'QuayWest FM Somerset Radio Station Content Monitoring Report' by Grant Goddard

QUAYWEST FM SOMERSET
RADIO STATION CONTENT
MONITORING REPORT
by
GRANT GODDARD

www.grantgoddard.co.uk
April 2005

TASK
To monitor the broadcast output of Quaywest FM Radio and to make
recommendations as to possible changes to the station’s programming that
will:

Ensure the station complies with its licence issued by Ofcom;

Increase the station’s potential audience.

EXECUTION
Quaywest FM Radio output was monitored from 0600 to 1800 continuously on
Tuesday 29 March 2005. Notes were taken of each programming element that
was broadcast and timings were taken of key events in the schedule.

DEFINITIONS
MCA = measured coverage area. This is defined by Ofcom as the
geographical area in which the station’s signal is of sufficient strength to
guarantee good reception for listeners. The MCA of Quaywest FM is 19,826
adults aged 15+.
TSA = total survey area. This is defined by the radio station as the
geographical area in which the station measures its audiences for the radio
industry’s quarterly RAJAR ratings survey. Although Quaywest FM does not
participate in RAJAR, the data I was shown defines Quaywest FM’s TSA as
28,000 adults aged 15+.
LA = local authority area. Quaywest FM’s signal covers most of the population
within the boundary of West Somerset District Council, including the key towns
of Watchet, Williton, Minehead and Porlock. The total population is 35,075,
while the 15+ adult population is 29,865 [Census 2001].

Quaywest FM Somerset Radio Station Content Monitoring Report
©2005 Grant Goddard

page 2

1.0 OVERALL IMPRESSION
Quaywest FM is a very professional sounding station for its size and for the
size of the population it serves. I have heard stations that broadcast to
audiences one hundred times larger than Quaywest FM but whose sound is far
less professional and far less impressive. During my twelve hours of listening, I
did not hear a single technical error, a single gap of silence or a single
presentation error.
I was impressed by the quality of the commercial production and by the quality
of the station jingles and ID’s that were used. The station sound flows very well
and the transition from one programming element to another is executed
perfectly. The presenters sound relaxed and very personable.
What follows is an examination of various elements of the station’s
programming that could be modified or refined. The station already sounds
excellent in many respects, but the reason for this initial study is to develop an
action plan for the future. This is why the narrative that follows will look only at
areas where there is room for improvement. It is important that this is not
misconstrued as criticism of the whole station, as this is not the case.
Even from only one day’s listening, Quaywest FM has shown itself to be a
professional and powerful local medium. This report is intended to assist in
maximising the potential of that medium.


page 3

2.0 LOCALNESS
Quaywest FM’s licence from Ofcom defines its Format as:
A music and information station for West Somerset,
highly focussed on local issues.
The emphasis here is clearly on “local” above all other considerations. The
Formats of other radio stations often stress a particular demographic (for
example, Orchard FM’s Format defines it as “a music and information station
for 25 to 54 year olds”) or stress a particular style of music (for example, Vibe
FM’s Format defines it as a “rhythmic-based music-led service”). Instead,
Quaywest FM’s basic Format concentrates on “local issues”.
On the day I listened, I came away with the distinct feeling that there was
insufficient local content within the station’s output. It is always a thin line
between making a sound station so local that it becomes parochial, and
making it sound so professional that it could be a regional or national
broadcaster. Without doubt, Quaywest FM wins in the latter stakes, but maybe
it has lost some of its localness by trying too hard not to sound like such a
small operation.
I will examine some of the key elements of “localness” in turn:

2.1 LOCAL NEWS
The detail of Quaywest FM’s licence from Ofcom says:
On-the-hour bulletins with local news will run at least
during weekday peak times.
On the monitored day, there were no local news bulletins between 0600 and
1800, whereas the licence demands that there be local news bulletins every
hour within the breakfast show and the drivetime show. The breakfast show
presenter did apologise for the lack of local news bulletins in the morning, but I
heard no apology in the afternoon. This was the first day after the Easter
weekend but, even if the usual news presenter is on vacation, arrangements
still need to be made to comply with the requirements of the licence.
Local news headlines were played at 1607 and 1707 as a trail for the
upcoming 1807 “West Somerset At Six”, but the licence insists on “bulletins”
rather than “headlines”. Ideally, local news bulletins should run throughout the
daytime output to help emphasise the localness of the station, even if these
are pre-recorded in the morning.


page 4

Recommendation: Local news bulletins must be broadcast hourly in the
breakfast and drivetime shows (licence requirement). Local news bulletins
could also be broadcast during the rest of the day to emphasise localness.

2.2 TODAY’S PAPERS
Speech and information are important ingredients for the
station, and will include local information, community
news……..
The breakfast show included an efficient review of the day’s papers at 0744,
but I was surprised that only national newspapers were included. The station’s
area is covered by daily regional press titles, even if the local press is only
weekly, which gives material for on-air discussion.
There was no reference in other programmes to stories from local or regional
newspapers, which is a major factor in guaranteeing localness within a
station’s output. Obviously, a station as small as Quaywest FM cannot expect
to have its own news team, but it is not too difficult to compile information from
secondary sources – local papers, regional papers, and a small number of key
local news internet sites.
Recommendation: All local and regional newspapers should be available to
the presenters in the studio, who should be encouraged to refer to local stories
within their shows.

2.3 WHAT’S ON INFORMATION
station, and will include…… what’s-ons……..
On the monitored day, what’s on information was heard broadcast at 1045 and
1726. On both occasions, the activities being mentioned were taking placing
more than a week ahead. The idea of including what’s on information in
broadcasts is both to emphasise localness and to give a sense of immediacy
to the station. The information used in these what’s on spots needs to be:
more comprehensive; sourced from local press (not just information that
groups have sent in); more timely (today and ahead to the weekend); and
more regularly broadcast.


page 5

Often, it is better to give the work of compiling what’s on information to one
person within the station to co-ordinate. That person can even be a volunteer
who comes in a couple of hours a day to update the information and put it in
the studio. It can make the information sound more interesting if this person,
rather than the presenter, reads the relevant scripts. The scripts can be prerecorded in a batch and played into the shows throughout the day at regular
intervals. During the hours the person is working at the station, they can read
them live and chat with the presenter on-air.
Recommendation: An improved what’s on system needs to be implemented
that ensures more comprehensive and more timely information is broadcast
throughout the station’s output (licence requirement).

2.4 LOCAL INTERVIEWS
station, and will include…… local interviews……..
On the monitored day, there was only one interview in two parts at 1128 to
1133 and 1142 to 1148. The interview with two local government officials
promoting “Connecting Somerset” was, at best, perfunctory. In the two parts of
the interview, the presenter appeared to repeat the same questions to the
guests, eliciting no new information. The presenter did not seem to engage
with the interviewees. The subject matter was very abstract most of the time,
and the outcome was some uninspiring radio.
It was obvious that this interview had been organised as part of a promotion
campaign. There was no sense of the radio station being a place where local
people dropped by and, if they had something important to announce, could be
heard on-air. This is the single greatest advantage that a small station has
over a large station that serves millions of people, where crowds can turn up at
the station door every day. The presenter did not make me feel as if the station
was interacting with people in the community.
One interview in a whole day’s output is not very impressive for a station that
should be emphasising at every turn how much it is in touch with its audience.
The interviews need not be long, need not be crammed with information, but
they do need to be there.
Recommendation: An improved system for inviting relevant local people to
come to the studio and talk live on-air about what they are doing. Presenters
need to engage more with the interviewees and treat it more as a
“conversation” than a question-and-answer exercise.


page 6

2.5 DISCUSSIONS
station, and will include…… discussions……..
On the monitored day, I did not hear any discussions on-air. Discussions need
not necessarily be hour-long programmes. Discussions can be an opportunity
to invite listeners to call in with viewpoints on a local topic that arises from the
day’s local news stories. This does not have to be a phone-in show. Even a
one-minute conversation with a listener between two songs helps to
emphasise that the station is in touch with and listening to the people in the
community.
Recommendation: Presenters need to be encouraged to have dialogue with
their listeners and to put those listeners on the air to talk about specific local
topics (in a short and concise way) between records (licence requirement).

2.6 OTHER LOCAL INFORMATION
station, and will include…… coastal reports, farming
news……..
The monitored output included local weather bulletins on an hourly basis, but I
heard neither coastal reports, nor farming news. Whether or not one considers
these items to be essential to the audience, they are included in the licence
and therefore need to be included in the output.
Traffic and travel information was included on a regular basis (though this is
not listed in the licence) and adds greatly to the sense of localness that the
station generates.
Sports news (a mix of national and local) was also included at 0704 and 0804,
but not at other times. Again, this all adds to the sense of localness, so
perhaps a more regular schedule should be implemented.
Recommendation: Coastal reports and farming news need to be scheduled
within the daytime output (licence requirement). Other local information
(traffic/travel, sports news) could be used more regularly throughout the
daytime output.


page 7

2.7 LISTENERS’ VOICES
I only heard one listener’s voice on-air throughout the whole day of listening. A
radio station should show that it can hold a dialogue with listeners and, as part
of that demonstration, it is important to use voices of real listeners. This can be
achieved through a combination of executions:
Listeners can be put on-air to answer competitions and quizzes set by the
presenter (this was the one voice I heard). The dialogue with a listener need
not be long, but even a few seconds of chat shows that the station is
“interacting” rather than just broadcasting.
Listeners’ voices can be recorded as marketing inserts to emphasise the
station’s localness. For example, a listener might say: “I think I’m lucky living in
Minehead and being able to listen to Quaywest FM. Your station makes me
laugh every day.” It’s easy to record these sort of things either in the studio
when people visit the station, or with portable equipment in the coverage area.
Some stations have a voicemail system where listeners can phone and leave
comments about the station and its programmes. These often make great
inserts that can be played on-air and should be updated regularly to reflect
particular programming elements or news stories on which listeners want to
comment.
Recommendation: Listeners’ voices need to be incorporated into the output to
demonstrate that the station is in a dialogue with its audience, listening to what
it says and letting its voice be heard on-air.


page 8

3.0 MUSIC
The music is mainly a spread of soft adult contemporary
ex-top 40 hits from the 60s, 70s, 80s through to the
present day.
Music is always a difficult area to discuss because opinions and
categorisations of music tend to be so subjective. One person’s soft rock song
is another person’s adult contemporary ballad. Increasingly, music is defying
definition as genres and styles become mixed, and because record companies
aim particular versions of the same song at very different audiences.
My overall impression was that Quaywest FM is probably complying with the
letter of the licence Format, but is probably not complying with the spirit. If I
had not seen the Format, I would not have made the assessment that
Quaywest FM was a soft adult contemporary music station. What would I have
said it resembled? At times, it sounded very rock-y, while at other times it
sounded like a pop oldies station. The biggest problem is that Quaywest FM
does not seem to have a finite musical identity.

3.1 MUSIC SCHEDULING
Radio is a streaming medium. It is not like a newspaper, where a reader scans
the stories on a particular page and decides which ones to read. It is more like
a tap. You turn on the tap and it flows. You turn it off and it stops. You cannot
choose what is coming through the tap. When someone turns on a radio
station, they want to know what they are going to get. A bathroom tap is no
good if sometimes it produces water and, at other times, beer.
Quaywest FM sounds like a very different music station, depending upon the
hour to which you listen. During the “golden hour” segments, you might hear a
whole hour of 1960s music or a whole hour of 2000s music. Music from those
two decades are unlikely to appeal to the same listener. So, for a whole hour,
the station ends up alienating a section of its potential audience if that section
does not like a particular decade.
Although this is a cliché, it is nevertheless true in radio – you cannot please all
the people all the time. If your station is trying to appeal to an audience
embracing many different ages of listeners, you need to include something in
every show, in every hour and in every quarter-hour that is going to appeal to
each section of your audience. So, for example, each quarter-hour could
include one song from the 60s, one from the 70s, one from the 80s, etc etc. A
young listener who does not like songs from the 60s might put up with one 60s
song in your output, but would they put up with listening to a whole hour?


page 9

I realise that the “golden hour” segments are included as an attraction for
listeners, but you have to look at the opportunity cost of this type of scheduling.
By “super-serving” the audience that likes 60s oldies, for example, for one
whole hour you are also alienating the audiences that do not like 60s oldies
who may be even more substantial in number.
If those other audiences cannot tolerate a whole hour of 60s music, they will
tune out. Following an hour of 60s music with an hour of 00s music is not
going to make them listen, because you have already lost them to a competing
station. Furthermore, your hour of 00s music is not going to appeal to the 60s
music lovers who have just enjoyed a whole hour of 60s music. They will tune
out too and you are left with…….. nobody.
Recommendation: Each show, each hour, and each quarter-hour of output
should be scheduled to include the mix of 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s music
required in the licence.

3.2 MUSIC SELECTIONS
The music in the “golden hours” was generally an excellent choice of wellknown big hits that fitted the station’s format.
The music in the other hours was of a less consistent quality. There are a
number of different issues here:
HIT SONGS – some songs were not sufficiently big hits to be immediately
recognised by the audience.
LOUD SONGS – there were a minority of loud-ish rock/pop songs, particularly
in the midday show, that did not fit the “soft adult contemporary” requirement of
the licence. The “12 o’clock rock” feature compounds the issue of why rock
songs are actively being scheduled on this station. There were also a couple of
dance/pop tracks that did not fit comfortably with the “soft adult contemporary”
sound.
CURRENT CHART SONGS – current hits are the least recognisable by the
majority of your audience, and there were too many included in the
programmes.
DIVERSE ERAS – on too may occasions, songs from the same era were
played next to each other, so that the polarising effect on the audience of the
“golden hour” segments was further compounded by features such as “the old
school year” that played forty minutes of songs all from the same year.
Music makes up the majority of most stations’ output, so care and attention
needs to be paid to how that music is, firstly, selected and how that music is,
secondly, scheduled. It only needs one inappropriate song to make a station

page 10

lose most of its audience within a matter of minutes. Regardless of how
excellent or compelling the rest of your non-music output is, your music choice
and music scheduling are the most important programming elements that can
ruin a station’s ability to attract listeners.
Recommendation: Every single song in the station’s music playlist should be
reviewed to ensure that all tracks used on-air comply with the “soft adult
contemporary” definition within the Format (licence requirement). The policies
used to schedule songs across the entire output should be reviewed to
improve the station sound.


page 11

4.0 COMMERCIALS
All research shows that, to the listener, commercials are necessary evils.
There are still a minority of people who refuse to listen to commercial radio at
all, simply because of the advertisements. Paradoxically, commercials are the
lifeblood of the radio station’s business. Therefore, the scheduling of
commercials within a radio station’s output is of incredible significance both to
the listener (who does not want them) and to the advertiser (who wants them
to reach as many people as possible). In this sense, the listeners and the
advertisers have much more in common than might at first be realised.
Research shows that large clusters of commercials quickly lose a station its
audience. The greater the number of commercials within a cluster, the greater
the proportion of the audience that tune out of the radio station altogether. For
example, if you have to schedule 30 commercials in an hour of output, six
batches of five commercials is preferable to the audience than five batches of
six commercials.
Although the production values of Quaywest FM commercials are very high,
long clusters are still an audience deterrent. This is an area where the station
has a significant problem. For example, in the 0600 hour, the national news
was followed by a cluster of seven commercials, a pre-recorded weather report
(that gave “overnight temperatures” for the previous night), and then two
further commercial/sponsor messages. Then, at 0619, a cluster of 4
commercials was followed by one commercial/sponsor message. At 0630,
there were five commercials. At 0641, a commercial/sponsor message was
followed by a traffic update, then another commercial/sponsor message, then
four commercials, and then another commercial/sponsor message.
There are several associated issues that combine to cause a detrimental effect
on the audience:
DO NOT CLUSTER SO MANY COMMERCIALS INTO ONE BREAK – seven
or eight commercials back-to-back, or even interrupted by a travel report or a
weather report, is not going to enamour your radio station to the audience.
DO NOT SCHEDULE COMMERCIALS AFTER THE NEWS
DO NOT SCHEDULE SPEECH ITEMS BEFORE THE NEWS
DO NOT SCHEDULE SPEECH ITEMS AFTER THE NEWS – At 0657, the
“mind game” challenge preceded the news, which was followed by sports news
and then by a weather bulletin. This created a 15-minute period in which there
was no music played. It also created a 15-minute block in which there were 16
commercial messages. This is doing your advertisers no favour, as listeners
will be unable to consume this number of commercial messages within such a
short time and will “switch off” the station, either physically or metaphorically.
NO COMMERCIAL SHOULD BE 120 SECONDS LONG – The “property of the
week” commercial is 120-seconds duration. It was played several times during
the day. At 0737, this commercial was played after a weather bulletin and was
followed by four more commercials. This created a 7-minute block of nonQuaywest FM Somerset Radio Station Content Monitoring Report

page 12

music content that contained nothing to keep the listener tuned in to the
station.
Recommendation: The “traffic” system for scheduling commercials should be
revised with the deliberate objective of moving commercials away from the
news, from speech-based features, and from sponsored programming
messages. Commercial clusters need to be shorter and more often during
each hour.


page 13

5.0 BREAKFAST SHOW
The breakfast show is the flagship programme of the station. If you can attract
listeners to your station at this time of day, research shows that they are much
more likely to stay tuned to the station during the rest of the day. This is why
the content and scheduling of the breakfast show is more important than all the
other shows in your schedule put together.
I thought the presenter of the breakfast show was excellent. He talked just the
right amount, he has a good voice, he has a relaxed delivery, he is an easy
communicator, and he trails everything coming up later in his programme (one
of the simplest and most effective ways to keep listeners tuned to a station).
He also announced every song, which is a bonus for music fans.
There are several areas where I felt the breakfast show could be more
effective. Many of these arise from the way listeners use a breakfast show.
Unlike other parts of our daily routine, most people do not leave enough time in
the morning to get to work or school on time. Therefore, listening to the radio
at this time of day is always considerably shorter than listening either during
the day or at drivetime. No-one - I repeat no-one - listens to an entire breakfast
show.
Because of these listening characteristics, the scheduling of elements within a
breakfast show has to be done very differently from that of other programmes
in the schedule. If the average person listens to the breakfast show for only,
say, 15 minutes, it is imperative that within those 15 minutes, the listener hears
all the information they need to start the day. For example, some national
news, some local news, a weather report, a travel bulletin, some sports news,
and a song or two.
This requires that a breakfast show work on a repeating schedule, almost as if
it were a loop of a 15-minute show, instead of being a 3-hour show. Within any
15 minutes of listening, the schedule should ensure that the listener will hear
something about national news, local news, weather, travel, sports and some
what’s on information. While this type of show can prove boring for the
presenter (repeating the same information again and again), research shows
that it produces the most effective programme to satisfy the listener at this
critical time of the day.
Because the average listener is only likely to hear one or two songs if they
listen for only 15 minutes to the breakfast show, it is essential that every single
song in the breakfast show is a “killer” song suited to the audience and to the
station’s format. Because the audience is just waking up and in a hurry, it is
important not to schedule any song that is either too loud or too slow at this
time. Mid-tempo and up-tempo bright and breezy songs are the order of the
day.
Similarly, no single item should be too long within the breakfast show. The
inclusion of an aimless ten-minute chat around the “birthday game” at the
critical time of 0828 is definitely not what is required in the breakfast show. If I

page 14

had tuned in at exactly 0828 and only had 15 minutes of time to listen, I would
have heard none of the important ingredients I need from the breakfast show
by the time I tuned out at 0843. There are better times in the day when the
chat can be free and loose, but the breakfast show should be very businesslike, moving swiftly from one piece of information to the next.
Some other improvements that could be made are:
SOME OF THE MUSIC WAS TOO RECENT – the music should be all wellknown Top 5, or even Number One, hits in this key programme.
NO WHAT’S ON INFORMATION – this is a key part of the day to give listeners
ideas as to what they can do with their leisure time later in the day.
NO LISTENERS’ VOICES – this is the key time when a station is establishing
a dialogue with its audience, and the breakfast show needs to prove that by
using listeners on-air.
Recommendation: The composition and scheduling of elements within the
Breakfast Show should be revised to make it more relevant to the needs and
listening patterns of its audience at this critical time of day.


page 15

6.0 AUTOMATION
The automated hours create gaps within the daytime schedule that are not
explained to listeners. Listeners like to know that someone is sitting in a radio
station studio selecting and playing music to entertainment them, even if that
person does not say anything on-air. The fact that the presenters on Quaywest
FM ignore the automated hours does not help develop a bond of trust between
the station and the listener. If the presenter is telling me that the next
programme does not start for another hour, what exactly am I listening to
between now and then?
The hours of automation need to belong to a programme, rather than be
islands of impersonal back-to-back music that no presenter wants to own.
There is no reason why the last hour of a presenter’s show cannot be just
music, with one final announcement of “goodbye” by the presenter at the very
end. This effect can be easily achieved using an automation system. Then the
revised programme schedule will flow from one presenter’s show to the next,
without little islands of nothing between them.
This change, combined with the development of a more consistent music
policy across the day, would help give the station a unifying feel and a musical
identity, rather than appearing to be a composite of very different hours of
music that sound thrown together.
Recommendation: Automated hours should be included in each presenter’s
show, rather than be scheduled between shows, to give the programme
schedule greater continuity.


page 16

7.0 OFF-AIR MARKETING
Listening to a day’s output, I did not get a sense that the station was “out and
about” in the community that it serves. I did not hear presenters say that they
would be attending a particular local event or that the station would be
covering a local event on-air. The smaller the area being served by a station,
the easier it is to effectively market that station to potential listeners. Even
several hundred flyers put under the windscreen wiper of cars in a local
supermarket car park can have an impact in a small coverage area.
Off-air marketing need not be expensive or time-consuming. The important
thing is that the station has a “presence” at any local event of any significance.
This does not mean an expensive roadshow – it can be as simple as a trestle
table and handfuls of car stickers given out by people wearing station T-shirts.
Individually, such events may have limited impact, but cumulatively they add
up to a lot of personal contact for little expenditure.
Involvement in the community also gives presenters much more to talk about
within their programmes, both before and after events they have attended.
Everybody likes to gossip, and your station’s listeners are no exception.
Recommendation: The station needs to sound on-air as if it is engaging itself
and its staff in local activities in which it is encouraging its listeners to be
involved.


page 17

8.0 CENSUS DATA

A basic look at the 2001 census data for West Somerset shows that it has a
very distinctive population. The proportion of 20 to 30 year olds in the district is
much lower than the national average, whereas the proportion of over-50s is
much higher.
West Somerset has:

the third highest proportion of retired people amongst the 376 local
authorities in England & Wales;

the sixth highest proportion of widowers in England & Wales;

the third highest proportion of residents with long-term illness amongst
the 45 local authorities in the South West.
The data has significant implications for the radio station in terms of:

the potential advertisers

the potential listeners

the station’s programming

the station’s music policy

the station’s marketing strategy.
These issues are separate from the monitoring of the station’s output, but need
to be incorporated into any subsequent discussion of an action plan to take
matters further. If any changes are made to the programming or organisation
of a radio station, everyone needs to have a clear idea of the characteristics of
the entire available audience, and everyone needs to agree upon the specific
target audience that the station is aiming to capture.
The aim of managing the radio station is not simply to make the station better.
The aim is to make the station more successful in appealing to the chosen

page 18

target audience and to make it more successful in attracting advertising
relevant to that target audience. Station management is like matchmaking –
you are the go-between that brings listeners together with advertisers. Those
two parties have to be suitable for each other, and the radio station’s
programming – by being focused and consistent – is the glue that brings these
two parties together successfully.


page 19

9.0 CONCLUSION
From the evidence of one day’s listening, it is clear that technically Quaywest
FM is an excellent station and achieves a high standard of programming. The
key areas that need to be addressed are:




compliance with Ofcom Format
consistency of programming
focus on audience.

The most important programming elements that need to be tackled are:






localness
music policy
commercial scheduling
breakfast show
automation.

Grant Goddard is a media analyst / radio specialist / radio consultant with thirty years of
experience in the broadcasting industry, having held senior management and consultancy
roles within the commercial media sector in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. Details at
http://www.grantgoddard.co.uk


page 20

'QuayWest FM Somerset Radio Station Content Monitoring Report' by Grant Goddard

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