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Measuring Success
How do you know your community station is successful? Is it simply the number of people who have tuned in, or is there more to it than that?
Because I don’t think it’s possible to simply state what a community station looks like; in terms of structure and output, I think it would be better to look at what I would suggest as some ways of measuring success.
An audience of size.
No matter how good your production, output and development of participants is, your job is to produce radio that people listen to. I strongly believe that stations that don’t do that have failed.
I’ve stated ‘an audience of size’ because the actual numbers listening will vary greatly depending on the number of people in your community; and the type of broadcast you are doing. The point is that you have to be confident that there are a reasonable number of people listening to justify the broadcasting. For example, if there was a Mongolian programme on your station and only 20 people were listening; but you knew there were only 70 Mongolians within your community that could a justified as a reasonable number. However, if you had an Irish show, and there was an Irish community of thousands but only 20 people tuned in that might not be so justifiable.
Percentage output participant-generated
Another measure of success is the amount of content created from ideas generated, pitched, researched, produced, edited and presented by participants who prior to this project had no professional radio experience.
Under-represented audiences
Community radio should attempt to provide programming for audiences who aren’t well served by other radio stations. That’s not to say that a community station should only do that, or that in doing that lose the common station brand, but a good community station would be able to deliver output not available elsewhere on the radio.
That said, in providing such output, it is really important that you don’t ghettoise this programming. You have to respect the way that people listen to the radio, and that everyone should be able to enjoy the station whenever they tune in. The real success is delivering minority interests built into mainstream programmes.
A ‘professional’ sound
I’m not particularly happy using the word professional in connection with radio, because bar journalists and engineers there are very few dictionary-definition professionals in the industry.
What I’m getting at is that whilst a community station must never turn into a clone of a commercial station; the fact it is a community station should never be used as an excuse. That means that output should never been second-rate. Station imaging, adverts and production must all be of the same standard as that expected of a commercial station. And whilst the presentation might not be so slick and “DJesque” as you would be demanded elsewhere, the edginess and amateur nature must not be confused with sheer incompetence. Listeners will tolerate a certain amount of rough-around-the-edges, but if you sound as if you don’t know what you are doing your audience will know exactly what they are and reach to retune.
The sound is not limited to the editorial and production. Stations need to invest some time, expertise and a bit of cash in making sure the technical quality of their signal is as good as anything else on the dial. That means having the correct compression and optimod settings, and locating your transmitter in the best possible place. There shouldn’t be a noticeable inferior quality in your station when scanning the dial; a weak and distant sounding signal jars significantly with your desire to appear closer to your audience than any other station.
Provide talkability
Like every station, your community station needs to provide content that people will tell their mates about. That means it needs to be relevant and interesting to the audience.
Community stations can not be worthy-but-dull. That said, they also have a public service remit to broadcast content that perhaps isn’t so sexy to the audience. For example, elsewhere I’ll suggest that all community radio stations have a responsibility to raise the turnout in an election. The real key to being a successful broadcaster is delivering that public-service content to their audience in an engaging manner.
Clearly benefit participants
Community radio has to involve participants at every level of the station, but more than say hospital or student radio, they need to be able to get more out of it than simply an ego-boost and something to pass the time. Certain community stations are using the NVQ approach, and formal qualifications certainly help those who want to use the skills they acquire to help get work. It’s important to remember that it’s not just radio skills that should be recognised; IT, communication and administration skills also need to be recognised.
But even those who don’t want such formal recognition need to have some way of seeing their development. An informal appraisal every so often might be all that is needed, but if volunteers are going to be there for the long-term they need to have opportunities to see their skills develop if they are going to maintain interest.