Pontypridd’s GTFM, Wales’s first full-time community station, has commissioned Swansea based radio consultant Terry Mann of Playlist and Radio Services to review its music content, as part of a package of assignments that also includes staff training and improving local reception.
GTFM’s Station Manager Andrew Jones explains: “We’re reviewing the effectiveness of all areas of our operation ahead of our new licence term, and after opening a dedicated newsroom to extend local news provision we sought Terry’s expert help to assess the music supporting our community-focussed programming. He’s been assisted in the task by partner Doreen Jenkins and it’s been fantastic to have such experienced people around, especially as the original Swansea Sound was a major inspiration behind the station.
I am confident the results will enable GTFM to reach even greater heights”.
Terry Mann added: “It’s great fun working at the sharp end of intensely local radio with Andrew and his team. When you include specialist music, GTFM has built up a database of over 5,000 songs during its three years as an Access station. We’ve been revising the playlist of songs used in daytime output to improve consistency and familiarity.
It is a deliberate policy of GTFM to play a much larger selection of tracks than most other stations, with less frequent repetition. So while debate continues in the radio industry as to the relative merits of narrow or more extensive playlists, the simple objective here is to maintain the long term interest of a diverse local audience by complimenting the wide range of local information content with equally broad music variety?.