Hello.
What a month! With our Gwydir Street studios up and running we’ve had a tremendous month at Cambridge105.
Our new breakfast show
The start of the month saw the launch of our weekday breakfast, ably manned by Neil Whiteside. Breakfast runs Monday to Friday, 6:30AM until 9:30AM. Several guests have passed through the door, numerous events have been publicised, we’ve had some great competitions (and prizes), copious amounts of tea has been drunk and a number of people have visited to try their hand at news reading. Talking of news, we’ve had tremendous interest in the news and journalism team, and next month we aim to be producing our own local news bulletins plus some more in depth features on local issues.
Our building team from Cambridge Regional College has made terrific progress on the studio. Most of the core build is complete, the next stage is to install the studio sound dampening material (so it doesn’t sound like we’re broadcasting from an unfurnished cave) and the construction of studio furniture to house the broadcast equipment. Thanks go to Travis Perkins, Go Glass and the tutors & students of CRC for making our studio plans a reality.
The middle of the month saw an open weekend run in conjunction with the Cambridge Time Traveller group. It was wonderful to see so many people and so much interest in both Time Traveller and Cambridge105. The two groups are planning more joint projects in the coming weeks. Thanks to everyone who came along, it really made all the effort to get Cambridge105 this far worthwhile.
Our thanks also go to everyone who has been in touch, expressing an interest in becoming involved. There’s been great enthusiasm for presenting programmes but also news, production, publicity, engineering, administration, training – the list goes on and on. We’re making a big push to get people involved and we hope to announce the launch of the weekday drivetime show in the next couple of weeks.
Now onto the realities of running the station. Unfortunately we incur several running costs – rent, Ofcom and music licensing, electricity, insurance, etc. We’ve kept the costs as low as possible, only committing to expenditure which is absolutely necessary and we’ve intentionally avoided taking any membership contributions until we have a studio facility for people to use. You can see a breakdown of the costs on the website. We ask that everyone involved becomes a member and makes a monthly contribution to the running costs. Please do sign up on the website – http://cambridge105.co.uk/join-us . We hope you consider Cambridge105 a worthwhile cause. If you do have any queries, then drop us an email at volunteer@cambridge105.co.uk .
Another source of income is advertising and sponsorship. We’ve created an advertising rate card and will start the push to build up advertising income in the next few weeks. Our rates are extremely competitive and we plan to take an innovative approach in both the creation and broadcast of advertisements. If you are interested in advertising, or know someone who might be, please contact us at advertising@cambridge105.co.uk . We believe this is not just a worthy cause, supporting a group who positively contribute to our community and local economy, but that we offer a realistic and effective advertising medium.
For those who have not caught our media coverage this month, here are some of the highlights:-
http://cam105.net/crc
http://cam105.net/camnews
http://cam105.net/camfirst
http://cam105.net/camnews2
http://cam105.net/businessfind
Also this month we’ve helped several local organisations to promote their groups and events. We’re here to help, so do send your publicity requests in to publicity@cambridge105.co.uk . Similarly, use this address to send suggestions for people you’d like to hear interviewed on Cambridge105.
We aim to make all our shows interactive. We’re not just broadcasting at you, we want to involve you in the programmes (be that sending an email or text in, or coming into the studio and taking part). A great example is breakfast. Feel free to text Neil on 07919 070490 or email breakfast@cambridge105.co.uk , even if it’s just to say “Morning Neil, I’m still in bed. Haha!”.
Finally, this is YOUR community radio station. We are the entrusted keepers of the license but the station exists for you, all of you, the community of Cambridge. We do have to face the harsh financial and logistical issues in running an entirely voluntary run organisation and that does involve compromise. However, we hope we have gone some way in achieving at least part of everyone’s vision for the community radio station in Cambridge.
As always, comment, criticism, pedants and praise to volunteer@cambridge105.co.uk
Axel, Cath, Pete, Steve and Tony.
