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The Raven Sound Story
Raven Sound is a community media project. It was formed in 1987 at a public meeting in the Bromley Central Library to float the idea of local radio for Bromley, organised Tony and Marilyn Bailey. The licensing of community broadcasters has been problematical in the UK and at that time special event licences were the only option available. The first special event broadcast was in June 1988 on the site of the Beckenham International Tennis Tournament. The Team included co-founder Rick Easter and members of Bromley Hospital Radio. Many other site events followed and in 1990, community group participation improved with the change to restricted service licences which allowed greater off-site coverage.
In 1997 Raven Sound was an unsuccessful applicant for a permanent local radio licence, in competition with other groups and companies. The award was made to a neighbouring borough under a small scale alternative location licence procedure. This was a competition not only between licence applicants but also between different towns or boroughs, making it much more difficult to obtain a licence. In 2001 we were one of the 200 groups submitting an Access Radio proposal to the licensing authority, ours was a joint submission with the Cray Youth Radio, only 15 one year test licences were eventually awarded of which three were in London. In the autumn of 2004 we were one of the 192 applicants for a community radio licence. Over the UK 107 licence awards were made by May 2006 (55%) although only one in four awards were made in the London area, with only two in South London, which is still effectively a "no go" area.
Webcast Radio Show
We launched our weekly webcast Real Audio & MP3 radio show on 1st May 2000, covering local events as the "Sounds of Bromley" throughout the year - we now feature one 45 minute show each week, recorded on Monday, with extra special event shows recorded at the weekend. We provide coverage of many Bromley community and charity events with our mobile webcast studio.
We started our live webradio service on 23rd April 2007. This provides automated output round the clock with additional live shows from the studio and at local events. Raven Sound is "Local radio for local people". We are funded by members donations and work in the local voluntary, charity, social and arts sector with features covering a wide range of local issues in the health, education, arts, sports, environment and social areas in actualities and reports. If you are involved in activities which benefit the local community tell us about it!
Local AM Broadcast
We have continued to run a special event AM broadcast at the Bromley Pageant of Motoring on 1494 kHz AM in June each year. Licences are limited to low power (1 watt) and short duration (not more than 28 days). There have been 34 broadcasts since 1988.
Community Action
During some of our 28 day special event broadcasts, as many as 100 local groups have participated in the programmes. In one we reported on a suspected murder incident not far from the studio and the year before a gangland killing, also nearby. On a happier note, a year earlier we were able to facilitate a local handicapped charity in obtaining some free software from a local computer company.
Charity events we have been able to support include the Breast Cancer Campaign "Aerobathon" and the Triathalon. Bromley has a long tradition of self help and volunteer groups, much of the programming deals with publicising the work that these people are involved in and making appeals on their behalf. The voluntary sector provides a potential route for the unemployed in searching for work opportunities, it also supports people with age or health related problems.
People
All the Raven Sound crew are volunteers with financial support from two founder-members, Tony & Marilyn Bailey. The original team also included members of the local hospital radio plus Rick & Sue Easter with voice-overs by Chris Oxlade. These days you can hear Rick on Premier Radio, London. In the last few years we have had contributions from Eric Coppin, Karen Coppin, Derek Saunders, Dave Wheeler, Mark Walsh, James O'Reilly, Doug Willock, Glenn Coomber, David & Julia Johnson. You can still hear some of these people as presenters on the webcasts and broadcasts or as "magnetic personalities" on the local info tapes which get aired from time to time during our special event broadcasts.
We get lots of mail from people who want a job in radio and community or hospital radio is sometimes a useful way to start, although most of our old boys and girls have made it by their own efforts. The skills we look for are writing, reading and speaking rather than musical ability. You also need to be able to do interviews either live or on tape, which involves some technical knowledge. If you want to try, send us a tape or e-mail a clip.
Technical
For special event broadcasts Raven Sound operates mainly on the AM waveband because FM licences cost more and are prone to interference in London. The transmitter is a crystal controlled valve (tube) unit and outputs around 15 watts. The antenna is a 10 metre high wire "T" which can produce about 0.7 watt erp, this covers a radius of approx 5km in daylight. Within our studio are computers and microphones with a small mixer, the audio is routed through a compressor at the studio and another at the transmitter. The telephone system consists of a speakerphone linked via isolation transformers to the studio output and mic amps. The studio output is logged on VHS tape or DVD. Webcast programmes are recorded digitally at 11k/16bit on our pentium computer, converted to 24kbit mp3 format and uploaded, together with text files to address the various players, onto the website. The webradio programmes are sourced from one of our pc's and sent via broadband to our shoutcast 24 kbit server network operations centre.
Geography
Bromley population: *236,661 adults. Ethnic minorities *8.4%, (London average 20%). Largest age group 40/44 yrs., (London largest 30/34). Households: Over 60% 1 or 2 person. Average house price £85,000+, *75% owner occupied (London average 57%). Remainder mainly housing association properties with one third privately rented. *77% households have 1+ cars, 147,000 in total, more than any other London Borough. Commerce: Nine main retail centres within the five urban areas and a total of 200,000 square metres of retail floor space in the town centre, with a catchment area of 500,000 people. 60% of Saturday town centre shoppers arrive by car. Industry: The largest industrial area covers nearly 100 acres. Office floor space is now over 200,000 square metres. There are several minor trading sites and a business airport. Within the area are about 6000 companies of whom some 1800 are in retail & distribution, 400 in manufacturing and the remainder in agriculture, construction, service, finance and public sectors. Employment: Of the 78,400 people employed locally, 21,600 are in the retail and distribution sector, 21,300 in other service industries, 10,300 in the industrial manufacturing sector and 25,200 in the public sector. Skilled, Managerial & Technical jobs account for 57% of employees. Environment: 37,583 acres, 61.4% Green Belt including 44 conservation areas; 6 SSI's; one nature reserve; 32 nature conservation sites; 8 ancient monuments; 900 listed buildings and a number of working farms. Leisure: 4 theatres; 17 sports centres; 15 libraries; 2 cinemas; 2 arts centres; 2 museums; a country park; 23 acres of caves; 15 golf clubs; 13 riding schools and over 100 parks and open spaces.
Source: 1991/*2001 Census; Bromley Housing Strategy Statement 96/99; Bromley Unitary Development Plan 2006; Bromley Chamber of Commerce.
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