DCU Fm - Feedback

DCU Fm Manager · 07-03-2009 12:15AM #1

Hi,

Chris here from DCU Fm's Morning Crew!

Listen we have worked extremely hard on getting dcufm off the ground and are now looking for some feedback from our listeners, good or bad, to help improve the staion in anyway possible.

The ratings have been doing extremely well since the UG/PG/ALLCAMPUS emails went out last week.

The shows and their presenters are starting to sound better everyday as people are relaxing and starting adapting to the daily routine of a radio station.

Potentially, DCU Fm is trying to make itself "Irelands Best College Radio Station" were students can get some real hands on experience and recordings for the portfolio. The stations format is commercial from 9am to 7 pm (due to research on demand) which then sees the station switch to a more urban format afterwards.

In terms of feedback we are looking for opinions on the overall format, music playlists and rotation (PLEASE BARE IN MIND BEING STUDENTS OUR PERDOMINANT MARKET IS 18 - 25), programming and presenters.

Also there are plenty of spaces for adverts for all clubs and societies, which we were thinking of charging a twent euro handling fee to put money back into the station and start putting money into cash prizes. Like the secret sound where if no-one guesses the right answer it will go up by 20 euro each day. Potentially increasing to €1000 by the end of semester. Just a little trick stations use to pull in listeners!

If you have any queries on advertising please contact Lorcan on ads@dcufm.com

You can listen live now at www.dcufm.com and also have a look through the website. (PLEASE NOTE OUR WEBMASTER IS WORKING EXTREMELY HARD ON THE WEBSITE SO SOME FUNCTIONS ARE STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION).

I will try to reply to this blog as much as possible, if you have any personal queries please do not hesitate to email me on manager@dcufm.com.

In the meantime dont forget to listen to the morning crew every morning from 9am til 12pm (repeated at 11pm).

Chris
DCUFm Managing Director

www.dcufm.com
manager@dcufm.com

01 700 5802
087 239 4696

07-03-2009 09:16AM

Sounds very good this semester and was a great idea to have it played outside during the whole of rag week.

Only thing though, the only time I listen to any radio is in the car but while a student here, I amn't driving anywhere...When I am in front of my computer, I can listen to my choice of music all the time without having to listen presenters or adverts.

To be honest, I don't envy your job but best of luck with it anyways and hopefully the work ye have put into it will pay off.

Limerick Dude · 07-03-2009 12:01PM

Is there not a chance DCUFM can be brodcasted on the normal airwaves instead of just online?

I know Wired FM which is the college radio for LIT and Mary I in Limerick broadcast on 99.9 FM and can be listened to anywhere in Limerick.

I also think you should broadcast around campus like you did during rag week! I thought it was a great idea and should be done all the time. Gives the place a bit of atmosphere at least!

Alanthroneus · 07-03-2009 02:15PM

DCU FM will be on the airwaves eventually. i believe there is a lot of red tape.....

Limerick Dude · 07-03-2009 02:59PM

Alanthroneus wrote: »

DCU FM will be on the airwaves eventually. i believe there is a lot of red tape.....

Well considering Wired Fm are the radio just for LIT and Mary I which probably dont have more students put together than DCU, i cant see why DCU cant do it.

legendal · 07-03-2009 04:01PM

Limerick Dude wrote: »

Well considering Wired Fm are the radio just for LIT and Mary I which probably dont have more students put together than DCU, i cant see why DCU cant do it.

Bear in mind that the FM waveband is a lot more crowded in Dublin than in Limerick - last time I checked I could 15 stations here in Glasnevin, and that doesn't even include temporary services that take up space from time to time. So I'd imagine that's an issue the BCI need to consider as well, making it more difficult for a Dublin college to get a permanent licence.

Katniss everMean · 08-03-2009 12:17AM

DCU Fm Manager wrote: »

Hi,

Also there are plenty of spaces for adverts for all clubs and societies, which we were thinking of charging a twent euro handling fee to put money back into the station and start putting money into cash prizes. Like the secret sound where if no-one guesses the right answer it will go up by 20 euro each day. Potentially increasing to €1000 by the end of semester. Just a little trick stations use to pull in listeners!

So far I think you guys are doing great. Though the idea of you charging societies in my opinion is very "gay" (not sure how else to put it). I get the idea, you wont to give the money back in prizes. But your founded by the SPC, SU and your members. Charging other socs and clubs is wrong imo, what if redbrick charged people for webhosting, mails or anything else they helped a soc out with? Campus for articals, SPC SU for advertising in there mails? Socs I feel should work together, not try to earn a quick buck from one another. Try look for outside sponsors if you wont to give away prizes. Thats all I got

robby^5 · 08-03-2009 07:16PM

Angelkat7 wrote: »

So far I think you guys are doing great. Though the idea of you charging societies in my opinion is very "gay" (not sure how else to put it). I get the idea, you wont to give the money back in prizes. But your founded by the SPC, SU and your members. Charging other socs and clubs is wrong imo, what if redbrick charged people for webhosting, mails or anything else they helped a soc out with? Campus for articals, SPC SU for advertising in there mails? Socs I feel should work together, not try to earn a quick buck from one another. Try look for outside sponsors if you wont to give away prizes. Thats all I got

+1

It would be much better to simply allow other socs to advertise for free which would get them involved in the station by producing their own ad's or spots.

It would also help get other clubs and socs involved with DCU FM, but charging them would mean that only societies with events on a large enough scale to warrant radio advertising would ever bother using this service. Providing it for free would be of a massive benefit to clubs and socs life in DCU by giving them the ability to promote themselves through your station, which in turn makes DCU FM look good... charging them would lessen that effect and cheapen it quite a bit and as kat says it doesn't really foster intersoc relations and would make it look like you are basically just out to make money off them.

DCU Fm Manager · 08-03-2009 11:48PM

Hi all,

Thanks so much for sparing your time to express your opinions.

Acouple of things, In terms of the loudspeakers during rag week we got alot of positive feedback. We looked into keeping them permanently but they cost an awful lot of money just for rag week alone so we are looking to buy our own set for next year.

DCU Fm will be on the airwaves soon, i have sent in the 5 Year Institutional BCI Licence before christmas and are still awaiting a response. We have a state of the art Transmitter, Antenna and Processor just sitting there waiting to be turned on as soon as we get word from the BCI. I pressure them every week to hurry along the process. But as somebody mentioned it takes alot longer to be approved in Dublin cause you cant move your dial once without finding another station.

Another thing is i was discussing with presenters last week, would students actually listen on the airwaves, how many students actually have an fm radio on campus? You could listen in your car but an institutional licence only covers an area of about 3/4 miles, that would be great if you were willing to drive around in circles for 3 hours.

In terms of charging for adverts i am still on two minds of whether to go ahead with it or not. You see we got alot of funding to get this off the ground but we still need alot money for other little things and to keep the station going. We need a microphone compressor to help keep the presenters levels in tune with the music (you may have noticed they can get very loud) also it costs £5 sterling for every jingle and radio promotion sweeper we put out, now one could say we could make our own but it is way too time consuming to do it, believe me. We also have to keep updating our licences for music and online broadcasting. Also as i said before the main reason is to give away cash to get more listeners, somebody mentioned sponsorship but in the current economic crisis its becoming very hard to get any money from any company and the more ratings we get the easier this will become.

The advert charge is not DCU Fm out to rip societies off its just a way to help build a better station for you and help put a small bit of investment back in the soc. Sure drama and style soc charge for their big events for the same reason not to rip students off. 10/20 euro is not alot of money from a society to charge i would understand if was coming from a students pocket but it is not, let me know what you think.

Chris

andrew163 · 09-03-2009 01:25AM

A three or four mile radius of DCU is a fairly significant area... it'd cover most of north Dublin. If people had it tuned into their car radios I'm sure they'd listen.

The charging for adverts thing..I'm not too sure about this either. All societies have running costs, that's what grant applications are for. It more or less is coming from students' pockets - a society being charged for advertising for an event will probably charge more for entry to that event. What would the pricing structure be if it was implemented? How much time on air would 20 euro get a society? Would it be 20 euro for each time the advert was played, or 20 euro for (say) a few plays per day for two or three days? The latter would be fairly insignificant and might just work out well for everybody, but the former would up the cost of an event to a society by quite a bit. It might work for very large events like the Drama musical or the fashion show, but these are very rare.

Daysha · 09-03-2009 02:46AM

If permanent speakers outside gets the go-ahead, I'd suggest have them programmed to only turn on during the music shows. News and sport is fine, but I'm not sure if many people are going to want to listen to an hour long current affairs show outside Spar.

gamblitis · 09-03-2009 08:07AM

deise59 wrote: »

If permanent speakers outside gets the go-ahead, I'd suggest have them programmed to only turn on during the music shows. News and sport is fine, but I'm not sure if many people are going to want to listen to an hour long current affairs show outside Spar.

Yeah i'd have to agree with this point. Not that many people would actually sit out listening to the radio especially if there is no music on. Given the reliability of this weather people don't really get much of a chance to sit out at all unfortunately.

DCU Fm Manager · 09-03-2009 05:55PM

andrew163 wrote: »

A three or four mile radius of DCU is a fairly significant area... it'd cover most of north Dublin. If people had it tuned into their car radios I'm sure they'd listen.

The charging for adverts thing..I'm not too sure about this either. All societies have running costs, that's what grant applications are for. It more or less is coming from students' pockets - a society being charged for advertising for an event will probably charge more for entry to that event. What would the pricing structure be if it was implemented? How much time on air would 20 euro get a society? Would it be 20 euro for each time the advert was played, or 20 euro for (say) a few plays per day for two or three days? The latter would be fairly insignificant and might just work out well for everybody, but the former would up the cost of an event to a society by quite a bit. It might work for very large events like the Drama musical or the fashion show, but these are very rare.

The charge would cover every ad break for a week, there are two ad breaks an hour between 9am and 9pm so thats 24 times a day x 7 days = 168 plays a week!

yellowcurl · 09-03-2009 06:27PM

That's definitely worth it then. Considering the going rate for a 14 spot primetime advertising package with 2fm is €7,100, i don't see how €20 for 168 spots could hurt. I'm sure a lot of the clubs/socs wouldn't want to advertise every week, just a select few and it would be up to them after that point.

The idea for the competition is cool too btw! - I just think that maybe the money brought in from the advertising would be better spent on equipment etc. The sponsorship idea for prizes sounds like a good one.

gamblitis · 09-03-2009 10:58PM

yellowcurl wrote: »

That's definitely worth it then. Considering the going rate for a 14 spot primetime advertising package with 2fm is €7,100, i don't see how €20 for 168 spots could hurt. I'm sure a lot of the clubs/socs wouldn't want to advertise every week, just a select few and it would be up to them after that point.

The idea for the competition is cool too btw! - I just think that maybe the money brought in from the advertising would be better spent on equipment etc. The sponsorship idea for prizes sounds like a good one.

Some societies can't afford to spend that much money every week. Especially the ones who need it the advertising. And in that case the bigger societies would be advertising 24/7. Just seems a little unfair tbh. You can't really compare DCU Fm to 2fm either. Its not like DCU fm are a national broadcaster with 10s of thousands of listeners a day.

yellowcurl · 09-03-2009 11:13PM

gamblitis wrote: »

You can't really compare DCU Fm to 2fm either. Its not like DCU fm are a national broadcaster with 10s of thousands of listeners a day.

Exactly, hence the €20 instead of the huge fees that 2fm command. That seems to have been taken into adequate consideration.

From what I gathered from what I read, the fee was only an idea put forward by the manager. I'm sure that the station would take all views on the situation into consideration. Sure it's getting feedback from all angles on this very thread.

gamblitis · 09-03-2009 11:16PM

Well i'm just giving my 2 cents thats all. There is enough fees being paid around here.

yellowcurl · 09-03-2009 11:22PM

And I'm sure they appreciate all of our 2cents about it, whatever it all adds up to!

monument · 10-03-2009 12:32AM

Any attempts by the radio station or publications make to get money by their own means should be commended.

It's advertising. Sure, at the moment advertising has been hit by the downturn, but if a soc's ad is there it means less space for a paying advertiser, or content.

The real comparisons is other clubs' and socs' sponsors. Asking for a free for all on adverts is like one club or soc saying to another "put our logo beside your sponsor's in the same size".

Also on the idea of speakers: Please don't do it. For all the people saying it was great, others were saying it was a joke. Get a licence and they people can tune in or not of their choosing. And, besides, the idea of broadcasting out speakers (outside of the odd week or two) sounds like amateur hour.

yellowcurl · 10-03-2009 12:58AM

monument wrote: »

The real comparisons is other clubs' and socs' sponsors. Asking for a free for all on adverts is like one club or soc saying to another "put our logo beside your sponsor's in the same size".

From a common sense view, you do have a fair point. Afterall DCUfm is part of MPS. I wonder will it work out though? People don't seem to want to pay for ads at all. Are there any events by other societies that people have to pay a nominal fee for?

Alanthroneus · 10-03-2009 03:36PM

Let's flip this situation to another society. If a soc wanted to advertise in the programme for the fashion show or the musical they would have to pay. This is because of the sheer amount of money that goes into these things. And having been involved in both the radio staion set up and producing musicals they are both very expensive. MPS cannot rely on just the SPC for their money, ( however i can see the spc paying for these ads in the future

), it is an excellent source of income. However if socs can't afford 20 euro a week methinks that DCU FM should come to an agreement to do it at a price that they can afford.....

*shadow* · 10-03-2009 06:13PM

I think the DcuFm News bulletins are brilliant. It adds a much more proffesional angle to the station.:D

w00t 1st post

Anon69 · 12-03-2009 01:19AM

Overall it's decent I guess. Not sure if its worth the amount of money that's gone into it but maybe when those involve get more experience it will improve. I heard plenty of “fu*ks” over rag week, and the engineering on some of the shows leave a lot to be desired.

Katniss everMean · 12-03-2009 01:27AM

yellowcurl wrote: »

That's definitely worth it then. Considering the going rate for a 14 spot primetime advertising package with 2fm is €7,100, i don't see how €20 for 168 spots could hurt. I'm sure a lot of the clubs/socs wouldn't want to advertise every week, just a select few and it would be up to them after that point.

The idea for the competition is cool too btw! - I just think that maybe the money brought in from the advertising would be better spent on equipment etc. The sponsorship idea for prizes sounds like a good one.

A soc can't expect to just have EVERYTHING the first year

Most societies build up there equipment over time. Redbrick needs a lot of stuff. We could easily bring in all the money we needed by charging socs for hosting there sites and mailing lists. If money is taken, which I honestly feel it should not be allowed, it should at least go back out in prizes. I also think if money is taken the SPC should take that into account when looking over finances next year. We all have a wish list of stuff we wont. Its why we write santa letters to the SPC and sponsors like AIB etc

The speakers sounded great out side during RAG week, though it could get very annoying over the year, I know from the ca labs we could hear them very clearly, so computing might put in a complaint.

Actually I was just wondering what sound levels will be like in the hub? Sometimes it sounds great, other times its so load its hard to hear and if you are having an event in the seminar room the noise is EXTREMELY distracting and even disrupting to a talk held as apart of tech week. Know you guys probably can't hear whats its like inside but if we tell you it sounds bad can all your hosts adjust it? Or is it preset?

robby^5 · 12-03-2009 11:35AM

The speakers were fine for rag week as just as a once off type thing.

Having them up longer than that would make the campus unbearable to be in, especially for computing students since we didn't get any peace when the speakers were up right outside our computer labs. This made being in labs a and studying in there pretty unbearable.

I'd also assume that the university would never allow it full time since it would kind of constitutes unnecessary noise pollution, in the sense that students do need peace and quiet to actually study. I think a lot of computing students would be opposed to it being a permanent thing.

The Hub has been overly noisy I think and definitely needs to be turned down quite a bit. It's a bit ridiculous when you're upstairs in the seminar room with the doors closed and with a talk going on, yet you can still hear the bloody Kings of Leon from downstairs. It can still be played through the speakers but it doesn't need to be as loud as it is to the point where people outside and upstairs can hear it, they should be lowered to a level where just the people downstairs can hear it clearly.

JournoGirl · 27-03-2009 04:05PM

Just wondering, what licences has DCUFM applied for?

riemann · 28-03-2009 11:01PM

Chris,

While I am sure you are working very hard with your "friends" to make a success of our college radio station, the main stumbling block (in my humble opinion) is the quality of music you are playing and more importantly your target audience.

To put it bluntly you play mainly pop which is all well and good if one is busting a move in the wee hours but lets face it thats not when DCU FM is being listened to.

Your only hope in my opinion is to play some indie/alternative/chillout music instead of the monotonous drivel you have been feeding the masses over the previous weeks.

Also you say the figures are good? How good? You forgot to mention any figures.

Also I have it on good stead that DCU FM is basically a plaything for you and your "friends" to pander your egos, and instead of giving people something new, and testing boundaries you are playing it safe in an effort to up listnership.

While that kind of "music" is sure to keep the 19-20 yr female market happy, you should ask yourself: Could any of these "people" actually get their laptops tuned to DCU FM? How loyal do you think they would be? Is that the audience you want?

If your funding is dependent on your listnership then by all means work the system, but at least set aside a few hours a day for some decent tunes?

This wasn't meant as an insult although it may come across as one, I can assure you that wasn't my intention.

Also (I know that you are part of it, but) the breakfast show has to be the worst show I have ever heard. Why are you all in such good moods so early in the morning? Why is is blared throughout the hub each morning? (That would explain why it is always near empty although I avoid using that particular path anymore unless its raining) To be honest the few times I have passed through, the only thing I could hear was the high pitched screams, and relentless self promoting of a female "DJ". Whoever she is, she must be stopped before she does serious psychological damage to herself or worse, one of your two listeners.

So to sum up:

Radio is dead.
Why are you trying to flog a dead horse?
In these testing times where the reintroduction of fees is likely, an easy method of cutting the fat would be to close DCU FM.

Anayway,
Best of luck in all of you endeavours, your a trier anyway and we all know that GOD is on your side.
Peace out.

P.S. While you may reply to this at your discresion, I would suggest you don't on my account at least.

P.P.S. I have just noticed you call yourself "DCUFm Managing Director". I wasn't aware that DCU FM was a limited company, and was wondering who appointed you to this role? I would love to see your Memorandum of Association at some point and see how far along you are to reaching your goals.

g5fd6ow0hseima · 30-03-2009 12:28AM

I have a number of porblems with DCU.fm.

1- It is little more than a collective of a bunch of people who basically gossip amongst themselves, lolz and zomg all day long. Students are rarely informed of how they can become part of the furniture with the eventual goal of presenting their own show. Its in existence for those few who do it simply to serve prospective employers in a few years time with the delightful 'dcu.fm team 09', as opposed to having an allround catering ability for DCU as a whole. Who has any reason to listen to it? The upcoming DCUSU camapign debates is about the only interesting piece being presented on the station in the upcoming weeks.

2. The music - not everybody is in love with Beyonce's latest song, or U2's latest album. Most people in college would have quite a lot of time for music, would like certain types of music etc. Walking through the hub at 11 or 12 with chart **** absolutely banging out makes me feel I really ought to be in 21s or bondi with a bottle of WKD in my hand. Not once have I heard a song I wouldnt hear on spin 103.8 etc.

You go banging on about how DCU.fm is relands best campus radio? Well, I dont see how. You clearly have nobody in your ranks who is willing to do even as much as throw on a ninja tune compilation or some of the more accessible dupstep (why not be hip, its the new thing these days) or something of the like. I know people who would readily tune into it if they knew if the music was being varied throughout the day, and the usual irish radio crap being left to the more 'established' stations in the city. The bottom line is, if your trying to be something as a station ,be more inclusive, and also, if your trying to differ yourselves from Spin and Radio 98 or whatever, play music they wouldnt dream of playing. Create a station where people would be like 'I wonder whats being played on dcu.fm now, might give it a listen'. And with that brings a few cast members who know something about music.

Chirp-Chirp

30-03-2009 12:35AM

DCU FM is just the college view but for communications students which is all very well and good but it just has nothing of interest for me as I am not wanting experience in it for my CV...

Good point about the role of manager. Also, what was with all the shows getting cut for semester 2?

Also, is the students involvement limited to presenting or do students do the background technical work as well?

g5fd6ow0hseima · 30-03-2009 12:43AM

It should be a collective run by the students. Having a manager is just DCU being DCU. He doesnt need to be there. Is he present to pull the plug incase someone goes preaching profanity?

It shouldnt cost a cent to run, besides whatever fees are obligitory for broadcasting stations in this country. I'd happily present a show along the lines of chillout music or something, and for nothing, it would just be for the fun of it. But im not in that status quo, so I know my place.

yellowcurl · 30-03-2009 01:01AM

1 question: So if people aren't happy with the style of music being played on the station why didn't they go and propose shows themselves???

If it's a matter of "we didn't know when/where to ask" then it really doesn't look like you're too determined to change it yourselves.

Armchair complainers are always the worst.

DCU Fm - Feedback

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