20.07.2013 Views

Rother FM - Ofcom Licensing

Rother FM - Ofcom Licensing

Rother FM - Ofcom Licensing

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Section 105 (B) and (C): Catering for tastes and interests/broadening choice<br />

Our market research investigated what kind of stories our potential listeners would like to<br />

hear. News about local people, health and hospitals and sport all proved popular, with<br />

education/schools and employment also considered important by more than 50% of<br />

respondents while politics and business/finance proved least popular. Taking its cue from the<br />

popularity of hearing about “local people”, <strong>Rother</strong> <strong>FM</strong>’s style of news will be in keeping with<br />

that developed on other stations in the Lincs <strong>FM</strong> Group: real people talking about real issues.<br />

Noting the unpopularity of politics, issues such as health and employment will be dealt with on<br />

the basis of how the actions of the Government or local council affect our listeners. We’ll talk<br />

to parents, teachers and children at <strong>Rother</strong>ham schools about education issues; we’ll talk to<br />

road and rail-users about new transport initiatives. That local radio standby, the voxpop, will<br />

be used entertainingly and relevantly for comment on stories such as the town centre<br />

development. Our writing style will be fluid and colloquial without being tabloid, and we will<br />

use words such as “we”, “us” and “our” to suggest a shared interest in the news.<br />

<strong>Rother</strong>ham’s ethnic minority population is significant although comparatively small. We will<br />

make sure that when dealing with news stories relating to Pakistan in particular, we are aware<br />

that a number of our listeners will have a special interest – and may well have relatives still in<br />

that country. A story such as last year’s earthquake would feature high on our news agenda,<br />

and would be written with particular sensitivity, and we would also focus on local angles, such<br />

as news of local efforts to aid earthquake victims.<br />

Sport<br />

Local sport proved of interest to 69% of respondents – 82% of men and 57% of women.<br />

<strong>Rother</strong> <strong>FM</strong> will have short bulletins of local, national and international sports headlines at<br />

breakfast and teatime, with more detail about local sport where relevant in our news bulletins.<br />

We will be very supportive of the town’s league football team, <strong>Rother</strong>ham United. The Millers<br />

play in the Coca-Cola League One, alongside both Doncaster Rovers and Barnsley, although<br />

at the time of writing they are languishing in the relegation zone. <strong>Rother</strong> <strong>FM</strong> will work with<br />

<strong>Rother</strong>ham United in the same way that Dearne <strong>FM</strong> works with Barnsley. Match previews,<br />

news of signings and interviews with players and management will all be used to build<br />

excitement about forthcoming matches. Matches will be covered with previews, score flashes<br />

and reports, as well as post-match interviews and analysis. We will also ensure that we give<br />

coverage to other league teams with strong local support; however, by focusing chiefly on<br />

<strong>Rother</strong>ham United we want to do our bit to build <strong>Rother</strong>ham’s identity and pride.<br />

We will make sure that football, while crucial, doesn’t dominate our sports coverage.<br />

<strong>Rother</strong>ham’s rugby union team, the Titans, play in the National League Division One and are<br />

strongly supported, while of course we will be firmly behind Yorkshire Cricket Club. We’ll<br />

carry hourly cricket score updates within news bulletins when Yorkshire are playing, and also<br />

for England matches. We will also look for local success in sport of whatever kind, and<br />

celebrate particularly successes for <strong>Rother</strong>ham’s youth and school teams.<br />

26

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!