Ridgeway Community Radio
Newsletter No 3 and Membership Form
December 2017
OFCOM awards Ridgeway CIC an FM licence
As most of you will know by now OFCOM contacted us to inform us that we have been awarded the Community radio FM licence for 5 years for Dorchester and surrounding area.
We met the criteria required with our licence application and therefore we will be allowed to transmit on the FM band in stereo. The transmitter will be sited on the Ridgeway hill between Dorchester and Weymouth and the signal will be beamed towards the north to our coverage area.
Membership
Attached to this news letter is a membership form for those readers who would like to apply to become members of the station. Please print out and fill in the form and return it to the address shown below with a cheque for the appropriate amount made payable to Ridgeway Community Radio. Even if you aren’t keen to be a broadcaster we need volunteers for many other roles (see membership form).
Full membership is open to anyone over the age of 18 and costs £60 per year. Associate membership was set at £40 per year.
Return your completed form to:
Ridgeway Community Radio, Little Keep, Barrack Road, Dorchester, DT1 1SQ
What happens now?
We have the written confirmation from OFCOM of what happens next, they will allocate us a frequency in the FM band. Director Andy Worth has told the press that the plan is to start broadcasting online in February 2018 but as yet we don’t know when we are likely to begin broadcasting on FM. It can take up to 6 months to allocate a frequency so all we can say at this stage is it will be sometime in the first half of 2018.
Thanks to everyone who has contacted us to congratulate us on this achievement. It’s good to know that all of the hard work in applying for the licence and setting up the CIC has paid off. Now the real work begins!
Directors meeting
The full board of the station met on the 27th of November. All the directors attended and at the meeting it was decided that the membership subscriptions will be set at £60 per year for full membership and under 18’s can have associate membership at £40 per year. In special circumstances this fee can be reduced. It is important to stress that membership does not guarantee a spot for a program in the schedule. The following roles were agreed by the directors:
Health and Safety officer and treasurer – Kieran Williams
Meetings secretary and safeguarding – Trevor Bevins
Funding and business links – Steve Bulley
Publicity and fundraising – Alistair Chisholm
Arts – Tim Laycock
Company Secretary, Engineering organiser and training – Rob Mott
Chairman – Andy Worth
Vice Chairman – Alistair Chisholm
IT – Andy Venton
Halloween joint fundraiser by Andy Worth
Thanks for supporting Mind West Dorset and Ridgeway Community Radio at the Wholly Ghost fundraiser event held at the wonderfully atmospheric Old Tea Rooms. Your generosity means that each organisation receives £280.
Mr Chisholm was a spooktacular M.C. and Anita Harries’ quizzes were monumentally challenging! Thanks to Sue Worth for her chilling readings and to Debbie for being our first class g’host. The exceptional catering and waitress teams made the evening a truly delicious occasion.
Remembrance service broadcast live from Dorchester Cenotaph
Andy Worth, Andy Venton, Kieran Williams and Rob Mott produced and presented a live broadcast of Dorchester’s Remembrance Service from the Cenotaph in South Walks. Around 400 people attended and the service was broadcast live to DCH and online. 2018 marks the end of World War 1 and RCR will be able to broadcast the service on FM to enable the older residents who find it difficult to attend in person to feel part of this important service.
Little Keep studio progress by Rob Mott
Kieran, Andy Worth and myself have made good progress on Studio 1. All of the data and audio wiring is complete. The playout PC has been rebuilt with Windows 7, Radio DJ and Zara installed. The Sonifex mixer is working well but has a couple of small faults that will needs to be repaired before it is used on air. The Sky dish has now been set up to receive Sky News Radio. The Microwave dish on the roof of the building is now connected to the hospital studio. The 19 inch rack is now full of equipment for the data network and the audio wiring and switching. We now have a data connection between the hospital studio and the Little Keep.
If anyone wants to visit the studio when we are working there, ring Rob on 07413 366709
Our community station name!
During the directors meeting it was suggested that the community radio station should have a different on air name so as not to be confused with the Ridgeway Radio hospital radio station.
As you can imagine there was a lot of discussion on this topic and having gone away and then further discussed this with various people Andy and Rob quite like the name Keep 106 or Keep FM? What do you think? Let us know.
Grants and other start up money
Rob and Andy have now completed the application for a grant from West Dorset District Council’s leisure development fund. We have had confirmation from the council and the fund panel will meet on the 25th of January to make a decision on our application.
Meanwhile the Dorchester Freemasons lodge of Faith and Unanimity held a raffle at the last meeting and raised £108 that will be presented to Rob Mott on the 11th of December.
The difficult time for the station will be between now and the FM on air date which will be sometime in June or July next year. If you have any ideas for fund raising or of grants that might be available please get in touch with Rob or Andy on our e-mail: ridgewayradiocic@gmail.com
Temporary phone number:- 07413 366709
The stations postal address is:-
Ridgeway Community Radio
Little Keep
Barrack Road
Dorchester
DT1 1SQ
Volunteers required to help undertake the building work in the studios
If you are handy with a hammer, wood saw or paint brush then we could do with your help.
After Christmas we need to put up a stud work partition in the office area to form the smaller studio 2.
If you are available during the day to help then Rob would be pleased to hear from you. This is not a huge job and can be completed in about 5 working days.
We are also looking for donations of 4 x 2 timber, plaster board, insulation material and a couple of fire doors so if you know of anyone in the building trade who might be prepared to donate time or materials again get in touch.
We intend to ask local builders merchants if they are prepared to donate these materials. If any of our readers has any connection with local builders merchants please get in touch with Rob Mott.
Finally on behalf of all of the directors of Ridgeway Community Radio CIC can I wish you all a Very Happy New Year!
Rob Mott, RCR Secretary.