© 2009 Raven Sound

Raven Sound Community Radio Online

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.

You are here:  Home  Events  Diary  Helpdesk  Contact

You can contact Raven Sound by phone:

020 8466 8060 (local)

00 44 20 84 66 80 60 (International)

Skype: ravensound

Our mailing address is:

Raven Sound, PO Box 283 Bromley, Kent, UK.

Our e-mail address is:

studio@ravensoundradio.co.uk

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.

Our weekly webcast radio show ran from 1st May 2000 to July 2008, covering local events as the "Sounds of Bromley" throughout the year, with extra "special event" shows recorded weekends at local events. We provide coverage of many Bromley community and charity events during the year.

We started our live webradio service on 23rd April 2007. This is a 24/7 automated output with additional live shows from the studio and at local events. Raven Sound is "Local radio for local people". If you are involved in activities which benefit the local community tell us about it!

Raven Sound was formed in 1987 at a public meeting in the Bromley Central Library to float the idea of local radio for Bromley, organised by Tony and Marilyn Bailey. The first special event broadcast was in June 1988 from Beckenham Tennis Tournament. The Team included co-founder Rick Easter and members of Bromley Hospital Radio. Many other site events followed and in 1990,  the change to restricted service licences.  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. 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. One of these stations has since closed.

¦ Supporting Our Community ¦ Really Local Radio ¦ For Bromley London Borough ¦