Life of Hope

Well for me at least the first week of presenting the Good Afternoon Show has been completed. So to the end of our initial 5 year licence there are now only 259 weeks to go!!

Presenting in my view is the best part of being involved in Radio as you get the opportunity to talk to some great people. People who have a story to tell, who are really enthusiastic about what they are doing and who give you hope for our town and country.

This week I have talked to Peter Brown, Bournemouth’s Leisure Facilities Manager, Beryl Bye of Fit Lives, Vic King and Patricia Davis of the Westbourne Orchhestral Society and Amy Kemp and Nicolas ??? of the Volunteers Section of Dorset Police. Quite a mix , but all of whom have a real passion for what they are involved in.

So thank you to them all for giving me a real HOPE.

What are your passions ( clean ones only please!!). You never know you may get the opportunity to talk to me on the radio about them.

We made it!!!! 

At 3.00 yesterday, 27 May 2007 we started our full-time broadcasts.  

I’m not sure where the last 4 weeks of my blogg have gone suffice to say that things have been extremely hectic.   Why is it that however much time you give yourself to prepare, however much you plan, you still work right up to the deadline. That has certainly been the case with us. But we made it.  

Radio is a bit like a duck swimming on water. When you see a duck moving around a pond all seems calm and peaceful, yet under the water the ducks legs are working away furiously. So it is with radio, when you listen in all seems calm etc (well hopefully) and yet behind the scenes people are dashing around like headless chickens.  

I’m now off to do my first programme at 2.00pm; you can hear me on 90.1fm between 2.00pm and 3.00pm Monday through Wednesday. Good listening.

Our big event during the week was the Access to the Air: Community Radio Conference which we held on Monday 23 April 2007 at AFC Bournemouth.  

The purpose of the Conference was to explain what community radio is all about and how organisations; be they commercial, voluntary or local government; can use it to get their message out while also developing communication and other related personal skills.   

Various people spoke at the Conference including the YMCA President, the Archbishop of York John Sentamu, Douglas Eyre the Chair of Bournemouth 2026, Blair Crawford the Bournemouth YMCA Director and members of the Hope Team.   

The event seemed to go well with around 200 people attending the two sessions.  

During his speech, Kevin Potter the Hope FM Launch Manager referred to our impending launch as a time ‘when the cows come home to roost’. I have to say that after that I did not take in much more of Kevin’s talk as I was trying to picture in my mind a Friesian cow sitting peacefully on an oak tree surveying the surrounding countryside.  I must admit I found this rather difficult. 

  Kevin has lived for most of his life in South Africa and he assures me that ‘cows coming home to roost’ is a common saying in South Africa.

So all I can think is that either their cows are somewhat smaller than ours or that trees in South Africa are an awfully lot bigger than those you find in Europe.   Have you come across any sayings from other countries that just do not make sense in our culture? Why don’t you share them with us?

Time continues to fly by and it is now only 5 weeks until Hope FM starts to broadcast full-time on 90.1FM.  One by one we are getting things done on our ‘to do’ list, although sometimes progress seems very slow.  

Last Thursday was a particularly bad day for me work wise. Have you ever had one of those days that everything you try to do takes five times as long as it should? Well that is what happened to me last Thursday.  It started with sent emails continually bouncing back, continued with printers getting continually jammed then running out of ink and ended with me breaking the photocopier when trying to sort out yet another paper jam. Jobs that should have taken 30 minutes were taking a couple of hours.  

In fact after the photocopy incident I decided that I would not take the lift back down to our office, as the lift was bound to get stuck between floors, so I walked down the four flights of stairs instead.  Have you every had an ‘everything turns into a disaster day’? Why not share your experiences with us?

We often receive comments about the name of our Radio Station. Normally along the lines of ‘that’s an interesting name’, which is probably just a polite way of saying they are not sure about it.  

The Oxford Dictionary defines the word ‘HOPE’ as: expectation and desire combined; feeling of trust; person, thing, that hope centres in.  

As I travelled up yesterday to watch my football team, Watford, play Manchester United in the Semi-Final of the FA Cup it was with just a little hope that they would win. As this game really was a giant against a minnow. So I guess in my case, going back to the definition, I had the desire but not the expectation.  

In terms of Hope FM, this name is a great definition of what we are all about. We really do want to make a positive difference to our broadcast area, so we have the desire. Previous experience,  when we have been broadcasting on a part-time basis,  has encouraged us to believe that through giving people in our community a voice to express their views and also training them to become broadcasters, we can make a difference; so we have the expectation as well. So we really are Hope FM.  

Bringing the definition of ‘HOPE’ back to a personal level what are your hopes, or using the Oxford Dictionary definition; what are your hopes and expectations? Why not let us know?

Another week has passed and it’s now 7 weeks until Hope FM goes live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  We are now four in terms of staff in the Office, but time is still passing too quickly, with our ‘to do lists’ growing every longer. Plus there are now four lists compared to only two a week ago.  

 As well as working in the Office, three of us have presenting responsibilities, so there is that to think about as well.  I am scheduled to present the Afternoon Show from 2.00pm until 4.00pm, three days a week; Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  

The plan is for the Show to be a magazine type format with interviews plus regular features of around 4 to 5 minutes in length.

As yet I have a blank piece of paper, mainly due to the fact that I have given the subject very little thought.  So you folk out in cyberspace, have you any feature suggestions that I could use?  The target audience is the 30+ age group in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch area.    

I look forward to receiving your comments; please keep them Family Friendly!! 

As I write this there are exactly 8 weeks to our launch date of 27 May 2007.  

It has now got to the waking up in the night stage, thinking about all the tasks still to do.  

Radio seems simple. You put together a studio, get a few coat-hangers and make a transmitter mast, round up a few people to say a few words in between music tracks, phone up the record companies for the latest cd’s and off you go.  

If only it was that straight forward.  

There is all the marketing needed to make people aware of the Station. Mail shots; presentations to local groups, Churches, Businesses etc; t-shirts and car stickers; press releases and editorial for local media; launch parties.  

Programmes need to be decided upon. How can we interest as many people as possible? What features should we include on the programmes?  What specialist programmes should we carry? Do we need to involve other local groups? What speech to music mix are we going to use? How are we going to cover local and national news? Should we do outside broadcast? Why won’t record companies respond to our requests for music?  

Then there is the question of presenters. How are going to train them? When is the Studio going to be ready so that we can do some hands on training? What output software should we use? Do we need to record our output for the Regulatory Authority? How do we record the output?  

Where is the money going to come from to pay for the Station running costs? What sales material do we need? What should we charge for advertising?  

What about a web site?  

What licences do we need?  

I hope you get the picture. There is a lot to do. So how are we doing? At a rough guess I would say we are about a week behind were we would like to be. But the good news is that our current manpower of 1 full-time and one part-timer,  is going to be expanded tomorrow (2 April) by 2 full-time staff. A Sales & Development Manager and a Production Manager; welcome on board Sheena and Mark.  

So tomorrow afternoon after staff induction has been completed, Kevin and I will be able to lie down in a dark room and relax. The only problem is that as we lie there with our eyes closed all the things that still need to be done will be going through our heads. I think this is where I came in!! 

Do you want to find out more about Community Radio? What it is all about? How you can get involved?  What it can do for you.? Well here is your opportunity.  

Join us at our  PRE - STATION LAUNCH CONFERENCEOn: Monday 23^rd April 2007At: AFC Bournemouth Conference Suite 

Two Sessions to Choose Between

 Session One 2.30pm to 4.30pm or

Session Two 7pm to 9pm

 Hope FM, the area’s first Community Radio Station, will launch on Sunday May 27^th. The conference will enable you to understand what community radio is and how you can use it to get your message out whilst also developing communication and other related personal skills.  ·   View the new promotional DVD

·   Video greeting from our President Archbishop John Sentamu

 ·  Hear about the North Kinson LAA Pilot Project 

    Learn how to get your message out effectively

·   Discover how the Statutory and Voluntary sectors can benefit

·   Learn how local businesses can showcase products and services

·   Our training programme and programme schedule will be explained

The two-hour conference will be time well spent and will present you with a comprehensive overview of Hope FM’s Community Radio service giving you opportunity to ask your own questions over a cup of tea or coffee.

Telephone Linda Voysey on  01202780396

 OR EMAIL Linda.Voysey@bournemouthymca.org.uk

TO SECURE YOUR PLACE

It has just been announced that radio audience figures in the UK have reached a record high of 45 million a week, with new listeners tuning in via the internet, digital television and mobile phones.

In these days of hundreds of TV channels, mp3 players and non-radio in-car entertainment this statistic both surprised and delighted me. Radio is experiencing a renaissance and long may it last.

Hope FM, the community radio station for Bournemouth and the surrounding conurbation, will be joining this radio renaissance on 27^th May, when after 13 years of broadcasting on a part-time basis, we will at last start broadcasting  24/7.   

Today there are literarily hundreds of radio stations to listen too. So to be successful it is crucial that stations are distinctive, so that they stand out from the crowd when potential listeners are checking out what they want to listen too. Fortunately being distinctive is what HOPE FM is all about.  

Community Radio is a new tier of radio that has recently been introduced into the
UK and is very different to the current BBC and Commercial Stations. Community Radio is very much radio run by the community for the community and as part of the licence award we are required to demonstrate that we are bringing social gain to our broadcast area.

Those of us involved with HOPE FM believe that we are trying to do something unique in radio terms. The Station is very much driven by the need to serve the community not to make a profit and we are looking to be a bridge between community groups with programming that aims to be informative, challenging, entertaining and positive; giving local people the opportunity to talk about issues that are important to them, all to the soundtrack of a unique music mix.    

Under the terms of our licence we can only cover 50% of our costs through advertising, the balance coming from listener support and local and national grants, which is obviously a challenge in itself.

We are however relishing the challenge of being distinctive. So why join the Radio revolution and join us on 90.1FM when we go live on 27^th May 2007