MFR - Not for the community

[Moonboots]

I recently asked for MFR to come to our fundraising event.

The Football Fun Festival at the dammies on Sun 26th Sept.

Here is the response i got after 3 weeks........
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We are able to attend your event. However all broadcasts from any event by MFR is registered as Commercial Airtime and would therefore include a commercial airtime charge.

A basic Outside broadcast consists of 6 live links over a two hour period. In all broadcast an ISDN 2 line must be in place to achieve a suitable signal to the station. The package includes a series of presenter reads and pre recorded trailers to pre promote the broadcast.

Total cost of this promotion is £1100 + vat. This excludes the ISDN2 cost, which should be supplied by the advertiser.
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I totally think this is a disgrace!!!! I emailed them back saying is the charge a joke!!!

Being the Far North's No1 - What do they call North - Inverness!!!!

I expected them to say yes as they would be promoting their service and helping the community.

Needless to say they are just in it for the money i think...

Well thats my rant over lol.....

[gollach]

MFR is a commercial station. If you want community you should try Caithness FM.

[Moonboots]

Yea thats what i have done....

Commerical station's still try to promote themselves in area's that they broadcast.
Obviously MFR dont want to.

[sandyr1]

The Media do provide 'Public Srevice Announcements' free of charge to volunteer/ charitable events.
Usually if it is convenient to/for them, they will attend, but on occasion they will provide ''Air Time'. In your case if you prepare some sort of voice over/ clip or whatever and send it to them, or they & you can do a radio interview.
They will also promote worthy causes, and it is in their mandate to do so.
With us it is done quite regularly, so if you have a worthy cause and they won't come out, perhaps you could send them an 'news clip' and ask them to advertise it as many times as possible.
You will find that on a slow day they will get it out a few times!
The other way is get some celebrity or well known person to come out and they will usually be happy to do it then....You see there must be some incentive for them to look good.
Rack your brain.....' Necessity is the Mother of Invention'....get one of you politicians etc.
And the Governing Bidy of the media do require them to do so.
Just a thought/ you have lots of time/ I don't know what your event entails............if it is charitable you have a better chance...you see they want to look good in all communities. The more people they can say listen to them the more they can charge for ads!

[DeHaviLand]

Is there something you dont understand about "Commercial radio"? How else did you think MFR were going to cover their costs? And you rant about it as if its a charge only made to Caithness events. Its not, so maybe you shouldnt be so insular. Try asking BBC Radio Scotland to cover your event and see what response you get.

[poppett]

I (foolishly it would seem) thought the MFR radio roadshow was a bit like a "loss leader" in Tesco!

The radio station advertise the event the roadshow will be attending, at the roadshow local businesses are encouraged to advertise on the radio station and everyone is happy........................obviously not.

Small compensation I know but I will have some raffle prizes for you next week to help raise some funds.

Hope CFM are more helpful.

Have you found a celebrity yet?

[Walter Ego]

Yea thats what i have done....

Commerical station's still try to promote themselves in area's that they broadcast.
Obviously MFR dont want to.

All promotions incur costs. And I doubt very much that you are the only one making such a request to MFR.

It's rather a selfish attitude to criticize a commercial outfit for covering their costs for their work.
If you go to a 'charity' concert, do you believe all the logistics, staff, ground and acts are all given for free?

Your 'cost' for promotion and possibly increased footfall to your event is £1100+. What you have to do is decide whether this is a viable option or not for your event.

Ask yourself this, are you in the frotunate position of being able to guarantee that 100% of your take on the day will go directly to your charity - or will you have to fork out for certain overheads?

There's no difference between hiring, say, a bouncy castle to increase turnover and using a promo outfit to increase turnover. You still have to pay for the overheads.

[CFM]

Moonboots, can you tell me how you contacted CFM? Unfortunately we don't seem to have your enquiry. I can confirm that CFM does not charge for attending such events, however I am afraid we are not available on that day due to a prior committment. Hope you have a good day and if we can help to promote the event please email office@caithnessfm.co.uk

[Moonboots]

CFM - Ive PMd you...

Walter Ego - I know theres going to be overheads.... The problem like everything else is that we are trying to keep the costs down. I thought they would have charged to come to the event however i didnt think they would be that extreme....

Its costs us alot of money so far and we couldnt afford that level of money just to one business.... Yes we might have donations etc... however the funding for promotion and awards already has taken a big chunk in our funds..

I wasnt ranting about it only being in Caithness... It was just meant to be a rant in general. I know of other areas in the UK that provide their services for next to nothing..

At the end of the day we as a whole "Thurso Youth Club FC and Thurso Town Improvements Association" are voluntary based.. we do not charge anyone for our services. We have helped alot around Caithness without charge...

Poppett - I think the same way as you.... They can create revenue at the event by other businesses in the area however they would want to keep the revenue and also ask for the costs from us too.....

Celebrity - Lucky you would be able to get someone who isnt a celebrity to turn up lol..

Thanks for the donations Poppett.. Any help is appreciated.

Maybe i am being selfish with my rant however when you are trying to raise funding by holding an event... You dont expect other businesses coming in and taking it all just so they can be involved. Its not as if we are charging for them to attend the event.

Thanks all for your input...

[Moonboots]

Maybe the Wick Academy Development Fund would like to help.....