Oldham Community Radio

SECTION FIVE Community to be served The Community Radio Order 2004 defines a community as (a) the persons who live or work or undergo education or training in a particular area or locality, or, (b) persons who (whether or not they fall within paragraph (a)) have one or more interests or characteristics in common. (For more information about the individual questions below, please refer to sections 5.1 to 5.3 of the accompanying notes). 5.1 Description of the Target Community (or Target Communities).

As explained in Section 6 due to Oldhams recent history of riots in 2001and the reasons behind these there is an over riding need to build community cohesion in the town. Stories of unfair treatment and favouritism to sections of the population were numerous and although inaccurate, caused friction leading up to the riots. Government initiatives that tied funding to specific areas exacerbated this perception and since 2001 Oldham has taken a much more holistic approach to regeneration and community initiatives. While acknowledging local differences and varying levels of disadvantage and addressing these, a wider view is taken and initiatives are more coordinated than in the past. Thus if the community radio were to concentrate on any one section of the towns population this would prove to be divisive and would be contrary to local policy. Consequently Oldham Community Radio will not target any single disadvantaged community it will instead target, at specific times all of the many disadvantaged communities which make up the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. Through targeted programming strands (narrowcasting) we will serve the various communities which make up Oldham, be they of age, ethnicity, interest or geographical. Specifically we will target:School children and students, Young people (16 25), The over 60s, Black and Minority Ethnic communities (Pakistani, Kashmiri, Bangladeshi, Indian, Black and Afro-Caribbean), Enthusiasts of various musical (e.g. Brass Bands, Orchestral etc.) and specialist interest groups (e.g. Local sport, Drama etc.) Additionally at times we will target an Oldham Wide audience. For further details of our proposed Programme Strands see Section 7.

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Oldham Community Radio

5.2

Community Demographics.

Oldham Metropolitan Borough is on the edge of the Pennines on the eastern side of the Greater Manchester conurbation. It was formed by the amalgamation of seven small former mill towns. The total population of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham is 217,273 of which 167,281 are aged 16 and above. It is estimated that 90% of the population live within a 5km radius of our proposed transmitter site. Therefore the adult population within our broadcast area is 150,000. Age: 0-15 years = 16-24 = 25-59 = over 60 = Ethnicity: White: Mixed: Indian: Pakistani: Bangladeshi: Black: Other:

45,500 21,000 92,500 36,500

85% 1% 1% 7% (Of which around one third consider themselves Kashmiri) 5% 0.5% 0.5%

The Metropolitan Borough of Oldham is a deprived area, as the information below highlights. The Indices of Deprivation 2004 uses a new geographical base - Super Output Areas (SOAs - which are derived from the Output Areas used in the 2001 Census. Output areas are the smallest areas (containing roughly 200 households) for which Census statistics are published. There are 32,482 SOAs in England; Oldham has 144. Percentage of Super Output Areas in Oldham ranked nationally in the most deprived 1%, 5%, 10% and 20% on different measures Domain Percentage of SOAs in Oldham (144=100%) ranked nationally in the most deprived: 1% Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004 Income Employment Health and disability Education, skills and training Crime Living environment Income deprivation affecting children Income deprivation affecting older people 0.7 2.1 0.7 0.7 2.8 3.5 0 0.7 2.8 5% 13.2 12.5 9.7 12.5 13.9 13.2 2.8 8.3 11.1 10% 23.6 19.4 20.8 28.5 26.4 27.8 11.8 13.2 17.4 20% 43.1 34.0 38.9 44.4 46.5 45.8 25.7 27.8 30.6

Source: ODPM, Indices of Deprivation 2004.

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Oldham Community Radio

SECTION SEVEN Programming.

(For more information about the individual questions below, please refer to sections 7.1 to 7.10 of the accompanying notes). 7.1 Programme Service

Due to Oldhams recent history of riots in and the subsequent reports into the causes of these one of Oldhams main targets is building a cohesive community where diversity is seen as a strength. Understanding and valuing this diversity is an essential objective for the towns future. A community radio station for Oldham must support this prime objective. Oldham community radio will do this by including all sections/communities in the town within our programme schedule. We believe that to broadcast a general mix of programme content would not draw enough listeners from each of the various communities to enable the station to fulfil its aims. We believe, and our experience in nine RSLs over ten years has shown, that by narrowcasting, or niche broadcasting, with individual communities targeted in programme strands in regular time slots we can build a series of diverse audiences.

Oldham Community Radio Programme Strands illustrative diagram

MON 12AM TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN

OVERNIGHT REPEATS
of Afternoon Programmes

7AM

SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES STRAND

9AM

SPECIALIST MUSIC AND INTEREST STRAND

OLDHAM WIDE STRAND

1PM

OVER 60S STRAND

3PM

MULTILINGUAL STRAND
5PM

SPORT STRAND

OLDHAM WIDE STRAND

6PM 8PM 9PM

DEBATE AND DISCUSSION STRAND SPECIALIST MUSIC AND INTEREST STRAND

12PM

No one expects TV schedules to be uniform in their content; they vary during the course of the day. Experience from our RSLs has demonstrated that as long as the audience is aware of the variety and timing of programmes they will be tolerant of that variety and will return for their specific programme strands of interest. They may also listen outside their initial preferred strands and our experience has demonstrated this to be the case. Our programmes facilitate individual groups within communities to narrowcast to their community with programme content being of specific relevance to that community. They will enable featured themes or initiatives to be highlighted in the focused local context. It also enables large numbers of volunteers from each community to be involved in producing and presenting the programmes. Programmes will cater for the tastes and interests of the various communities because they are produced and presented by members of the communities. Further details on about the individual programme strands can be found in Sections 7.2 to 7.5

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