Had it not been for the fact that GFM 96.6 has been granted with a 5-Year extension to its license – Gloucester City would have been waking up to silence on the 96.6 slot as from July 2011! Here are five ways you can help, not only to keep GFM on air, but also to develop our unique local radio service to the community to be even bigger and better than before.
1) INTERACT! Connect with the crew on air via the facilities provided, including the textline. Give feedback to the station. Community Radio thrives on interaction with the immediate local community it serves! (Contact details below)
2) FUNDRAISE! Attend and support community fundraising events, help out where you can: also promote fundraising events through your contacts, social media etc. Better still you or your friends group/club/centre/etc. could organise an event to support GFM, contact 01452 525425 and let us know
3) SERVING THE COMMUNITY. we can be your ‘mouthpiece’, your ambassador in the neighbourhood – creating awareness and increasing interaction from the community. Let us know in advance what you are doing; we try hard but we are not aware of every activity/event within the city!!
4) BUSINESSES: we have an unique local audience in the city including listeners who are not tuned in to other media. Advertise or sponsor a show, it’s cheaper than you think. It’s NOT about how many you reach but WHO you reach – LOCAL PEOPLE who could be coming in through your door!!
5) VOLUNTEER! GFM is always looking for new presenters to support our presenting team. BUT – OK maybe you don’t fancy being live on-air – there’s more to GFM than “dropping tunes & chatting the mic”!. E.g. could you be a local news researcher, or do you have IT skills? Then we need YOU to make our local news and events coverage bigger & better than ever before!
Please visit our ‘Contact us’ page to find out how to get in touch
Small Change Can Make A Big Change
During the month of March GFM listeners raised 31kg of Small Change; GFM’s target is to raise 96.6kg.
Please continue to save your “Small Change” and help us to make a Big Change.
If you live outside Gloucester and you want take part you can send a cheque or postal order to: – GFM, The Trust Centre, Conduit Street, Gloucester, GL1 4XH and we will convert the amount to Small Change
Keep listening to your favourite station for the date of the next weigh in.
GFM in the News – ITV West 17th August 2009
GFM Survival Campaign
In the year 2005, The Office of Communications (Ofcom) started granting broadcasting licenses to create community radio stations, a third tier of radio stations after the BBC and commercial radio. Gloucester FM (GFM) was one of the first 61 community radio stations awarded a full time community license and commenced broadcasting on Friday 21 July 2006.
Between that time and now, 200 community radio stations were created and started broadcasting but sadly 25% of these community radio stations have since ceased broadcasting with the latest casualty being Forest of Dean Radio, which was the very first community radio station awarded a license in the UK.
The BBC is run from 100% of our radio and TV license fees, while commercial radio stations generate profits through selling advertising, but GFM has to be a non-profit making organization bound by The Community Radio Order 2004, which restricts us to a maximum 50% of revenue from advertising. With there being so many community stations it has become extremely difficult to secure grant funding, furthermore the community radio fund is not sufficient to support the growing amount of community radio stations being awarded licenses by Ofcom
As a result GFM faces the same demise of other community radio stations that have since gone defunct if we fail to raise funds to keep us on air.
In October 2010 GFM should hopefully be celebrating 10 years of broadcasting. We are fortunate enough to have volunteer presenters who devote their time and resources to GFM for free, but we still need to pay for operational costs as major as the broadcasting license, Phonographic Performance license, Performance Rights Society, web casting fees, rent, broadband bills, all which make it possible to continue imparting a valuable service to the citizens of Gloucester and beyond.
For GFM to continue empowering and entertaining you the listener’s we need your financial support to keep us on air.
You can become an official friend of GFM and give financial support each month by setting up a monthly direct debit to donate £5.00 or as much as you can afford each month to help to keep GFM broadcasting your favorite music, news, information and advice in its unique style. GFM bank details are as follows: – NatWest: sort code: 60-90-02: Account number: 36732451
You can make payments direct into GFM from this website through Pay Pal
If you would like to call in and see us and give money towards keeping GFM broadcasting, please call 01452 525425 to make arrangements
