Idea pitching

flogen

Sounds like an odd question, but has anyone ever pitched an idea to a radio station, successfully or not?
What routes did you take and how far did you get with it? I have a few ideas for radio series that I'd like to put to some radio stations, but don't know where to start.

Thanks

projectmayhem

i think rather then pitching straight off with charts and powerpoint presentations, you're more likely to be given a fair listen (excuse the pun) if you send them a demo tape of whatever you're looking to achieve

flogen

Yeah, I didn't plan on going in too heavy, I'm just not even sure if Irish stations are used to taking ideas from people outside the station.
I suppose I'll just have to get a demo or two together and then find out who to send it to for each station, programming managers and stuff like that I guess.

RadioRetro

Very few local independant stations neither have the enthusiasm or the cash to commission outside productions, particularly in the speech area.

There are two funds administered by the BCI - the Sound and Vision scheme which uses licence fee money and New Adventures in Broadcasting, the second one of which can be applied for independantly of stations, although at least one station will have to agree to broadcast it.

flogen

RadioRetro wrote:

Very few local independant stations neither have the enthusiasm or the cash to commission outside productions, particularly in the speech area.

There are two funds administered by the BCI - the Sound and Vision scheme which uses licence fee money and New Adventures in Broadcasting, the second one of which can be applied for independantly of stations, although at least one station will have to agree to broadcast it.

Thanks for those links.
I'd imagine (and would be happy with) local community stations taking my ideas on rather than commercial ones, but I would like to have a stab at pitching the ideas to them.

projectmayhem

the likes of nearFM and anna livia would be a good way to go, as would college stations (if any exist, even on a small scale)... sure half of newstalk's staff were poached from anna livia

Briony Noh

All it takes is the offer of payment. Anna Livia is a voluntary-run public service broadcaster and everyone in it is either looking to go into the trade or fulfilling their media-student obligations. It is - or at least once was - a very open station in that any half-decent idea is welcome. They'll support you in production, provide engineers and limited training, and by-and-large just leave you to get on with it after that. They hold the final say, of course, on whether they broadcast it or not - or when.

But I suppose this goes for almost all of the talk-based community and public service stations.

RTE et al., different proposition altogether. Pitch, demo, pitch, beg, demo, produce-in-a-noose. Can get you noticed, though.