WISH FM
Since its launch in April 1997 Wish FM has become a well known, small and independent local station within Wigan and St Helens. The station attracts 5% of the UK audience which is quite impressive for such a small station. Wish FM broadcasts from Orrell Road on 102.4FM from the transmitter located on Billinge Hill. Again, this station also allows consumers to listen online via their website and mobile phone application on IOS. There is no full on demand feature however listeners can get best bits of the show from the Wish FM website.
Wish FM also broadcasts hourly local news bulletins from 6 am until 6 pm on weekdays. However, the station sometimes also simulcasts hourly Sky News Radio. The station is known for its heavy covering of sport. It includes full, live match commentary for every Wigan Athletic game as this is the local football team. There are also live commentaries for Wigan Warriors and St Helens RLFC matches in the Super Leauge. Wish FM also has some connections to Global (like Heart does). The Vodafone Big Top 40 is broadcast by the station, a chart program that is broadcast on many stations including those owned by Global as it is produced at Capital Studios in London (a part of Global radio). The stations more well-known presenters include Chris Milow who hosts the breakfast show. The station is a commercial one and so gets its revenue from advertisements during the programs.
THEIR SHOW...
Again, below is an example of Wish FM's news bulletin as well as a breakdown and my personal opinions of it as a consumer and now as a producer. This one comes as two clips as the weather and news are presented with a break in between.
Weather
0:00
The clips start with an advertisement and goes straight into the main presenter describing an incredibly brief outlook on the weather. This weather report only contains information about 'tonight' so the next few hours.
News
0:00
This clip also begins with an advertisement and then moves on to a jingle with the name of the station and its slogan.
0:15
The news is introduced as '90 second news' with a short jingle.
0:18
The presenter gives the time and then introduced himself and greets the audience. After this, he immediately starts reading out the stories.
0:37
In this version of the story concerning the terror scare in Liverpool, the bulletin includes a statement from a local 'St Helens man', which gets the view of an ordinary local on the story. The quality is quite poor and it sounds as if the man is talking on the phone. This will be important when I decide what type of equipment I need to use for different sections of my bulletin.
1:15
During the next story an expert from the Citizens Advice Bureau to help develop the report and add an expert view.
2:00
The presenter ends by giving the website address of the station and then an advertisement plays.
Overall I feel that the Wish FM news bulletin is more similar to the Heart North West bulletin than the Radio Merseyside one. Again it was faster paced and got more stories in the shorter time slot. A total of 5 stories is reported on as well as the weather in the sperate clip. There is no travel news included although I think this may be due to the time of day. After listening to an extensive number of these bulletins it seems that travel news is mostly included at the start of the day and later on around 5-7 (rush hour times). This bulletin also includes music in the background like the Heart bulletin. Although there are some features of this bulletin I may take note of I feel that overall due to the short length of time it is on, it will be the least helpful when creating my product to ensure that I meet the brief.
BRANDING
Wish FM is completely independent and does not belong to any larger company. For this reason, there is no certain style the logo has to abide by. Much like the other two stations the logo is very simple and has only a few colours, in this case white, red and blue. There is no stand out shapes or symbols that give the station identity however similarly to Heart, the station's frequency is included on the logo.
