Rother FM - Ofcom Licensing

Target audience
Section 105 (B) and (C): Catering for tastes and interests/broadening choice
The 2001 Census shows the population of Rotherham to be 248,176, a 2.2% reduction from
the previous census in 1991 (in contrast, the population of the UK as a whole increased by
2.4%). While the age profile of the borough is generally similar to that of the UK as a whole,
the number within the age group 20-29 is smaller than average (11.0% compared to 12.6%
nationally). Children under 16 account for a slightly higher percentage of the population than
people over 60. However the mean average age of Rotherham’s population (38.6) is very
close to that of England and Wales as a whole (38.7).
Although it’s centred on a large industrial town, about three-quarters of the area is rural.
Ethnic minorities account for 3.1% of the borough’s population, with the largest group – 1.9%
of the total population – being of Pakistani origin.
Rother FM plans to target as broad an audience as possible, with geography rather than
demographics being the key to our appeal. Our core target audience will be 25-54. However,
we believe that our strong local focus will, in due course, appeal to significant numbers of
people both younger and older than that, attracted by our local news and information and our
broad mix of music. We believe the 55-64 age group will soon become an important part of
our listenership (as they have at Trax FM), and will be a significant secondary target
audience. Rother FM also plans to be a popular choice for family listening – parents and
children together, attracted by a positive, “family values” approach and a number of features
of particular interest to children.
Editorially, we plan to cover the whole of the Rotherham Metropolitan Borough; our
experience with other stations in the Group is that interest in local news and events is of
sufficient appeal to attract listeners in outlying areas even if the transmission strength is
comparatively weak. Once the transmitter is on, we will analyse the comparative strength of
Rother FM and Trax FM Bassetlaw in the south-east of Rotherham – in and around the
Dinnington and Anston areas. We will certainly continue to include this area editorially on
Rother FM, but if Trax FM can be heard more clearly, we will make sure that we also offer
coverage on Trax FM. Wath-upon-Dearne is in Dearne FM’s TSA despite being in the
Rotherham Borough. We plan to offer editorial coverage of this area on both stations,
allowing local residents to choose to listen to whichever station they prefer.
Music
Music forms the background to Rother FM’s programming, and is designed to be of strong
appeal to as broad an age range as possible; and to encourage long listening hours with its
sense of variety and surprise. The music output will be a mix of melodic hits from the 1960s
to the present day, as outlined in our draft format (Question 5). This blend of music has
proved successful on the Group’s other stations, and was tested on both our two-week RSL in
May 2005 and in our market research.
In the market research project outlined in our answer to Question 6, five types of music were
tested, each represented by artist names rather than the name of the genre. They were Chart
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