Radio birthday celebrations (From Hampshire Chronicle)
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Southampton's Voice FM celebrates first birthday
4:06pm Thursday 13th September 2012 in Hampshire Business
Voice FM staff celebrate the radio station’s first birthday.
A COMMUNITY radio station in the heart of Southampton is celebrating a year of being on air.
Staff at 103.9 Voice FM blew out the candles on their first birthday cake after one year of the community project up and running on the airwaves.
During the last 12 months volunteers at the St Mary Street station have been coming in to the centre and representing the area where they live in the city.
Over the course of the last year the station has managed to build up an audience of more than 50,000 people.
The founding of the station was with the joint backing of Solent University, Southampton City College and Solent Skills Quest Branding itself as the “education station”, Voice FM trains people of all ages in order to get them broadcasting on air.
a_dose_of_reality says...
7:10pm Fri 14 Sep 12
There are 236,900 people in Southampton according to the 2011 Census. 50,000 listeners would mean that 21% of people listen to Voice FM.
Some context: Wave 105 reaches 20% of people aged 15+ in its local transmission area, Heart South clocks up 19% and Radio Solent manages 17%. (Source, RAJAR).
Does anyone really think that this tiny broadcaster, with negligible marketing and mostly unpaid presenters, has achieved more listeners than the established professional stations?