We had another excitement filled meeting at Trent Sound Towers (not an actual tower) this evening, this time in the company of the station’s owner. A few of us presenters got together last week in town to attempt to make some sense of what is going on with the station and what we can do to try and stem the flow of financial difficulty surrounding it. The best idea we could come up with was a benefit gig to raise funding for it, featuring the cream of Nottingham music who of course all owe us a favour or two in return for all the support they have received from us. Other ideas involved serious issues such as carrying adverts for the first time, we can attach them to either side of the news and bring down the length of the ‘radio hour’ from fifty eight minutes to fifty. Our major problem seems to be the fact that the station we work for now isn’t the same station that Trent Sound was originally intended to be. Trent Sound was born out of the need for a ‘proper’ local radio station following the demise of Trent FM (formerly Radio Trent). There is an online station called Radio Trent that deals in the nostalgic element of the old station and features ‘legendary’ (to be read in a sarcastic voice) presenters from the good old days of Radio Trent proper. The problem is that this station isn’t real, it is a collection of pre-recorded and voice tracked shows presented as if they were live and as such they are cheating their listeners (assuming they have any). The second problem is that they are based in Sheffield, or it could be Chesterfield, either way they are not what they say they are at all. It makes sense to let them have their silly little nostalgia trip, especially as the people who listened to the station back in the olden days are unlikely to listen to online radio. The granny demographic (great name for a band) are well catered for with oldies stations on FM radio, so for Trent Sound to be chasing the old days of Radio Trent is pointless. We recently lost the services of veteran broadcasters Len Groat and Andy Marriot, which severs the ties to the past, so now the station should be looking out for today. Nottingham is a city full of creativity and we should be embracing that and reflecting it from the station, especially as Trent Sound is regarded as one of the best in Nottingham.

As loved as we are though, the station is struggling to keep its head above water. Our meeting was to try and put something together to present to the controller at a later date. I was having a text exchange with one of our number today about the possibility of taking it over ourselves, emphasizing the well-worn method of the one pound buyout. This of course involves taking over all the financial responsibility which could cause problems somewhere down the line.

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