The Oral Presentations to the BCI - part 1 ( for those who wernt there)

dionsiseire

Ok guys courtesy of goldenplec.com here is a nearly word for word script of the goings on in the conrad hotel on that monday,

for a hard copy visit
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Broadcasting Commission of Ireland

PUBLIC HEARINGS FOR RADIO LICENCE FOR DUBLIN TO TAKE PLACE ON MONDAY 11th OCTOBER NEXT
Public hearings for the shortlisted applicants for the Alternative Rock Music service for Dublin City & County were held in the Conrad Hotel Monday (October 11th 2004).
The two applicants presenting at the hearings are: -
PHANTOM FM
Dublin Rock Radio Limited
C/o Byrne Moreau & Connell (BMC)
Burlington House
Waterloo Lane
Dublin 4.

Contact Details :
Simon Maher
Tel: 087 271 2321
Fax: 01 476 2138
Email: simonmaher@utvinternet.com

Zed FM
Scrollside Limited, trading as Zed FM
13 Trinity Street
Dublin 2.

Contact Details :
Dermot Hanrahan
Tel: 01 230 1319
Email: hanrahan@clubi.ie
Niall Stokes
Tel: 01 241 1500
Email: niall@hotpress.ie
The oral hearings provide an opportunity for applicant groups to further present their case for a licence in a public forum in addition to providing the Board of the BCI with the opportunity to clarify aspects of the licence application with each group. Following the oral hearing, it is anticipated that the Commission will make its decision regarding the award of the licence at its November meeting. The announcement should be made on November 8th as to which applicant has been successful.

THE PROCESS

Each Applicant was given 40 minutes for their oral hearings. The Breakdown being 20 minutes of a presentation from a team of people for the ZED FM consortium and Then 20 Minutes of questioning on their application from the BCI (broadcasting commission of Ireland).
Phantom FM were given the exact same with a tea/coffe break inbetween each possible stations presentation.
Although I unfortunately cannot give a 100% word for word of each person presentation I will give you what they have said but not in exact words.

ZED FM’s PRESENTATION

ZED FM’s Presentation committee consisted of
Dermot Hanrahan – Chairman
Niall Stokes – Editor of Hotpress Magazine
Angela Doran – Head of the FMC ( federation of music collectives)
Barbara Galavan – Vice chairman of IMRO ( irish musicians rights organisations)



Niall Stokes, Editor of hotpress magazine was the first speaker for ZED FM.

Niall spoke of how over the last few year hotpress has championed rock music in Ireland. And through hotpress’s involvment in ZED FM that they would be doing the same thing with ZED FM through an informative and editorial style.
Niall spoke of how ZED FM would be committing itself to the unsigned artists of Ireland and giving their full support to irish music before taking a low blow at PHANTOM FM by calling them spook fm and explained how ZED FM’s experience was gained legally without broadbasting without a license, im sure phantom fans will be inscenced to boycott hotpress because of that one.
He said ZED FM would have a strong Youth emphasis with the expected age bracket 15-50

ZED FM will play music people want to hear while linking it with the world and goings on. Aiming to get people to turn off their ipods and turn back on their radios from early morning coffe to zedtime at night. ZED FM’s early morning chat show “the voice” be non conformist and generate interest with the public

ZED FM will also have access to many many artists and stars that only a link with hotpress and their industry contact can bring. Meaning ZED FM will have you right up to date and have in studio guest that people want to hear from ranging from Dublin artists to international artists.

ZED FM have also said that they hope to broadcast in irish for 4 hours a week. And bring people up to date with the latest news and world goings on in and informative and editorial style.

Angel Doran was the next Speaker

Angela is the head of the FMC, she explain that the FMC is a source of information and advice for budding musicians, The FMC threw their support behind the HWCH festival (hard working class heroes) and its size nearly tripled with over 100 artists playing to packed crowds all around Dublin.
She explain the ZED FM would be supporting the BCI’s reccomendation of 30% irish at peak times, she explained that 1 in 3 songs at peak times will be irish artists and that 1 in 10 will be from unsigned artists.
as a closing point she explained that ZED FM was the only radio station to give something back giving 5% of its profits to the FMC to further help and fund the development of national talent.

Dermot Hanrahan was the next speaker
Dermot explained as chairman of ZED FM he will use his experience and expertise to provide expert business running, he explained that selling artime required expertise and artime was the radio station main and nearly only source of money. He explained his team has over 40 years of experience selling ads to add to that of hotpress’s experience of selling ads.
Sales people will get a commishion as well as a basic salary and they will be using a sales house as well as a company that has done it all before.
dermot said ZED FM would be in full complience of the BCI’s rules ( another dig at phantom fm) and said that ZED salaries would be realistic.
The last spokesperson was Barbara galavan

She gave a summary of ZED fm’s presentation, that niall stokes offers vast experience Dermot provides one of the most experienced audio executives, and members bring their own skills and links to the team. That 20% programming would be news and affairs , 10 % unsigned artists, 50% new music and 38% irish music, with 5% of profits going to the FMC.
she also said ZED FM had a proven commitment to the irish music industry.

ZED QUESTIONS FROM THE BCI
This section may not contain all the question but will give an insight to the type of questions which were asked.

Why does ZED have a board of 10 members?

A: to ensure that while covering experience in the consortium that they covered the youth aspect too since the youth will be its main audience.

What is the time frame for capitalisation?

A: as soon as needed, finance would be sourced from bank borrowing and shareholders funds.

What links in operations will be made between hotpress and ZED?

A: there are no links or structures in place at this moment in time, ZED FM will draw from the experience and resources hotpress has to offer.

So they have no involement in the programming ?
A: ummm no.

Management and staffing – combining director and programming manager, why?

A: we wanted to give the station a very experienced person who can comfortably do both roles, mr hanrahan has great experience and commitment, he hopes to be a semi exec in the early days till the trainee can fly solo.

Overhead and Costs need to be controlled, how do you propose to control finances?

Overheads need to stay low, hiring people with a passion is what we want, college and school leavers can produce some great work and we have bob geldof who will help the station immensely
BOB GELDOF : espically since im just out of school like.
there would be 15% commission for sales people as well as a steady salary

You have set aside €5000 for training – this is considerably lower than your rival, why?

A: we have a wealth of experience within the consortium and people linked with the consotium and have link with places to provide cheaper quality training.

Programming – when do you hope to go 24 hours?

A: we believe Zed fm is almost ready now to do 24 hours broadcasting, the only no live dj parts will be automated playing of some of the days best programming, which would be expected to be a single digit amount of hours. There will be no robojock .

Music policy – indicitive artists please clarify?

A: we will be monitoring or policing out music so as our music is not in competition with the likes of spin fm or FM104.

Commitment to Unsigned artists?

A: 6% of our music between 7am – 7pm will be unsigned artists.

At this point ZED FM were asked to keep answer to a minimum of people and respect the time restraints.

Saying you will provide schedule for female and male listening, how will you work this?

A: our 3 hour morning talk show “the voice” will be non conformist and appealing to all.

Your marketing the station at the 15-54 age bracket, does this show a lack of focus?

A: we have broadened the bracket because of competitiveness and to have a broad appeal, we are aiming at a type of people rather than discriminating on age. We are hoping to have 44% female listenership.

What is the time frame for charing premium rate for advertising?

A: we will grow our advertising rates as our listenership increases. So as the station becomes bigger and more valuable to advertisers, the prices will reflect that.

Are you satisfied 2.3 million investment is enough ?

Yes it will be enough, overheads are going to be monitored and kept low.

AND THAT CONCLUDED ZED FM’S PRESENTATION AND QUESTIONS.


A SHORT COFFEE BREAK OCCURRED NOW FOLLOWED BY EVERYONE PACKING IN FOR PHANTOM FM’S PRESENTATION.

dionsiseire

nobody liking this part coz its ZED fm's presentation

lol