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Section 105 (A): Ability to maintain proposed service<br />
<strong>Rother</strong>ham needs to work hard to establish its own identity, a challenge the local authority<br />
has taken up, and one that the Lincs <strong>FM</strong> Group is keen to support and enable.<br />
The Group has been working in Yorkshire for more than ten years and is uniquely well-placed<br />
to attract, maintain and grow local, regional and national revenue on a <strong>Rother</strong>ham station,<br />
even in advance of RAJAR figures becoming available. <strong>Rother</strong> <strong>FM</strong> will have immediate<br />
access to national revenue. Our national sales house First Radio Sales already offers a<br />
Yorkshire Group consisting of Trax <strong>FM</strong> (Bassetlaw and Doncaster), Dearne <strong>FM</strong> (Barnsley)<br />
and Ridings <strong>FM</strong> (Wakefield), a potential 15+ population of 799,000. <strong>Rother</strong> <strong>FM</strong> would be<br />
added to this grouping immediately. Additionally, there are already regional sales executives<br />
working for our Group dealing with businesses such as the motor trade. Furthermore, sales<br />
executives working in Barnsley and Doncaster already sell advertising to a number of<br />
<strong>Rother</strong>ham businesses who are keen to attract customers from outside the borough.<br />
Since our trial service in May we have continued to build our relationships with all sectors of<br />
business and business support agencies in <strong>Rother</strong>ham – such as our sponsorship of an<br />
award at the <strong>Rother</strong>ham Chamber Business Awards. This has helped keep the <strong>Rother</strong> <strong>FM</strong><br />
name planted firmly at the heart of the community. We believe that for <strong>Rother</strong> <strong>FM</strong> the<br />
traditional “bedding-in” period at the start of a new station’s life, when revenue can be hard to<br />
come by, will be limited or even non-existent. We will have a flying start, as the Group did<br />
with Dearne <strong>FM</strong>.<br />
We know from experience that regional and local advertising sales in this part of the world<br />
depend less upon RAJAR figures and more on reputation and word of mouth. Because we<br />
can point to the success of Lincs <strong>FM</strong> Group stations in similar marketplaces, advertisers will<br />
be able to place great confidence in our audience projections. In fact a number of <strong>Rother</strong>ham<br />
businesses, or advertisers with branches in <strong>Rother</strong>ham, have already indicated that they are<br />
interested in advertising on <strong>Rother</strong> <strong>FM</strong>. Please see our answer to Question 7. Evidence of<br />
Support for further details.<br />
When it comes to establishing and maintaining successful new stations in the crowded South<br />
Yorkshire marketplace, no group has more relevant experience than <strong>Rother</strong> <strong>FM</strong>’s parent<br />
company. Trax <strong>FM</strong> launched in Doncaster with a year one reach of 24%, in a marketplace<br />
that included the heritage station Hallam <strong>FM</strong> and the very successful regional service Galaxy<br />
105. When Dearne <strong>FM</strong> launched in 2003 the marketplace had become more crowded due to<br />
Real Radio’s launch, but nonetheless Dearne <strong>FM</strong> achieved an impressive year one reach of<br />
28%. Trax <strong>FM</strong>’s reach currently stands at 28% and Dearne <strong>FM</strong>’s at 30%. These figures have<br />
been achieved without significant cost to the heritage ILR for South Yorkshire, Hallam <strong>FM</strong>,<br />
which has the highest reach of any of EMAP’s Big City network of stations at 32%.*<br />
*RAJAR/IPSOS Media September 2005<br />
The success of Trax <strong>FM</strong> and Dearne <strong>FM</strong> (and we hope of <strong>Rother</strong> <strong>FM</strong> in the future) is due to<br />
the Group’s commitment to genuine localness and the support offered by a strong yet flexible<br />
parent company: there is sensible use of Group facilities and expertise, combined with real<br />
local decision-making. A launch Managing Director will be appointed soon after the licence<br />
award and is expected to remain in place until six months after <strong>Rother</strong> <strong>FM</strong>’s launch.<br />
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