around the town, but it is now based at Chronicle House, Castle Foregate, opposite 

Shrewsbury railway station. It is printed on Wednesday evening and is on sale for Thursday 

breakfast. 

The Chronicle claims to be a ‘community’ newspaper aiming to “chronicle everything that has 

happened in Shrewsbury and the surrounding area during the previous seven days”. 

However, it is clear to any reader that the paper’s true raison d’être is to sell property. The 

paper averages 96 pages each week half of which form a property supplement. According to 

Jicreg data the Shrewsbury/North Shropshire Chronicle has a circulation of 18,349 with an 

average issue readership of 54,000, (51% of the population). The current ratecard cost of a 

mono quarter page ROP advertisement is £348. 

The Oswestry and Border Counties Advertiser is one of a number of weekly titles owned by 

North Wales Newspapers group. Established over 150 years ago it is the second oldest 

newspaper in the county. With a published readership of 32,500 our own focus group 

research and anecdotal evidence showed this to be a valued publication and the solitary 

source of hard news outside the giant MNA stable. (Full details of Focus Group studies can 

be inspected in Research Report 3 in Appendix 7). 

Shrewsbury ‘Admag’ is a weekly free paper published by Northcliffe group that is almost 

entirely comprised of advertisements. According to VFD the title reaches 35,000 households 

in and around Shrewsbury and 7,000 homes in Oswestry. 

The Powys County Times and Express covers a large geographic area fringing on the 

proposed SLR transmission area. Readership and commercial support, however, is almost 

entirely confined to the Welsh side of the border. 

A Detailed map of the specified press circulation areas landscape can be found in 

Confidential Appendix 16. 

The Local Radio Market 

The two existing commercial stations broadcasting to Shrewsbury and Oswestry are Beacon 

Radio and Classic Gold WABC. In Oswestry MFM 103.4 and Classic Gold Marcher, (from 

Wrexham), also appear on Rajar diaries, although the town lies outside the stations’ official 

MCA. All these stations are now a part of Britain’s largest radio group Gcap Media. BBC 

Radio Shropshire also broadcasts across the county. 

A Detailed map of the specified radio landscape can be found in Confidential Appendix 16. 

Originally focused on Wolverhampton and The Black Country, Beacon Radio launched in 

April 1976, the last of the Independent Broadcasting Authority’s first raft of ILR stations. 

Beacon was considered an ‘experiment’ by the IBA which was keen to observe what would 

happen if two commercial stations were allowed to operate in close proximity to one another. 

One third of Beacon’s area overlapped with Birmingham-based BRMB, an area which 

includes the towns of Dudley and Halesowen. Beacon’s original board recognised the need 

to formulate an alternative musical offering and looked to North America’s more developed 

radio industry when recruiting senior management for the station’s launch. Under the first 

Managing Director, an American, the early Beacon sound was very distinctive, and 

noticeably different from that of BRMB. 

25




Like other early ILR stations BRMB was primarily top 40 based while Beacon injected ‘spice’ 

to its music in the form of classic oldies and album tracks. Throughout the late ‘70’s and into 

the ‘80’s Beacon remained strongly focused editorially on Wolverhampton and the Black 

Country with an unusually diverse mix of music. The station unquestionably won the hearts 

and minds of local people scoring excellent ratings from the outset with a share of 42% in 

1979. (Source, Jicrar). After the departure of Beacon’s somewhat ‘unorthodox’ launch 

management team, the station’s programming began to conform more with the ILR norm 

under Managing Director Peter Tomlinson, (a former ATV presenter), and his Programme 

Controller, ex-BFBS broadcaster, Bob Pierson who was later promoted to MD. 

Another management change came in 1987 when former Sales Director, Alan Mullett 

stepped-up to MD with presenter Pete Wagstaff as Programme Director. 

The new team were keen to make a difference and successfully applied for a new franchise 

to broadcast across Shropshire from a powerful FM transmitter high above the county on top 

of the Wrekin. So, on July 14 1987 commercial radio finally came to Shrewsbury and 

Oswestry. ‘Beacon Shropshire’ launched as an opt-out of the West Midlands service with 

dedicated programming for eight hours a day at breakfast and drivetime, as well as separate 

commercials, traffic updates and news bulletins at other times. The station also invested in a 

studio and sales office located in Shrewsbury’s Music Hall and was frequently seen staging 

outside broadcasts from all over the county. Beacon recruited strongly local presenters for its 

dedicated Shropshire programmes. Individuals like Graham Hall and Will Tudor, who 

remains one of the county’s best known personalities to this day. Station policy was to use 

local relevance in abundance to enhance appeal and the Shropshire service fast became an 

important contributor of listener hours and new revenue to the Beacon Radio ‘family’. At this 

time there was a terrific team spirit at Beacon which drove a hunger for further success. 

Audiences and revenue were at record levels and the station achieved breakthroughs in 

other areas like, for example, the ‘syndication’ of its overnight show to neighbouring ILR 

stations, Signal, Mercia and Wyvern. 

In 1988 the government announced its intention to end the practice of ‘simulcasting’ and 

Beacon’s management team devised a new format for their only AM frequency, 990khz. 

‘Radio WABC’ started broadcasting on January 15 1989. Once again, Beacon did things 

slightly differently. Because of the, by now, well established ‘Gold’ format from Birmingham’s 

Xtra AM, WABC became Britain’s first easy-listening station with Frank Sinatra's ‘Nice and 

Easy’ as the first song played. 

Keen to expand further, Alan Mullett successfully applied for what was to be the last IBA 

licence, and on December 12 th 1990 WABC was rolled out across Shropshire, mirroring the 

local programming template of Beacon FM. Radio WABC's music policy shifted several times 

over the next few years becoming more upbeat and contemporary towards the middle of the 

decade. In 1993 Beacon’s shareholders sold out to Swindon-based GWR group, although a 

condition of the sale meant that GWR could not take day to day control of the stations for 

three years. During this time Beacon Radio and WABC continued to be programmed and 

presented locally with no external influence to the music or on air line up. The Shropshire 

stations continued to deliver strong local content with regular involvement of local people via 

‘phone-ins and outside broadcasts. 

26




However, in July 1996 GWR took day to day control and over the next few months , after the 

departure of the incumbent management team, Beacon FM was transformed by GWR into a 

‘clone’ of the group’s other FM brands up and down the country. Then, on April 1st 1998 

WABC finally became part of the Classic Gold network with local programming reduced to 

just four hours a day. 

Beacon Radio is now part of the recently created ‘The One Network’ which Gcap describes 

as “a network of 39 local stations, each giving listeners vibrant, engaging, quality output, 

featuring high profile presenters, celebrity guests, local importance and the best 

contemporary music.” GCap promises that “each station in The One Network is at the heart 

of its community, broadcasting to listeners who are young, ‘up for it’ and very much in touch 

with what’s happening in their local environment.” 

Assimilating radio stations in the GWR group has worked well in some areas but in terms of 

audience, it has clearly failed at Beacon. 

27




Present audience levels are the lowest in Beacon Radio / Classic Gold WABC history as the 

above chart shows. Some of this erosion will be an effect of the new regional commercial 

stations which have been launched in the West Midlands. Heart FM in particular has 

established a strong following since its launch in 1994. The other regional stations, Saga and 

Kerrang!, have more focused remits so are less likely to have contributed to Beacon’s 

decline. 

It is impossible to directly link the cause and effect of programming changes and falling 

ratings, but a view shared by many industry observers is that the decline of both Beacon 

Radio and Classic Gold WABC is a result of less locally-orientated programme content and 

more networked programming on both stations. Once it had full control, GWR closed 

Beacon’s Shrewsbury studio facility and all the outside broadcast activity across the county 

which had, hitherto, kept the station front of mind, did not comply with GWR’s programming 

philosophy and, as such, was immediately scrapped. News bulletins were trimmed-back, 

presenters received a strict group mandate to keep links concise and these became largely 

promotionally orientated. 

There has been a palpable withdrawal from Shropshire both on the air and in terms of 

visibility and sales activity. At one time it was hard to drive from Shrewsbury to Oswestry 

without spotting one of the brightly logoed Beacon sales cars. Now though, with Gcap’s 

move towards seminar sales, station executives are rarely seen. According to SLR’s face to 

face research with members of the local business community this decline in activity is 

perceived as ‘poor service’ and is something we intend to address immediately. (Full details 

of our Business Research can be found in Research Project 6 in Appendix 11). 

A further testament to Gcap’s apparent lack of emphasis on Shropshire is it’s decision not to 

broadcast Shropshire output on the Shrewsbury / Telford DAB multiplex, instead relaying the 

West Midlands feeds of Beacon and Classic Gold WABC. 

We have listened to Beacon and Classic Gold WABC with a professional ear over many 

years and are more familiar than most with their present formulae. To re-confirm our 

perceptions we commissioned independent monitoring of both stations over a full 12-hour 

period from 6.00 am-6.00 pm on 14th September 2005 by specialist research company 

‘Matters of Fact’. (The full reports for each station can be found in Appendixes 8 and 9 

respectively). 

Beacon Radio is typical of the ‘Mix’ brand and carries all the major pan-network promotions. 

The big competition running throughout daytime programming when we monitored was ‘The 

Tenth Question’, an hourly phone-in quiz with cash prizes of up to £1,000. What the casual 

listener might fail to spot is that the exact same hourly caller appears on every station across 

the entire ‘Mix’ network, so this is hardly a genuine opportunity for listeners in Shrewsbury 

and Oswestry to participate and win on any regular basis. Generally presenter links were 

kept short and apart from general dedications there was very little content specific to 

Shrewsbury and Oswestry. 

28




All but four hours of daily output on Classic Gold WABC is now networked across all UBC’s 

Classic Gold frequencies so apart from the locally inserted news and commercial elements 

the station has a ‘national’ feel. 

On the day we monitored, there were a number of Shropshire-specific stories featured in the 

news bulletins on Beacon Radio / Classic Gold WABC making up around 64% of news 

content which, we would suggest, is well above average observed ratio. The day’s main local 

story concerned the attack in her home of an 84 year old woman, the threat of petrol 

shortages, the merger of midlands’ ambulance services and the death of a patient at a 

Shrewsbury mental home. However, apart from an extended 5 minute bulletin at 7am, the 

longest news update monitored was 2 minutes in duration. We believe that the people of 

Shrewsbury and Oswestry want and deserve more detail, a theory borne out by our 

qualitative research which showed that Shropshire residents are loyal to their area and take 

a healthy interest in local issues. 

It is our contention that this lack of local content from the existing local commercial stations’ 

opens up the gap in the market for a new station to fill. There is no doubt that Shrewsbury 

and Oswestry can generate sufficient news stories to build a new, highly locally focused 

radio station. Analysis of a random issue of the Shropshire Star (2 nd November 2005) 

showed that 77% of the news stories carried were local. There is every reason to believe 

that a locally focused radio station covering a substantial number of local news stories could 

be every bit as successful as the Shropshire Star, which enjoys 52% penetration in the 

county (Jicreg 2005). 

Over the 12-hour period 219 adverts were played on Beacon Radio. Of these 87 were for 

local or regional businesses and 132 were national adverts with no specific local reference. 

This represents a 60.3% / 39.7% split between national and local advertising. Many of the 

‘local’ advertisements, however, were for businesses based in Beacon’s West Midlands 

area. Our face to face research with local businesses suggests that there is strong 

commercial demand for our proposition. 

Pricing and poor service were issues highlighted together with the narrow playlists of existing 

stations. We know we can win on all these fronts: 

• Our rates will be set at realistic levels for the local market; 

• From our base in Shrewsbury we will be able to service our clients frequently and 

professionally; 

• Our programming will be relevant, entertaining and more musically diverse than any of 

the existing stations. 

In putting together its business plan for Shrewsbury Local Radio, the Board has been 

determined to utilise as much empirical evidence as possible about the local market, existing 

media within it, and the dynamics of the population and the economy of both Shrewsbury 

and Oswestry. In this, we have been fortunate in benefiting from the wealth of local 

knowledge and experience provided by its Directors, one of whom personally initiated the 

campaign that originally brought commercial radio to Shropshire and went on to lead Beacon 

through its most successful period. It is through those shared experiences that the Board 

identified the gap that exists in the market for listeners who want a truly locally-focused 

station, and the gap that exists for potential local advertisers who presently have the choice 

of only MNA and GCap Media in the two most important local media – print and radio. 

The Board of Shrewsbury Local Radio is committed to offering both listeners and advertisers 

a genuine alternative to existing local media. 

29




The applicant should provide financial projections on an annual basis for the licence. The 

projections must include: 

(i) Profit and loss accounts 

(ii) Balance sheets 

(iii) Cash-flow forecasts 

The period covered is at the discretion of the applicant, but should be justified. The forecasts 

should be supplied on an Excel spreadsheet or similar, with any accompanying guidance notes. 

The applicant must also complete and submit the spreadsheet entitled ‘Financial Template’ 

located at www.ofcom.org.uk/radio/ifi/rl/commer/ar/lapr/ftap.xls using information from its 

business model. 

All financial projections, plus the “Financial Template”, are included as Appendix 4. In 

addition to profit and loss accounts, balance sheets and cash flow forecasts for the first five 

years, also included are full details of all workings, the sensitivity analysis, depreciation, staff 

costs, revenue calculations and pre-operational expenditure. 

The projections are based on the first five years of trading. Shrewsbury Local Radio Limited 

has decided to submit projections for the first five years, as this moves the company closer 

to the repayment of initial setup costs and its dividend payment policy. 

30



d) Audience Projections 

Provide the following information: 

(i) The projected adult (aged 15+) population of the Total Survey Area (TSA) within which it is 

intended to measure the listenership of the service. 

The projected adult population (aged 15+) is 118,352. This has been derived from 2001 

Census data and the coverage prediction supplied by Arqiva (see answer to Question 3). 

This is the population count against signal strength of 54 dBuV/m from the twin transmission 

configuration. 

(ii) Projections for listenership ratings (e.g. weekly reach, average weekly hours of listening) 

over the first three years of the service, with detailed demographic breakdowns as 

appropriate. 

The Board’s analysis has determined that the station’s projected performance will be: 

YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 YEAR 4 YEAR 5 

Adult (15+) TSA 118,352 118,352 118,352 118,352 118,352 

Weekly reach % 17% 18% 19% 20% 21% 

Reach 20,120 21,303 22,487 23,670 24,854 

Average hours 7 hours 8 hours 9 hours 9 hours 9 hours 

Total hours 140,839 170,427 202,382 213,034 223,685 

Extensive market research (see answers to Question 6) has demonstrated the wide appeal 

of the proposed radio station to a substantial proportion of the potential audience between 

the ages of 35 and 64. This age group comprises just over 50% of the adult population of the 

combined Shrewsbury & Atcham and Oswestry boroughs. Additionally, there will be a 

significant ‘appeal-overspill’ factor amongst 30-34 and 65-70 year olds, who comprise a 

further 14% of the adult population. 

(iii) The expected impact of the proposed service on existing services, in listenership terms. 

The expected impact of Shrewsbury Local Radio in Year One will reduce listening hours to 

the stations listed by the amounts outlined below within the SLR Total Survey Area: 

• Beacon Radio (23,000 hours per week less) 

• BBC Radio Two (27,000 hours per week less) 

• BBC Radio One (18,000 hours per week less) 

• BBC Radio Shropshire (21,000 hours per week) 

• BBC Radio Five Live (11,000 hours per week less) 

• BBC Radio Four (8,000 hours per week less) 

• Classic FM (9,000 hours per week less) 

• Classic Gold WABC (7,000 hours per week less) 

• talkSport (5,000 hours per week less) 

• Virgin Radio (3,000 hours per week less) 

• Other stations (3,500 hours per week less) 

31



d) Audience Projections 

(iv) The basis on which the estimates above have been calculated, and any assumptions taken 

into account. 

Audience Projections: 

The Board’s projections for the performance of the station in its first five years have largely 

been derived from statistical analysis of empirical data from RAJAR ratings reports. A 

benchmark was provided by the start-up performances of all 19 local (not regional) 

commercial radio stations with Total Survey Areas of between 100,000 and 400,000 that had 

commenced broadcasting since 1999 and had participated in RAJAR. Their average 

performance at the end of each of their first three years on-air was as follows: 

YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 

Weekly reach % 17.2 % 18.4% 18.6% 

Average hours/week 9.4 hrs 8.7 hrs 9.7 hrs 

Shrewsbury Local Radio’s programme format is comparable to the stations included in this 

analysis, and its target audience, like those stations, encompasses a broad demographic 

spread. These figures were rounded and revised with a more natural year-on-year 

progression to arrive at the projections for the station’s performance in the first three years. 

The year-on-year increase in hours listened has been approximated to 20% for Years Two 

and Three, a rate of growth observed in start-up stations in similarly sized markets. Years 

four and five assume further steady growth in reach with static hours given the probable 

increase in listener promiscuity. 

To give added comfort to these calculations we employed a now widely used formula in 

context with our telephone research findings, (detailed in Appendix 10). Of our sample of 400 

adults, 88% said they were either “interested” or “very interested” in listening to a station 

meeting the description of SLR. We are aware that such questions tend to over-estimate the 

likelihood of actual listening and therefore the results were factored by adopting a standard 

practice of taking 75% of those who said they were “very interested” and 50% of those who 

said they were “interested” in listening. Experience elsewhere indicates that these factors 

give a more reliable indication of initial station trial and in this case suggest that 49% of 

adults aged 15+ will sample our station. Given our £15,000 launch marketing budget and 

confidence in delivering a high quality product from the outset, we have assumed that 38% 

of those who sample the station will become regular weekly listeners by the end of our first 

year on-air. This gives our year one (adult 15+) weekly reach of 20,120 listeners, 17% of the 

TSA population. 

Years two - five Weekly Reach: 

The experience of similarly-sized stations in other areas suggests that the initial weekly 

reach is likely to be less than 80% of the final potential, although given the dynamic nature of 

radio listening and volatility of Rajar, predictions are notoriously unreliable. We have, 

therefore, erred on the side of caution projecting that reach will steadily grow to 21% over the 

first five years of the licence period. 

Impact on Existing Stations: 

In the absence of detailed Rajar history specific to the Shrewsbury Local Radio area and our 

understanding of how shifting dynamics can lead to spurious results within 12 month rolling 

data, we made our forecasts using a process of casual empiricism with reference to the 

experience of similar sized stations in comparable radio landscapes. 

32


3. Transmission Proposals 

(i) Provide details of the transmission site, or sites, you propose to use, under the following 

headings: 

(a) Name and National Grid Reference of site; 

Shrewsbury Transmitter: 

Site Name: Shelton Water Tower 

National Grid Reference: SJ 465135 

(b) Height of site above Ordnance datum (in metres); 

90 metres 

(c) Height of site above ground level (in metres); 

27 metres 

(d) Radiated power in either or both planes of polarisation, and aerial radiation pattern (if no 

aerial radiation pattern is submitted, it will be assumed without exception to be omnidirectional). 

250 watts vertical + 250 watts horizontal 

Radiation Pattern (shown below) 

33



Oswestry Transmitter: 

(a) Name and National Grid Reference of site; 

Site Name: Selattyn 

National Grid Reference: SJ 266318 

(b) Height of site above Ordnance datum (in metres); 

305 metres 

(c) Height of site above ground level (in metres); 

25 metres 

(d) Radiated power in either or both planes of polarisation, and aerial radiation pattern (if no 

aerial radiation pattern is submitted, it will be assumed without exception to be omnidirectional). 

50 watts vertical + 50 watts horizontal 

Pattern - Directional (shown below) 

The applicant should confirm whether he believes that his intended mast aperture will be available, 

and whether, where required, planning permission can be obtained. Where appropriate, evidence to 

support this belief should be provided. Details of any negotiations which have been entered into with 

the site owner(s) should also be provided. 

Arqiva has confirmed to SLR that they have suitable sites with accommodation and aperture 

space available for the antenna systems at both Shelton Water Tower and Selattyn. 

Planning permission is required for the antennas, but for these established transmitter sites 

Arqiva believes that there should not be a problem in obtaining permission from the planning 

authorities. 

34



The information provided above must take into account any requirements set out in Section 2 of this 

Notice. In the event of minor non-compliance, Ofcom may revisit an applicant's proposals with a 

view to modest adjustment following award and closer scrutiny. Significant non-compliance may 

render the application liable to disqualification. 

Arqiva has chosen the sites at Shelton Water Tower and Selattyn. These provide excellent 

coverage for Shrewsbury and Oswestry respectively and the immediate surrounding areas. 

We are advised by Arqiva that these plans comply with the Ofcom restrictions for this 

licence. 

(ii) Please provide a detailed computer predicted map (in colour) of the coverage anticipated 

using the transmission site(s) and parameters described above. 

Shrewsbury Local Radio – Coverage Predictions 

Composite: Shelton Water Tower / Selattyn 

(iii) Describe proposed arrangements for transmission provision (installation, maintenance and 

repair). The transmission system and equipment must comply with the Engineering Code 

originally published by the Radio Authority, which represents Ofcom's current policy and is 

available at: 

www.ofcom.org.uk/codes_guidelines/broadcasting/radio/codes/engineering_code.pdf 

Our Transmission provider, Arqiva, is well resourced to install the complete system and 

subsequently maintain and monitor the Transmission parameters. Telemetry and remote 

monitoring systems will provide information back to their control centre e.g. Carrier Power, 

lack of modulation etc on a 24 hr basis. Their maintenance personnel are highly trained with 

the necessary spares and test equipment to resolve any problem quickly. 

35



(iv) What is the anticipated time-lapse between the award of licence and start of broadcasting? 

Applicants should note that failure to commence broadcasting the service within two years of 

the date on which the licence is awarded is likely to lead to the offer of a licence to the 

successful applicant being withdrawn. In these circumstances the licence would be 

advertised afresh and a new competition would be held to award the licence. 

Shrewsbury Local Radio plans to launch within 26 weeks of the licence award. 

36

Section 105(B) and (C): Catering for Tastes and 

Interests And Broadening Choice 

4. Programming Philosophy 

(i) This subsection of the application should take the form of a statement setting out the 

applicant’s overall programming philosophy and vision for the radio service. 

Local radio listening in Shropshire suffers from inertia. 

Local commercial radio is regarded as a generally unsophisticated and uninspiring 

alternative to BBC radio. This was a view expressed repeatedly during our research and 

consultation process. When the sole reason for tuning into a station is given as ‘traffic news’, 

(focus group study, 31 st August/1 st September 2005), important though that is, the paucity of 

creativity and innovation within the programme output is underlined. 

Little more than lip service is paid to other local news and information, to local people and 

their stories, or to local events and issues. Historically, Beacon launched and ran the 

Shropshire service as a ‘stand-alone’ operation with dedicated local programming at key 

times. The station ran a well-resourced news operation with staff specifically tasked with 

generating Shropshire stories. Often Beacon staged outside broadcasts from high-visibility 

locations in Shrewsbury, Telford and around the county and there was a Beacon studio and 

sales office in the centre of town. Now things at Beacon are very different. All output 

originates in Wolverhampton, news bulletin durations have been trimmed back and ‘OB’s’ 

are no longer part of the station’s operational philosophy. These changes have been noticed 

by Shrewsbury and Oswestry people and we believe the time is now right to bring back local 

radio to the county town…permanently. 24 hours a day 7 days a week from Shrewsbury – for 

Shrewsbury and its close neighbour, Oswestry. 

The people of Shrewsbury and Oswestry are moving away from commercial radio as a 

medium of first choice. This is, in part, because of the lack of a truly local service that they 

can call their own. As one of our research respondents put it, “there is not really a radio 

station that applies locally; it’s a betweeny sort of place.” 

So, if local people want local news, coverage of local events, local sports or business news, 

or features about local personalities, they turn to either the local newspaper or to BBC Radio 

Shropshire, but the existing commercial radio stations are generally viewed as little more 

than an alternative source of popular music to BBC Radio One and BBC Radio Two until, 

that is, the advertisements appear. 

The poor perception of the quality and content of the ads is borne out by the responses our 

research prompted from local companies. Our focus group research re-confirmed the view 

that existing local commercial stations do not work hard enough to service their clients with 

affordable, creative advertising that is attractive rather than off-putting to listeners. SLR 

regards it as critical that the scheduling and content of its commercial activity, while 

necessarily distinct from its programming, is complementary to the station output as a whole. 

What makes the indifference shown towards local commercial radio even more disappointing 

is that BBC Radio Shropshire is not a leader in the BBC local radio network. Yet it is chosen 

in preference to local commercial radio as the provider of local news and information. 

SLR will deliver a locally focused service of news, information and entertainment within a 

carefully considered music mix aimed at a deliberately wide target demographic of 35-64. 

The 35-64 age range is forecast to show significant growth over the duration of the licence 

and there is also an identifiable, precise market gap left by existing commercial stations in 

the 45-54 demographic. These commercially important listeners will be central to SLR’s 

continual audience research. 

37




In focusing on 35-64’s, SLR recognises the importance of providing a service to as wide an 

audience base as possible, while at the same time pursuing the distinct opportunity to grow 

the local commercial radio audience and widen listener choice. 

Our programme philosophy is firmly grounded on a definition of localness as being 

characterised by news, information, comment, outside broadcasts, what's-on information, 

travel news, interviews, charity involvement, weather, local artists, local arts and culture, etc, 

This is reflected in the SLR programme schedule and is designed to give listeners a feeling 

of complete ‘ownership’. 

MUSIC 

A root cause of the poor perception of the existing local commercial radio stations is the 

‘predictability’ and regularity of the music format. 

It is, of course, important for listeners to have the reassurance of knowing the type or genre 

of music they will hear, station by station. To be able to forecast, with a reasonable degree 

of accuracy, which song is likely to be played next is an extension of the format radio 

concept to a degree that inevitably impacts negatively on the audience. 

SLR will break through that fog of lacklustre predictability by scheduling album tracks 

alongside the more familiar hits and by providing a more extensive hit song selection than is 

the case with existing stations. 

The trend for commercial radio music programmers to rely purely on music selection 

software can lead to a sterile feel to the music choice as it is primarily based on the 

assumption that particular demographics only enjoy music from their formative years. Thus, 

FM stations tend to focus on hits from the 80’s to the present day, while AM stations major 

on ‘classic hits’ and thus regard the 60’s, 70’s and, to a lesser extent, the 80’s as their staple 

diet of music. This is precisely the policy adopted in Shropshire by the existing local stations, 

Beacon FM and WABC Classic Gold. Furthermore, these two stations form part of quasinational 

generic radio brands which means Beacon’s musical anatomy is identical to stations 

all over the UK. The output of Classic Gold WABC is, for all but four hours a day, exactly the 

same as all other Classic Gold Digital stations up and down the land. Within these 

constraints it has become increasingly difficult for Beacon Radio and Classic Gold WABC to 

adequately provide a valued local service for Shrewsbury and Oswestry. 

As part of our monitoring process we compared Beacon Radio’s music with two ‘sister’ 

stations in the former GWR ‘Mix’ network, Nottingham’s 96 Trent FM and GWR FM in Bristol. 

We contrasted the 30 most played artists across a week and our findings, as expected, 

showed the musical ‘anatomy’ of the three stations to be almost identical: 

38




The chart above shows the core artists, ranked by exposure, on Beacon Radio, Trent Fm 

and GWR FM. during the last week of October 2005. While this era-driven perspective has 

its place, and certainly played an important role in creating a national commercial ‘brand’, 

SLR regards this ‘time-warp’ policy as having become tired and unimaginative. Instead, 

drawing on hits from across the last four decades on the strength of how they research now 

with our target 35-64 year old audience, SLR’s music will play the songs that people tell us 

they want to hear, regardless of the era in which the music originated. Our music will be 

selected and scheduled locally giving us a valuable degree of manoeuvrability to respond to 

market changes. 

Thus, songs by the Beatles (and, in their case, by no means solely the hit singles) and the 

Beach Boys will be heard adjacent to records by Diana Ross, David Bowie, Spandau Ballet, 

Elton John and Robbie Williams. Mixed with hits and album tracks from newer stars such as 

James Blunt, Coldplay, Jamie Cullum, Dido, Keane, Maroon 5, Katie Melua, Scissor Sisters, 

Lucie Silvas and KT Tunstall, SLR’s music will offer the widest appeal for our 35-64 

audience. 

It will be diverse by virtue of the wider music choice it offers when compared to existing 

stations, but it will be chosen through constant, on-going listener research and will therefore 

have a clear but relatively unpredictable focus. 

At the heart of our music policy will be three over-riding principles: 

• A distinctive and popular foundation of quality album tracks by top-selling 

mainstream album artists; 

• A flavouring of Top Twenty hit singles from the past forty years, though not 

scheduled by an era-determined policy; 

• A selection of artists with a popular sophisticated appeal performing songs with 

‘meaningful’ lyrics. 

To graphically demonstrate how SLR will complement the existing commercial stations we 

have assembled a table which shows the 30 most played artists on Beacon Radio and 

Classic Gold WABC in the last week of October 2005 alongside a typical core artist roster for 

SLR: 

39




BEACON RADIO * 

CLASSIC GOLD 

WABC * 

SHREWSBURY LOCAL 

RADIO 

Artist Plays Artist Plays Artist Plays 

JAMES BLUNT 43 THE BEATLES 54 U2 c.20 

SUGABABES 35 ABBA 32 COLDPLAY 

WILL YOUNG 34 ELTON JOHN 30 SIMPLY RED 

CHARLOTTE 

SCISSOR 

CHURCH 33 QUEEN 29 SISTERS 

KT TUNSTALL 33 SUPREMES 26 DIDO 

ROBBIE WILLIAMS 30 BEACH BOYS 25 KT TUNSTALL 

PUSSYCAT DOLLS 26 BEE GEES 25 THE BEATLES 

COLDPLAY 23 MARVIN GAYE 25 KATIE MELUA 

CRAIG DAVID 23 CLIFF RICHARD 23 REM 

JAMIROQUAI 23 EURYTHMICS 22 EURYTHMICS 

MADONNA 22 FOUR TOPS 22 PAUL WELLER 

OASIS 22 BLONDIE 21 TEXAS 

DANIEL POWTER 22 ELO 20 MARY J BLIGE 

GREEN DAY 21 ELVIS PRESLEY 20 LUCIE SILVAS 

AMY 

LEE RYAN 18 ROD STEWART 20 WINEHOUSE 

KELLY CLARKSON 17 DIANA ROSS 19 CRAIG DAVID 

ATHLETE 16 FLEETWOOD MAC 18 STEELY DAN 

ARETHA 

ANASTACIA 15 STEVIE WONDER 

SMOKEY 

18 FRANKLIN 

SCISSOR SISTERS 15 ROBINSON 

DUSTY 

17 MAROON 5 

KAYNE WEST 11 SPRINGFIELD 17 DANIEL POWTER 

UNITING NATIONS 

NATALIE 

10 PHIL COLLINS 16 TRAVIS 

IMBRUGLIA 9 MONKEES 16 BONNIE RAITT 

DANIEL 

ROBBIE 

BEDINGFIELD 8 ROLLING STONES 16 WILLIAMS 

STEVE 

BLACK EYED PEAS 8 KINKS 15 WINWOOD 

ROB THOMAS 8 TINA TURNER 14 DIRE STRAITS 

BARBRA 

BODY ROCKERS 6 DAVID BOWIE 13 STREISAND 

THE CORAL 6 CARPENTERS 13 DAVID GRAY 

KYLIE MINOGUE 6 EAGLES 13 JAMES BLUNT c.5 

* Actual plays week commencing 30 th October 2005 

40




SPEECH 

SLR will reflect the character of both Shrewsbury and Oswestry by airing the opinions and 

interests of local people and providing a forum for participation. It will be a truly independent 

local platform for the expression of the local population. Outside broadcasts will also 

enhance our ability to involve local people with our programming. Our telephone research 

showed that 90% of 35-64 year olds felt that it was important for local radio to have a 

presence at local events. We intend to take that message fully on board and adopt a yearround 

calendar of off-station activity. Typical events might include the annual Shrewsbury 

Christmas Lights switch on, the town’s Visual Arts Festival, the Summer Season of arts and 

literature, the world famous Shrewsbury Flower Show and, not forgetting Darwin Festival, 

celebrating the town's role as the birthplace of Charles Darwin. Oswestry, too offers a rich 

assortment of editorial and OB opportunities. 

The two towns are different from one another in a number of ways and recognise those 

differences as clearly as they identify their similarities. It will not be SLR’s mission to unite 

disparate attitudes, but it will provide an opportunity for the people of each town to 

appreciate and understand their neighbours better. Selective use of phone-ins within 

programmes, alongside text and e-mail messages, will enable listener feedback and 

involvement. 

SLR will empower the people of Shrewsbury and Oswestry with a facility that will, for the first 

time, give both towns an independent local voice. The SLR website will also become an 

important supportive resource to the station’s programme output and will become a dynamic 

and valued communication link for local people. 

Essential information, including regular news and sports updates, plus traffic and weather 

information, plus the localised flood alerts, will all appear regularly throughout the day. It will 

come into its own during times of localised bad weather conditions when listeners will be 

able to see at a glance which roads are closed and whether their child’s school has been 

affected. 

The accepted concept of speech radio is that it is much more labour intensive than music 

radio, and is therefore considerably more expensive. In adopting a format reliant on 

blending entertaining and relevant speech content with a popular, diverse music mix, SLR is 

clear about the necessity to remain viable in a relatively small market as a commercial radio 

business. To fulfil this, it will employ broadcasters with the skills and ability required to live 

up to the station’s commitments. 

SLR is under no illusions about the challenge of recruiting appropriately experienced talent. 

We are mindful of comments made during our focus group research about commercial 

radio’s “poor presenters” and “too much inane chatter”. Perhaps this perception has been 

fuelled by Beacon Radio’s afternoon presenter’s decision to use the name “Stoopid” John 

Wyre! A consequence of the development and nature of format radio across the local 

commercial network in recent years has been a significant reduction in quality of the talent 

pool of broadcasters. It is no surprise to read comments emerging from our research 

suggesting that presenters on local commercial radio are regarded as less professional than 

their counterparts in the BBC. 

Nonetheless, we have already identified and, subject to being awarded the licence, three 

potential mainline presenters and Head of News. Their backgrounds and experience is 

contained in the confidential appendix. These individuals have been carefully selected by 

virtue of their knowledge of and empathy towards the area we intend to serve. They will be 

entirely in tune with their audience, and will engage with the people of Shrewsbury and 

41




Oswestry to provide a radio station that will, from Day One, feel, in some ways, as though it 

has been there forever. 

They will be able to clearly enunciate and deliver their material without compromising the 

English language. Being able to speak clearly should be a basic requirement of a radio 

broadcaster and SLR will ensure that its on-air voices are capable of doing so without 

patronising their listeners. 

Our vision is that presenters in all key dayparts on SLR must have an extensive knowledge 

of the area and people they broadcast to. If not Shropshire born we would at the very least 

expect presenters to live within the transmission area and share the lifestyle experiences of 

their listeners. 

It will also be part of the company’s commitment to its employees to establish and maintain a 

staff training and development programme. Our ongoing relationship with Laser 

Broadcasting will form a crucial part of this process and whilst applying across all disciplines 

within SLR, it will be fundamental to securing the quality of on-air talent. At an early stage, 

SLR will seek to achieve Investors In People standard. 

42




(ii) The strategies which the applicant proposes to implement in regard to: 

catering for the tastes and interests, general or particular, of persons living in the area; 

TARGET AUDIENCE 

Shrewsbury Local Radio’s programming plans have been formulated paying close attention 

to the various research studies we have commissioned over the months. Specifically: 

1. The 400 sample telephone research project which took place in August 2005 and 

was designed to provide a clear snapshot of the tastes and interests of people in 

Shrewsbury and Oswestry. The full tables of this project are available in Appendix 10. 

2. Our two focus group studies carried out in August and September 2005. These 

provided a valuable insight on current listening behaviour, perceptions on ‘localness’, 

a feel for the types of content that might be required of a new station and the 

propensity to listen to a new local radio station. Full details are available in Appendix 

7. 

3. The findings of our monitoring exercise on the existing local commercial stations 

broadcasting to the area, Beacon FM and Classic Gold WABC. Detailed findings are 

available in Appendixes 8 and 9. 

4. Audience trends for existing stations as measured by Rajar, although the data 

available applies to the wider Beacon transmission area which takes in the West 

Midlands ‘sister’ station to Beacon Shropshire. Full details can be found in Appendix 

6. 

5. The 503 sample telephone survey which followed the trial broadcast of Shrewsbury 

Local Radio in May and June 2005. Full survey details can be found in Appendix 5. 

PROGRAMME PLANS 

Shrewsbury Local Radio will be essential listening for anyone who wants news, information 

and discussion on the issues that matter most to Shrewsbury, Oswestry and the surrounding 

areas. It will also provide a forum for listeners to discuss and debate matters that are 

important to them, from war to weather, from finance to fashion, from politics to pubs, all set 

in an appealing music context of quality album tracks by top-selling album artists combined 

with Top Twenty hits from the past forty years. We cannot over-state the importance of news 

in our programming plans for Shrewsbury Local Radio. 85% of 35-64 year olds questioned in 

our August telephone survey said they wanted news from a local station – slightly higher 

than music, (84%). Other information-based elements also scored very highly. 

It is no surprise that our telephone survey in August confirmed that the local press is 

regarded as the main source of local news, (84% of 35-64 year olds), when regional 

television – both BBC and ITV – is so Birmingham-centric in its approach to news and 

current affairs. No doubt both the BBC’s ‘Midlands Today’ and ITV’s ‘Central News’ can 

point to the variety of stories they have covered from this part of Shropshire, but the only 

credible broadcast alternative to the local newspaper is BBC Radio Shropshire, and its remit 

is to cover the entire county. 

43




SLR will be a full service radio station, offering the specific locality of Shrewsbury, Oswestry, 

and the area immediately surrounding those towns, a lively, entertaining and provocative mix 

of speech and music, balanced to maximise its audience appeal, without compromising 

either programming element. 

The BBC local station, BBC Radio Shropshire, has a high speech content, but this appears 

alongside a curiously eclectic mix of music, which has no obvious focus or rationale. It is, by 

name and definition, a county-wide station aimed at the entire county of Shropshire and, in 

common with other similarly-positioned BBC local stations around England, it is programmed 

to attract an audience that is primarily aged 65+. An incredible 47% of the listening hours 

generated by BBC local radio are from the 65 plus demographic. (Source Rajar Q2 2005). 

What BBC Radio Shropshire listeners receive and accept in the absence of an alternative is 

county-wide coverage, when what they seek is a much more precise consideration of what is 

happening on their doorstep. Our focus group study showed that Shrewsbury and Oswestry 

people are loyal to their area and take a healthy interest in local issues. 

SLR will focus precisely on the interests of Shrewsbury and Oswestry. The station’s appeal 

will be much broader and younger than BBC Radio Shropshire, and it will be far more 

relevant in every way than the existing local commercial stations, Beacon FM and Classic 

Gold WABC. It will be sharply keyed into the attitudes, events and affairs of the local area, 

and it will provide a meaningful community focus for the significant local audience that 

currently regards local commercial radio as, at best, its second choice of listening. 

Research will be a continuous process for SLR, ensuring that the radio station is constantly 

in tune with what its listeners want to hear. This will be accomplished through regularly 

commissioned qualitative and quantitative market research and continual music research. 

44




NEWS 

News will play a key role in our output. It will be a core element of our speech programming. 

As mentioned previously our research confirms the paramount importance of reliable, 

informative, up-to-the minute news to local people. Moreover, while not ignoring the wider 

regional, national and international perspective, SLR news must be essentially local to the 

two towns it serves. The people who live in Shrewsbury and Oswestry have an active 

interest in what happens on their doorstep, as well as maintaining pertinent views on the 

wider world. 

They are particularly proud of and keen to preserve the quality of life that living and working 

in Shropshire provides. Clean, fresh air, coupled with beautiful and plentiful open 

countryside, are regularly cited by local people among the pluses of living in the area, as are 

both the pleasures and uncertainties provided by the meandering River Severn. 

Yet this apparently casual, largely rural backdrop should not suggest a sleepy, slow news 

environment. It is a dynamic and diverse editorial area, fuelled by a broad-based 

agricultural, industrial and commercial business community, as well as a lively social diary. 

Like many parts of the UK, the sub-regional economy has suffered a number of changes, 

some of them potentially damaging with job losses experienced in both the manufacturing 

and the service sector. Coupled with challenging times for the agriculture industry, these 

economic shifts have prompted local government and local commerce in Shropshire to 

devise a number of strategies to meet them. 

Local authorities and business, working in partnership have created initiatives to take their 

area forward, and SLR will report keenly on the progress made as well as playing a part itself 

as a local company contributing to the local economy. 

It is encouraging to note how small businesses thrive in Shrewsbury and Oswestry. SLR will 

be a small business itself and it will report on and engage with its counterparts as both 

advertisers and companies active in the area with stories to tell. 

Through the day, SLR’s news and information will provide the foundations and the 

supporting structure of a programme schedule that listeners will find both stimulating and 

entertaining. It will be fun without being trivial, but serious when it needs to be, balancing 

lightness of touch with consistent credibility. 

Two extended news bulletins – one at lunchtime, the other during afternoon drive time – will 

present a comprehensive round up of the day’s news and allow for the considered 

examination of one or two major local issues. While news bulletins throughout peak daytime 

hours will each run at 3 minutes duration, the 08.00 bulletin in the weekday breakfast show 

will extend to 5 minutes, playing a major role in that programme’s agenda-setting function. 

The first locally presented bulletin of the day will air at 07.00. With a relatively short journey 

to work for most people, the demand for local news earlier than this is quite low. A first 

bulletin at 07.00 will also allow SLR to apply its news resources appropriately within the 

hours required by our audience and it will give us an advantage by breaking news stories at 

that critical hour, giving us a clear lead with the largest potential audience of the day. 

This is typical of the importance SLR will place on news management. With a necessarily 

tightly run staffing complement, news management will be a vital aspect of the station’s 

operation. Too often, radio stations dispense with a news story after it has been read two or 

three times, without considering who has heard it and whether it should be revived for a 

fresh audience later in the day. Similarly, the quick grab, sound-bite culture that broadcast 

news has developed often leaves the listener with only a hastily presented tit-bit of 

information, with barely any explanation or reasoning. 

45




Therefore, SLR will treat one or two major stories each day differently to others and they will 

be the subject of an extended interview or feature. As well as providing shorter clips for 

general bulletins, the extended interview will be featured at up to 60-seconds duration in the 

ten-minute extended lunchtime bulletin and at up to 90-seconds in the fifteen-minute 

extended drivetime news. The inclusion of these feature interviews will be trailed through 

the day in other news bulletins as well as programmes. We will have a policy of breaking 

from programming for important local news alerts such as flood warnings. 

Thus, the debate over demands for a new walkway at Shrewsbury Castle, and the planned 

closure of Age Concern’s St Martin’s Day Centre in Oswestry will be given fair and proper 

air-time, with the listener offered a greater understanding of the issues involved than is 

currently provided by local commercial radio. 

Tom Craig, the father of the “new” James Bond, actor Daniel Craig, lives near Oswestry and 

will provide reaction and insight to his son’s 007 debut. The impact of the threatened bird flu 

pandemic on the wild bird food supplier, Garden Bird Supplies Ltd, based at Wem near 

Shrewsbury, will be closely monitored. 

NEWS: locally presented mix of local, national & world stories 

Mon – Fri Sat Sun 

0700 3 min 3 min 

0730 2 min headlines & sport 

0800 5 min 3 min 3 min 


0900 3 min 3 min 3 min 

0930 1 min headlines 

1000 3 min 2 min 2 min 

1100 3 min 2 min 2 min 

1200 3 min 2 min 2 min 

1300 10 min 

1400 3 min 

1500 3 min 

1600 3 min 


1700 15 min 


1800 3 min 

IRN national/world news hourly throughout remainder of day and night. 

46




PROGRAMME SCHEDULE 

The breakfast show will set the daily agenda for Shrewsbury and Oswestry. It will appeal to 

those busy and on the move, with news and feature content complementing essential 

information, such as travel news, weather, time-checks and sports updates. Set in the 

context of the show’s music, competitions and listener involvement, it will shape the day for 

35 to 64 year olds across the area, with listeners’ calls, texts and e-mails invited to provide 

comment and reaction to the issues of the day. 

The post-breakfast sequence will follow the lively, listener and issue-driven breakfast show 

with three hours of quality music, offered side-by-side with a mid-morning brainteaser 

competition and regular features from lifestyle and relationships experts. It will not be a case 

of "..It’s Monday, so it must be the gardener..." but rather they will be invited to appear 

relative to the issues of the day or the topicality of their subject. SLR will also seek, where 

possible, to identify local personalities and characters to provide these guest expert 

contributions, thus adding important local life and vigour to the output. Listeners’ calls will 

again be an integral part of the content, with callers invited to contribute to the discussion 

and often to challenge some of the assumptions made and attitudes taken by the expert 

guests. 

The lunchtime news update, running at up to ten minutes duration each weekday, will see 

the focus return to key local issues that are clearly of interest to the target audience. 

From mid-day to mid-afternoon, music will again be the key programme element. In the early 

afternoon, the programme will reflect the leisure and cultural aspects of the area, and will 

include interviews with local personalities such as the colourful and outspoken local 

landowner and wildlife expert Sir Michael Leighton. Celebrity guests, including actors and 

other entertainers appearing at local venues, such as the Shrewsbury Music Hall and 

eventually, the planned “New Entertainment Venue” in Shrewsbury, as it is currently called, 

will also appear from time to time. 

Writing in The Guardian in April 2004, Michael Billington said: 

“Shrewsbury, a naturally dramatic town encircled by the River 

Severn, has its place in theatrical history. Master Betty - a child 

prodigy for whom Pitt adjourned the House of Commons so that 

MPs could attend his Hamlet - was born there in 1791. George 

Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer is set against Shrewsbury's brick 

Georgian buildings. Henry IV part one climaxes in Harry Hotspur's 

defeat at the Battle of Shrewsbury. And memories of a recent 

production of Shakespeare's history play haunt the town's 

theatrical life.” 

It is a history and on-going cultural experience that SLR will tap into, by reporting on 

productions at Shrewsbury’s Gateway Arts Centre, the Attfield Theatre in the Guildhall at 

Oswestry and performances by groups such as the Oswestry Musical Theatre Company and 

the Shrewsbury Amateur Operatic Society. 

As drivetime nears, the accent will be on entertainment and information for those on their 

journeys home. The second extended weekday bulletin of around fifteen minutes at 17.00, 

will cover the key stories of the day and provide a considered report on at least one. Then, 

as the working day unwinds, the pace and issue-focused nature of the breakfast show 

returns as SLR delivers an informed and entertaining end to daytime programming with 

news, weather, sports and traffic bulletins scheduled throughout. 

47




Evening and weekend programmes will include the opportunity for more specialist and 

specific programming, with such diverse interests as sports, arts and specialist music genres 

catered for, including a spotlight on the thriving local music scene. 

The name of Charles Darwin resonates round Shrewsbury, but so, too, does that of the late 

radio presenter John Peel. Darwin and Peel, under his real name John Ravenscroft, were 

both educated at Shrewsbury School, although the academic similarity ends there. Peel was 

not a gifted scholar, but he was encouraged in his passion for pop and rock music by one of 

his teachers. The support that Peel, in turn, provided for new, young musicians is keenly felt 

in this part of Shropshire. As in other parts of the SLR programme output, localness will be at 

the core when the station’s spotlight falls on local bands and solo artists. It is worth noting 

that among other former pupils of Shrewsbury School are the broadcasters Nick Hancock, 

Nick Owen and Michael Palin, suggesting a fertile breeding ground for the talent that SLR 

will be looking to recruit going forward. 

SLR will identify itself completely with the area it serves, in particular by reflecting and 

covering in its programmes and news bulletins the major festivals and special events that 

underpin local culture. The annual Darwin Festival, the Shrewsbury Summer Season, the 

Shrewsbury Folk Festival, the Oswestry Show and the world famous Shrewsbury Flower 

Show will all be featured. The Oswestry Food and Craft Festivals held in May and December 

each year will be reported on, and in 2006, the UK Ukulele Festival will be held at Oswestry 

School and will make for colourful and diverse listening. 

The annual events and festivals will also see participation from SLR, as the radio station 

becomes part of the local fabric. 

PROGRAMME SCHEDULE 

N.B.: All programme titles are working titles, as is SLR as the name of the station. 

Individual programmes, other than the two news updates, will be named after the presenters 

hosting them. 

Monday-Friday: 

00.00: Through The Night 

(Following the midnight news) non-stop music for the late and early hours 

06.00: SLR Breakfast Show 

News, music and talk entertainment to provide a lively and dynamic start to the day, 

featuring the big stories and issues of the day from the local area, across the UK, and 

the rest of the world. Plus regular news and sports bulletins, travel updates, weather 

and business news. Hourly news bulletins will be complemented by headlines at 

08.30, 07.30 & 09.30. Audience participation will be a key element through 

competitions, phone calls, texts and e-mails. 

09.30: SLR Daytime 

Through the morning and into the afternoon, quality music, competitions and a daily 

feature with a guest, including experts who can advise on such diverse issues as 

parenting, retirement, holidays, health & fitness, and caring for pets. Listeners’ phone 

call, texts and e-mails will add to the discussion and challenge some of the 

assumptions and answers given. Plus regular news, weather and travel updates. 

48




13.00: Lunchtime Update 

10 minutes of local, national and world news 

13.10: SLR In The Afternoon 

The afternoon moves on with music to the fore until 14.30 when a featured guest – a 

local personality or, occasionally, a visiting celebrity, joins the show. A relaxing feel 

continues until 16.00 when the afternoon moves towards drivetime and regular travel, 

weather, business and sports updates come to the fore, alongside listener reaction 

and comment on the day’s headlines. With news bulletins on the hour plus headlines 

and sport at 16.30. 

17.00: Drivetime Update 

15 minutes of local, national and world news 

17.15: SLR Evening 

News, music and talk entertainment to provide an informed end to the working day; 

with sports news, weather checks, travel bulletins and listener reaction. Hourly news 

bulletins, with headlines and sport at 17.30, plus what’s happening in the area 

tonight, from who’s speaking at that night’s local black-tie dinner to what’s on at the 

cinema and local theatres, a guide to the area’s best restaurants and a chance to 

check out the best DVD’s, CD’s and downloads. 

20.00 (-midnight): Eight Till Late 

Specialist music, sports coverage and news of local arts and local music makers 

through the evening, with music and chat up to midnight. 

00.00: Through The Night 

(As above), following the midnight news – non-stop music till 06.00 

49



5. Proposed Format 

A blank Format is attached at Appendix 3. Fill it in, ensuring that each of the following criteria are 

addressed within, where it is felt appropriate to do so. It should follow the style of Ofcom Formats, 

which can be viewed at www.ofcom.org.uk/static/radiolicensing/amfm/analogue-main. Reasons for 

omission of any particular criteria (and it is accepted that not all criteria will be relevant to all 

applications) should be set out separately. The Format will form part of the licence. Therefore, 

questions of clarification may be asked prior to licence award and the wording amended to reflect 

this, if necessary. 

(a) Station Name (working titles accepted) 

(b) Service Duration. This is the number of hours you will broadcast each day. It should 

also include the number of hours of locally-made programming (i.e. programming 

made within the licence area) promised and, if appropriate, the extent to which you 

plan to automate programming. 

(c) Character of Service. This is a clear, one or two sentence, description of the output 

and target audience. 

(d) Detail. This should address, where appropriate: 

• A clear description of the type/range of music 

• Specialist music programmes 

• A level of speech content (peak/non-peak) 

• Any specific plans for local material 

• News obligations, local and national (weekdays and weekends, peak-time, nonpeak, 

etc) 

• Other character-defining elements of programming 

The proposed format for Shrewsbury Local Radio is detailed on the next page. 

50



5. Proposed Format 

Licence Outline 

SHREWSBURY LOCAL RADIO STATION FORMAT 

Station Name SHREWSBURY LOCAL RADIO (Working Name) 

Licence Area Shrewsbury and Oswestry (as defined in Ofcom’s Measured Coverage Area 

map) 

Frequency TBA 

Service Duration 24 hours a day (all locally produced/presented) 

Definitions 

Speech “Speech” excludes advertising, programme/promotional trails & sponsor 

credits, and may be calculated across daytime on non-daytime. 

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 

Locally 

produced/presented 

Character of Service 

Details 

to 1400. 

Production and presentation from within the licence area. All requirements 

for locally produced/presented output must include peaktime. 

A lively, full service local radio station for 35 to 64 year olds, focused on 

Shrewsbury, Oswestry and the surrounding areas, playing a wide range of popular 

hits from the last 40 years with local news, information and interviews forming an 

essential part of the output. 

Speech content will not fall below 25% during daytime hours, 15% outside of these times, 

and will include local news, sport, community information, weather and travel news, 

entertainment and what’s on information. 

News will be broadcast at least hourly, with locally produced and presented bulletins from 

0700 to 1800 on weekdays, (including two extended bulletins), 0700 to 1200 on Saturday 

and 0800 to 1300 on Sunday. Regular updates of weather, travel and what’s on information 

of particular appeal to Shrewsbury and Oswestry will be broadcast from 0600 to 2200 every 

day. 

Speech will feature significantly within the output, focusing on issues, events and activities 

relevant to Shrewsbury and Oswestry, including studio discussions, interviews, phone-ins and 

short features. Sports coverage will play a key role in the output, with daily bulletins and 

sports programmes scheduled according to the appropriate season and fixture dates. 

Music will comprise a wide range of popular hit songs ranging from the 60s to the present 

day. 

During non-daytime output, specialist music programming complementing the main mix may 

be scheduled. 

Automation will be limited to a maximum of 2200-0600 daily, and all programming will be 

produced and presented locally. 

51

Section 105 (D): Evidence of Local Demand or Support 

6. Evidence of Demand 

This section should provide an analysis of the reasons as to why it is considered that there is a 

demand for the type of service proposed, with a reference to the size and nature of the proposed 

target audience. If original market research has been undertaken, please provide the following 

information for each piece of research: 

(i) A statement of the key objectives of the research 

(ii) The specific questions that the research sought to answer 

(iii) How the research was conducted 

(iv) The size and composition of the sample(s) 

(v) When and where the research was conducted 

(vi) A summary of the main findings from the research, showing how these demonstrate 

evidence of demand for the service proposed. 

(vii) Full data tables for any quantitative research undertaken (these may be submitted in 

confidence). 

Please provide your responses to (i) – (v) in tabular format. 

The Board of Shrewsbury Local Radio commissioned a series of market research projects in 

order to understand the local media market as much as possible and to inform its proposals. 

The information gleaned from the results has made the Board confident that its plans for a 

new local radio station will be warmly welcomed both by listeners and advertisers in 

Shrewsbury and Oswestry. 

The key points from the research are: 

THE MARKET 

• Total radio listening has fallen from 88% to 84% reach during the last five years; 

• Commercial radio’s share of listening has fallen from 51% to 49% during the last five 

years; 

• Local (not regional) commercial radio’s share of listening has fallen from 31% to 18% 

during the last five years; 

• Beacon FM’s share of listening has fallen from 12% to 9% during the last five years; 

• Classic Gold WABC’s share of listening has fallen from 4% to 1% over the last five 

years; 

• BBC Radio Shropshire currently achieves an 18% share of listening within its survey 

area (substantially more than Beacon FM and Classic Gold WABC combined within 

their survey areas). 

TASTES & INTERESTS 

• The main sources of information about local news and events are paid-for local 

newspapers (57%) and free local newspapers (28%), more so than local radio (39%); 

• The greatest demand from potential listeners within the target 35 to 64 year old age 

group to a new local radio station is for: 

News (85%); 

Music (84%); 

Weather (78%); 

Information on local events (74%); 

Traffic and travel news (72%). 

52



• The target audience of 35 to 64 year olds said that, on a new local radio station, they 

want to hear about issues from: 

Shropshire (73%); 

Their town (70%); 

Their local neighbourhood (51%). 

TRIAL BROADCAST 

• 28% of those sampled were aware of Shrewsbury Local Radio, and 14% had listened 

to the trial broadcast; 

• Of those who heard the trial broadcast, there was significant approval of: 

The music (83% said it was “very good” or “good”) 

The news and information (81%) 

• The local content (79%) 

• The music/speech mix (76%); 

• 60% of the target audience aged 35-64 said they would be “very likely” or “likely” to 

listen to a permanent version of the trial broadcast. 

EVIDENCE OF DEMAND 

• Offered a specific description of the proposed station: 

“A local radio station focused specifically on Shrewsbury, Oswestry and the 

immediately surrounding area with: 

well-known, familiar hit songs from the 1960s to the present day 

presenters who know and understand the area 

hourly local news bulletins during daytime 

regular local weather, travel, entertainment and what’s on information 

community information and daily interviews or features involving local people 

lively, entertaining chat 

regular publicity for community organisations and their events” 

• Qualitative research [Research Project #3] found that the majority of focus group 

participants welcomed the description and said they would listen to a station of this 

description; 

• Quantitative research [Research Project #5] found that the proportion of listeners who 

said they would be “very interested” or “interested” in listening to a station of this 

specific description was: 

94% of the target audience of 35-64 year olds; 

93% of 35-44 year olds; 

94% of 45-54 year olds; 

94% of 55-64 year olds. 

EVIDENCE OF ADVERTISER SUPPORT 

• 52% of businesses said they would be “very likely” or “quite likely” to advertise their 

business on a new local radio station of the description given to them; 

• 56% of businesses said they would be more likely to advertise on a new local radio 

station if it was able to offer them advice on effective radio advertising. 

The results of each successive piece of research assisted the Board in shaping its proposals 

for the new radio station, ensuring that it will provide appropriate programming to a receptive 

audience and appropriate opportunities for local advertisers. 

53



The research projects are itemised below and have been referred to by number throughout 

this application: 

RESEARCH PROJECT #1 

(i) Key objectives: 

• To establish listening levels to the Shrewsbury Local Radio Restricted Service 

Licence [RSL] broadcast from 13 May to 31 May 2005; 

• To determine the likelihood of listening to a new permanent radio station. 

(ii) Specific questions asked: 

• Radio stations listened to during the last seven days; 

• Awareness of, and listening to, the RSL broadcast; 

• Appreciation of programming elements within the RSL broadcast; 

• Likelihood to listen to a permanent local radio station. 

(iii) How research conducted: 

• Quantitative research commissioned from Marketing In Practice research 

specialists. 

(iv) Size and composition of sample: 

• Telephone survey of 503 adults (aged 15+) living within the RSL transmission 

area, randomly selected from residential numbers; 

• Quotas applied to ensure the sample reflected the population profile by age and 

sex. 

(v) Dates and location of research: 

• Fieldwork conducted between 31 May and 4 June 2005; 

• Within the RSL transmission area. 

(vi) Summary of main findings: 

• The highest weekly reach was recorded by: BBC Radio Shropshire (30%), BBC 

Radio Two (27%), BBC Radio One (22%) and BBC Radio Four (19%); 

• 28% of respondents were aware of Shrewsbury Local Radio; 

• 14% of respondents had listened to the Shrewsbury Local Radio trial broadcast; 

• Of those respondents who had heard the Shrewsbury Local Radio trial 

broadcast, 83% said the music was “very good” or good”, 81% said the news and 

information was “very good” or “good”, 79% said the local content was “very 

good” or “good”, and 76% said the music/speech mix was “very good” or “good; 

• 60% of respondents said they would be “very likely” or “likely” to listen to a 

permanent version of the Shrewsbury Local Radio trial broadcast. 

(vii) Full data tables 

• Full research report submitted as Appendix 5 



• To analyse radio listening habits within the market over the last five years. 


• Analysis of RAJAR data from 2000 to 2005 for stations audible within the Beacon 

FM survey area. 

54




• Quantitative research commissioned from Radio Development International 

research specialists. 


• RAJAR data from six consecutive annual sample points – Quarter 2 in 2000, 

2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. 


• September 2005; 

• Desk research. 


• Trends from 2000 to 2005 [data indexed for population and TSA changes] within 

the Beacon FM TSA: 

• All radio – reach down from 88% to 84%, hours down 17%; 

• Commercial radio – hours down 20%, share down from 51% to 49%; 

• Local/regional commercial radio – hours down 24%, share down from 43% to 

40%; 

• Local (not regional) commercial radio – hours down 50%; share down from 31% 

to 18%; 

• Beacon FM – hours down 41%, share down from 12% to 9%; 

• Classic Gold WABC – hours down 78%, share down from 4% to 1%; 

• BBC Radio – hours down 13%, share up from 47% to 50%; 

• BBC Radio Two – hours down 2%, share up from 12% to 14%; 

• BBC Radio holds four of the seven top ranked stations; 

• Beacon FM is ranked fourth in the market, compared to second five years ago; 

• Classic Gold WABC is ranked fifteenth in the market, compared to eighth five 

years ago; 

• BBC Radio Two is ranked first in the market, compared to fourth five years ago. 





• Current radio listening behaviour; 

• Reactions to existing radio stations; 

• Perceptions of “localness”; 

• Content required from a new local radio station; 

• Type of listener interaction with station preferred by listeners; 

• Reactions to description of new station; 

• To determine the propensity to listen to a new local radio station. 


• Current radio listening patterns; 

• Attitudes to radio stations; 

• Perceptions of “localness”; 

• Description of the “perfect” radio station; 

• Preferences for music, news and other speech items; 

• Styles of presenters preferred; 

55



• Likelihood to listen to a new local radio station of this specific description: 

“A local radio station focused specifically on Shrewsbury, Oswestry and 

the immediately surrounding area with: 

well-known, familiar hit songs from the 1960s to the present day 

presenters who know and understand the area 

hourly local news bulletins during daytime 

regular local weather, travel, entertainment and what’s on information 

community information and daily interviews or features involving local 

people 

lively, entertaining chat 

regular publicity for community organisations and their events” 


• Qualitative research commissioned from Matters Of Fact research specialists. 


• Two focus groups, one male and the other female, each of which: 

comprised 9 to 10 respondents; 

included all social grades; 

at least 50% listened to the radio daily; 

at least 50% listened to local commercial radio at least several times 

per week; 

none to reject listening to local commercial radio. 


• The evening of 31 August 2005 and 1 September 2005; 

• The Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury. 


• Participants exhibited a high level of switching between stations or promiscuity; 

• BBC stations were the “gold standard” of radio because of better presenters, 

better music and a better balance of music/chat with more interesting 

programmes; 

• Local newspapers were a major source of local information; 

• Local stations were thought to have poorer presenters and too much inane 

chatter; 

• National radio was thought to be more professional, and adverts were a major 

irritant in local radio; 

• Beacon FM was thought to be parochial, with poor presenters, poor quality 

programmes and too many repetitive adverts; 

• Shropshire residents were loyal to their area and took a healthy interest in local 

issues; 

• A new local radio station should ensure it has: better presenters, less (or better 

scheduled) adverts, a good variety of music, more local information and better 

programme production; 

• Local news should be presented in a professional, serious tone and cover 

Shropshire rather than the Midlands; 

• Travel information is one of the main reasons for listening to local radio, 

particularly to and from work; 

• Interviews are enjoyed, particularly with interesting people living in or visiting the 

area; 

56



• Special features should be kept to a minimum so as not to overcrowd the station 

output; 

• E-mail and text messages were considered the best ways to contact the radio 

station; 

• Local stations should take an active role in local events and charities; 

• A local accent for presenter is not important as good local knowledge; 

• Reactions to the station description were positive and in line with respondents’ 

expectations. 





• To analyse the content of existing local commercial radio stations audible in the 

Shrewsbury market. 


• Analysis of output of Beacon FM and Classic Gold WABC. 


• Quantitative research commissioned from Matters Of Fact research specialists. 


• The output of the relevant stations on one weekday 0600 to 1800. 


• Wednesday 14 September 2005; 



• Beacon FM daytime output: 

34% average speech content; 

59% of songs played were from the 2000s; 




78% of songs played were post-1990; 

local news accounted for 40% of total news output; 

40% of commercials were local advertisers. 

• Classic Gold WABC daytime output: 

33% average speech content; 





29% of songs played were from the 1950s/1960s; 

59% of songs played were pre-1980; 

local news accounted for 54% of total news output; 

45% of commercials were local advertisers. 

57




• Full research report submitted as Appendixes 8 and 9 



• To ascertain existing radio listening habits; 

• To examine perceptions of existing local radio stations; 

• To determine the importance of various programmes and features for a new local 

radio station; 

• Likelihood to listen to a new local radio station of a specific given description. 


• Place, frequency and time spent listening to radio; 

• Radio stations listened to; 

• Favourite station overall, for music, and for talk; 

• Source of local information; 

• Interest in various speech radio elements; 

• Importance of various speech elements in local station; 

• Frequency of various speech elements on local station; 

• Likelihood to listen to a new local radio station of this specific description: 

“The new station is aimed at a broad range of listeners, but will specifically target the 

35 to 55 age range. It will play well known, familiar hit songs from the 1960s to the 

present day and will have a local emphasis in terms of the presenters, news, weather, 

travel, entertainment and community information”. 




• Telephone survey of 400 adults (aged 16+) living in Shrewsbury or Oswestry 

who listen to the radio; 

• Sample re-weighted by age and gender to accurately reflect demographic 

composition of adult population in Shrewsbury and Oswestry. 


• Fieldwork conducted during August 2005; 

• Sample restricted to Shrewsbury and Oswestry. 


• Amongst the entire sample, the most popular radio stations listened to were BBC 

Radio Shropshire (36%), Beacon FM (34%), BBC Radio One (32%), BBC Radio 

Two (25%) and BBC Radio Four (17%); 

• Amongst the target 35 to 64 year old audience, the most popular stations were 

BBC Radio Shropshire (38%), Beacon FM (36%), BBC Radio Two (27%), BBC 

Radio One (23%) and BBC Radio Four (17%); 

• Amongst the target 35 to 64 year old audience, the stations considered to have 

the best talk programmes were BBC Radio Shropshire (22%), BBC Radio Two 

(20%), BBC Radio Four (19%) and BBC Radio Five Live (15%); 

58



• Asked what they listened to on the radio, the target audience of 35 to 64 year 

olds said music (81%), news (68%), weather (49%), traffic information (39%) and 

a specific regular programme (36%); 

• Amongst the target 35 to 64 year old audience, the main source of local news 

and events was paid-for local newspapers (57%), local radio (39%) and free local 

newspapers (28%); 

• The target 35 to 64 year old audience wanted these programme elements on a 

local radio station – news (85%), music (84%), weather (78%), information on 

local events (74%) and travel information (72%); 

• The target 35 to 64 year old audience would like to hear about issues from – 

Shropshire (73%), their town (70%), their local neighbourhood (65%), the UK 

(65%) and neighbouring towns (51%); 

• 60% of 35 to 64 year olds wanted to hear news every hour throughout the day; 

• Asked about travel information, 78% of 35 to 64 year olds wanted to hear 

information about local roads, 75% about road closures, and 63% about the main 

routes to motorways; 

• 90% of 35 to 64 year olds said it was important for local radio to be present at 

local events; 

• 94% of 35 to 64 year olds said a local radio station should support local charities 

and businesses; 

• 72% of 35 to 64 year olds said that if talk items of local interest were included in 

a local station’s programming, they would be more likely to listen to it than their 

current favourite station; 

• Given a specific description of the new radio station [see above], 94% of 35 to 64 

year olds said they would be “very interested” or “interested” in listening 

(including 93% of 35 to 44 year olds, 94% of 45 to 54 year olds and 94% of 55 to 

64 year olds). 





• To determine the propensity of local businesses to advertise on the new local 

radio station. 


• Advertising used by business in previous year; 

• Annual budget for advertising; 

• Reasons for using different media; 

• Experiences of radio advertising; 

• Expectations of new local radio station; 

• Acceptable price for advertising package; 

• Interest in sponsorship opportunities; 

• Factors that would encourage advertisers. 


• Qualitative research commissioned from Matters Of Fact research specialists. 

59




• Eleven face-to-face and telephone in-depth interviews with businesses located in 

Shrewsbury or Oswestry who have advertised commercially during the last year 

and would not reject radio advertising. 


• 31 August to 6 September 2005; 

• Shrewsbury and Oswestry. 


• The most popular forms of advertising were: Yellow Pages (8 mentions), local 

newspaper display advertising (7), paid advertising in magazines & directories (6) 

and radio (4); 

• Annual advertising budgets varied from £400 to £96,000; 

• Local press display advertising was considered to be the most effective medium 

because of the immediate response; 

• Radio advertising suffered poor repeat business and poor retention of clients; 

• Radio advertising was considered less effective because of the difficulty in 

measuring the response; 

• High repetition rates of commercials was an issue, as was poor follow-up service 

of stations; 

• Businesses expected a new local station to have a broader playlist, a broader 

audience, be more diverse and more community-based; 

• Businesses’ main demand from a new station was for good listening figures; 

• Advice on how to measure the effect of advertising (or similar measurement tool) 

would be appreciated from the station; 

• Businesses found it difficult to suggest an acceptable price for an advertising 

package, but felt it should be less costly than Beacon FM; 

• A broad target audience aged 25+ was considered acceptable for a new local 

station; 

• Sponsorship opportunities were considered important; 

• Businesses felt that radio was not marketed well enough and that advice to 

advertisers was needed at the outset of a campaign but also afterwards with 

follow-up. 





• To analyse key trends of population data and economic data for the Shrewsbury 

area. 


• Analysis of current population; 

• Analysis of population projections; 

• Analysis of employment trends; 

• Analysis of employment projections; 

• Analysis of categories of employment; 

• Analysis of average incomes. 

60






• The Census 2001 and Statistics Office data. 


• September 2005; 



• Findings displayed with tables and graphs in attached research report. 





• To determine the propensity of local businesses to advertise on the new local 

radio station. 


• Estimated annual spend on advertising; 

• Advertising methods used; 

• Satisfaction with radio advertising campaigns; 

• Likelihood to advertise on a new local radio station; 

• Acceptability of costs for radio advertising campaign. 




• Telephone survey of 50 local businesses in Shrewsbury and Oswestry, randomly 

selected from a commercial database, specifically interviewing the executive 

responsible for advertising decisions within each company. 


• August 2005; 

• Within the proposed station’s transmission area. 


• 84% of businesses advertised locally in the last year; 

• More than half the businesses spent less than £5,000 per annum on advertising; 

• 71% of businesses had advertised in Yellow Pages, 62% newspaper display 

advertising, 55% direct mail, 55% magazines, 52% newspaper classified 

advertising, 31% posters and 24% radio; 

• Of those businesses who had used radio, 56% were quite satisfied with the 

outcome of their campaign, 33% were not very satisfied and 11% were not at all 

satisfied; 

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• 52% of businesses said they would be “very likely” or “quite likely” to advertise 

their business on a new local radio station of the description given to them; 

• 56% of businesses said they would be more likely to advertise on a new local 

radio station if it was able to offer them advice on effective radio advertising. 



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7. Evidence of Support 

This section should provide evidence of support, where appropriate, from the applicant's potential 

audience or from prospective local advertisers. 

Shrewsbury Local Radio’s steadfast belief is that any successful small-scale radio station 

needs to engage local people by providing compelling, relevant programming, reflecting – 

and being an active part of – everyday local life and, most importantly, involving local 

people in its output. From the outset, therefore, we have sought to do just this by undertaking 

an exhaustive programme of meetings, consultations, presentations and trial broadcasts. 

Our aim was to nurture what will become a solid, long-term, two-way relationship between 

Shrewsbury Local Radio and the people of the towns we hope to serve. Over the months we 

have sought to outline our proposals in detail to as many people as possible whilst 

encouraging feedback and suggestions along the way to help formulate the winning new 

sound for this special part of England. 

Trial Broadcast 13 th – 31 st May 2005 

Our decision to stage a trial broadcast in May 2005 was driven by two clear objectives: 

1. To allow the people of Shrewsbury to sample a ‘flavour’ of the type of locally-focused 

radio we propose to offer on a full time basis should we win the licence, and; 

2. To gauge the propensity to listen to a radio station focused on the town. 

The station was launched from specially constructed studios positioned in a highly visible 

and accessible location in the centre of Shrewsbury on Friday 13 th May and broadcast 

continuously for 19 days. We were delighted with the professionalism of the output and the 

quality of music in particular was very highly regarded by those who listened. However, it 

was the local ‘passion’ and involvement of grass roots individuals that gave the station its 

own unique character and endearing ‘Shrewsbury feel’. 

SLR 88.7FM 

Trial Broadcast – Content 

1. Music 

Because this broadcast formed a part of our formal research process we used a combination 

of market intelligence and ‘gut’ feeling to formulate a workable programming template for the 

station. The format we adopted was music-led and broad-based using a database of around 

1,500 songs, primarily classic hits. Each clock hour featured no more than three ‘current’ or 

‘recent’ songs. Music never exceeded 70% of any hour and, in daytime, we often carried as 

much as 50% speech. 

2. Editorial 

Local news and information were considered to be key weapons in the station’s audiencewinning 

arsenal. Bulletins of local news were collated on site and broadcast from 7am – 6pm 

on weekdays with weekend morning updates. Traffic news was broadcast at Breakfast and 

Drive Time and sport featured on Saturdays between 3 and 7pm. We also set out to involve 

local people in our programmes by interviewing those with a story to tell. 

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A selection of the many guests joining us during the week appears below: 

• Lezley Picton, Manager of Shrewsbury’s new multi-million pound theatre complex 

• Adam Burgan, Marketing Manager for Shrewsbury Music Hall 

• Fred Jones, Shrewsbury Branch Chairman of the Parkinson’s disease Society promoting 

a forthcoming 25 th anniversary concert. 

• Chris Eldon Lee, Director of Shrewsbury Summer Festival 

• John Simblet, Secretary of the Shrewsbury Town Centre Residents Association 

discussing the ramifications of late licensing of public houses 

• Edmund Coxhead, Partner in leading Shropshire-based legal firm providing a carefully 

produced and impartial legal advice service 

• James Thompson, Shrewsbury Summer festival, ‘science in the street’ 

• Sia Millard, British Heart Foundation. 

• Norman Porter, Organising Secretary, Friends of Royal Shrewsbury Hospital discussing 

fundraising plans 

• Leah Treherne, Phoenix Meta 4, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy. 

We were greatly encouraged by the level of support the station received from local business. 

The principal advertisers on SLR 88.7 appear below: 

• Travail Employment Agency 

• Darwin Financial Management 

• Pots and Patios 

• Bennets 

• Thermo Spas & Hot Tubs 

• Destini Financial Planning 

• Inchcape Direct Car Supermarket 

• PCB Solicitors 

• Specsavers Opticians 

• Carpets Direct 

• The Bell Inn 

• ASDA 

• Monarch Scheduled Airlines 

Conclusion 

The trial broadcast was considered to have been a wholly worthwhile experience leaving 

members of the Shrewsbury Local Radio team feeling more positive than ever about the 

viability of their dream to give the people of Shrewsbury a station they can truly call their 

own. There was a tangible air of excitement surrounding the broadcast and a real sense of 

‘closeness’ to the listener manifested in the level of response to the various competitions 

during the station’s run via the ‘phone, SMS text message and e-mail. These included a 

Breakfast Show promotion offering two return flights to any Monarch Airlines destination and 

the ‘Ultimate SLR Giveaway’ with two ‘goodie boxes’ each worth over £100. 

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Shrewsbury Local Radio Website 

A dedicated website was first published in April 2005 to coincide with the trial broadcast the 

following month. www.shrewsburylocalradio.com contains the following sections designed to 

provide prospective listeners and commercial partners with a comprehensive insight on our 

plans: 

• What’s New - Keeping visitors updated on our application process 

• About - The background to our submission 

• Full Time - How a permanent SLR will enhance local life and employ local people 

• FAQ - Answers to all the questions we have been asked over the months 

• People - Details of the key individuals driving our vision forward 

• Local Info - Our new voice on the local media scene 

• Support - An opportunity to make suggestions for the new local radio station 

• Contact - Contact details and an online form for feedback 

Meetings & Consultations 

29 th April 2005, General Introductory Meeting, Prince Rupert Hotel, Shrewsbury 

This was a general introduction to Shrewsbury Local Radio hosted by SLR Director, Nigel 

Reeve who explained the group’s philosophy and set out plans for a new local commercial 

radio station for Shrewsbury and Oswestry. 23 invited guests from all walks of local life 

attended and there was a lively discussion about the proposals. The general response was 

extremely positive which fuelled the group’s ambitions to make SLR a reality. 

Nigel stressed that SLR’s philosophy calls for a truly local independent voice for Shrewsbury 

and Oswestry and he invited potential local investors to offer their support. He explained 

what the licensing process was and the expected timescale. 

SLR’s RSL Sales Manager, Gavin Harrison then spoke further about advertising rates on the 

forthcoming RSL, expected rates for a full time station and what the process was to have an 

advert made. 

Paul Roberts followed with a brief presentation about the proposed programming policy for 

the RSL and how the licence application with be written with the benefit of several bespoke 

research studies. 

Full Minutes were taken and are available upon request. 

19 th May 2005, Emergency Services Meeting, Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury 

Members of the local Emergency Services were invited along to meet the Shrewsbury Local 

Radio team for an informal discussion to explore ways in which the proposed station may be 

able to assist during times of need. 


19 th May 2005, Charities, Societies & Clubs Meeting, Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury 

A selection of invited representatives from the main clubs and societies in the proposed 

transmission area joined the Project Director and Project Manager for a briefing on the new 

station and how they may be able to become involved with its programmes. 


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20 th May 2005, Prospective Investors Meeting, Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury 

SLR’s Chris Langmore made a presentation to those present on the merits of investing in 

SLR and agreed to distribute a prospectus out to any interested parties, all of whom present 

were. 

Some useful and very encouraging comments were made on what the attendees would like 

to hear from SLR. 

“BBC Radio Shropshire used to have a business programme which was axed 18 months a 

go. It would be excellent if you could provide local business news.” 


20 th May 2005, Business Sector Meeting, Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury 

Nigel Hinton 

Key members of the local business community joined SLR representatives for a briefing on 

the SLR vision and the plans for a new local station for Shrewsbury and Oswestry. The 

response was extremely positive and the Shrewsbury Lions representatives in particular 

were keen to register that any media help to publicise the work of themselves and local other 

charities would be very welcome. Some invitees expressed their concern over rumours that 

a rival group is wholly owned by MNA. 

“My members would listen to a local commercial radio station if it provided quality news, 

discussion and what’s on programmes.” 


3 rd June 2005, Consortium Meeting, Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury 


29 th June 2005, Consortium Meeting, Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury 


5 th August 2005, Shadow Board Meeting, Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury 


10 th August 2005, Consortium Meeting, Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury 


Tony Fitton, Shrewsbury Rotary 

15 th September 2005, Consortium Meeting, Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury 


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21 st September 2005, Business Chamber, Lord Hill Hotel, Shrewsbury 

Shrewsbury Local Radio’s senior team represented the station at a capacity gathering of 

Shrewsbury Business Chamber. This formed an ideal platform from which to set out plans 

for the station and we received a very warm response from delegates which included 

Carolyn Downs, Chief Executive of Shropshire County Council and Robin Hooper, her 

counterpart at Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council. Our pledge to provide a truly 

independent local voice was extremely well received. 

26 th September 2005, General Consultation, Wynnstay Hotel, Oswestry 

This was perhaps the warmest welcome the SLR team received in the consultation process. 

There was a distinct feeling expressed by those present that the town had never truly been 

served by local radio over the years. SLR agreed to take on board a suggestion that the 

station should maintain a dedicated contribution studio in the town. Full Minutes were taken 

and are available upon request. 

27 th September 2005, General Consultation, Lord Hill Hotel, Shrewsbury 

During this final consultation meeting SLR’s senior representatives gave a progress update 

on the licence application process. Invitees asked numerous questions about SLR and, once 

again, the team was encouraged by the apparent support for their proposals to bring local 

radio to Shrewsbury and Oswestry. Full Minutes were taken and are available upon request. 

3 rd November 2005, SLR Board Meeting, The Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury 

A final meeting of the Board prior to submission of the licence application. Members perused 

the application document and agreed that it represented their ambitions well. 

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8. Declaration 

Applicants are required to conclude their submission by responding to the following question: 

Do you confirm that, to the best of your knowledge and belief: 

(i) the applicant 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? 

Applicants should note that Ofcom reserves the right to revoke a licence if at any time any material 

statement made is found to be false and to have been made by the applicant or any member or 

officer thereof knowing it to be false, and that in the circumstances of section 144 of the 

Broadcasting Act 1996, the provision of false information or the withholding of relevant information 

with the intention of misleading Ofcom could incur a criminal conviction and a disqualification from 

the holding of a licence. 

The Board of Shrewsbury Local Radio Limited confirms that, to the best of our 

knowledge and belief, all of the conditions listed in this declaration are met, and will 

continue to be met for the full duration of the licence. 

Alan Mullett 

Chairman 

Shrewsbury Local Radio Limited 

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SLR - Ofcom Licensing

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