Transmitter Renewal

The Pitch

Problem statement

Radio North Angus is a voluntary commercial radio station with transmitters in each of the seven Angus towns, programming between 0530 to 0200 each day.The remit is to promote health, welfare, educational establishments, voluntary organisations, the economy, and relief from loneliness. We support a plethora of organisations involved in all of your categories by broadcasting information and appeals and include school pupils and students in our programming. Our main transmission system in Arbroath acts as the hub of our broadcasts that are relayed to the other transmitters across the county. The system is 25 years old, requires renewal owing to breakdown, and needs a new transmitter.

Solution

The goal is to replace a transmitter in Arbroath in order to maintain the continuity of our output. Programming is as above, for over 21 hours per day. Outwith these times, namely between 0200 and 0530 continuous music is played, therefore the transmission facility is operational 24 hours per day. Apart from supporting various organisations, we are particularly focussed upon giving teenage children the unique opportunity to develop media skills and to enhance self confidence and development. Our early morning and late evening broadcasts are especially for the lonely who can experience acute loneliness at these times. The Impact ensures our output to an audience that includes all age groups.

Why are we best placed to deliver?

Radio North Angus commenced broadcasting in 1979 as a hospital radio at Stracathro in 1979, and expanded in the following two decades to cover most hospitals in the county. With the award of the commercial radio licence in 1998, we were able to broaden our audience by situating transmitters in the seven Angus towns, and establish six studios. Our two co-founders have been awarded Lord Lieutenant of the County Certificates of Commendation, the station received the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, and the Managing Director was designated Arbroath Citizen of the Year 2013 for broadcasting services to the community. A number of our members have progressed to careers in broadcasting.

Focus Areas

Delivery plan

Budget breakdown

Beneficiaries

76,000 people

Who will benefit

Expected impact

A potential audience of Arbroath, 21,000, Carnoustie 12,000, Monifieth 7,000, Montrose, 12,000, Brechin, 7,000, Forfar 12,000, Kirriemuir 5,000. Most of our regular listeners are in Arbroath, Carnoustie, and Monifieth at present, and we are developing our reach into the North Angus towns. Our service is a conduit for various statutory and voluntary organisations to communicate effectively with their respective target groups. For instance, NHS Tayside provide media releases on various aspects of healthcare, Angus Council on welfare, housing, education etc. National charities dealing with cancer, heart conditions, loneliness, etc, use our service. We promote local organisations by broadcasting details of their remits, fund-raising activities, recruitment drives, etc. examples being Arbroath Charitable Football Trust who help the most socially deprived, the Rotary Club who have a broad band of recipients from ongoing fundraising.Our Facebook page is also used to assist various groups

Track record

We conduct on air and pre-recorded interviews with groups and individuals as a means of promotion. Each of our studios has a folder where information submitted by various groups is held which the presenters access to include in their programming. These can be short term such as forthcoming coffee mornings, quiz nights, etc, or longer term such as anti-smoking, suicide prevention, etc. We also provide public address equipment, music, and commentary at outside events examples being gala days held by the RNLI or town community groups and schools. As stated previously, we have received various awards in recognition of our service to the community, the most significant being the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, the latest being the SME News Award for the best voluntary commercial radio broadcast 2023.

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