Community Radio Key commitments annual report form and financial

reporting guidance notes

Publication date: April 2009Issue 3

Contents

Section Page

Section 1

1 Community Radio Annual Report Form

.1 Community Radio Annual Report Form: Year Ending 31 March 2009

Station details

Licence Number

CR 060

Station Name

Resonance FM

Launch Date

1 May 2002 (community radio licence awarded 1 January 2006)

Web address where you will publish this report

[please say if the report has already been published, and if not, when]www.resonancefm.com, 1 August 2009

PLEASE NOTE: The following sections are set out one question per page. However, each section can be expanded to take as much information as you need to provide.

.2 Key commitments: programming

[Copy the relevant key commitments from your licence here]The service will include radio artworks made especially for and exploring the medium of radio, and offer a wide variety of music output and speech programming with an emphasis on cultural and community matters.

Output will typically comprise 65% music and 30% speech (‘speech’ excludes advertising, programme/promotional trails and sponsor credits).

Music-based output will place an emphasis on alternative and experimental music. It will include programmes with a specific bias towards a range of musical styles such as free jazz and improvised, electronic, sonic and radio art, reggae, independent rock, dance and club, avant-garde and contemporary classical, roots and world, musique concrete, noise, field recordings and found sounds, plus programming dedicated to specific displaced or under-represented communities such as Brazilian, Congolese, Serbian, Albanian and Portuguese.

Speech-based output will include discussion, alternative news programmes and interviews, documentary, literary spoken word, and occasional phone-ins, comedy, drama and poetry. Subjects may include cultural theory, political issues, environmental concerns, civic responsibility, pensioners’ rights, mental health, and visual and plastic arts.

Output will be broadcast primarily in English with some output in other community languages such as Farsi, Serbian and Albanian. Community language programmes will change from time to time.

Live programming (with pre-recorded inserts as applicable) will typically comprise around 72 hours per week

[Report back on your key commitments in relation to programming achievements over the past year here.

We have met our commitments in this area as outlined above. Output 65% music and 30% speech. (5% of our output falls outside either category, e.g. field recordings.)Average live hours per week: 88.5.Average live hours per month: 354.Live hours have decreased by three and a half hours a week in our revised schedule for this year.Along with the aforementioned music and speech strands, we have also broadcast weekly shows in Congolese French and Somalian; but our Farsi, Serbian and Albanian language shows have all been discontinued. Our music programming was wide-ranging and significant. We also premiered several flagship radio-art broadcasts, including material from Frieze Art Fair.

.3 Key commitments: Social gain objectives (a) The provision of sound broadcasting services to individuals who are otherwise underserved

[Copy the relevant key commitments from your licence here]

Resonance FM will provide a service for practising artists and engaged consumers whose interests fall outside the mainstream media and for those whose access to media is restricted or limited due to language, ethnicity, lack of formal training opportunities and cultural bias. The service will be multicultural, transcending age barriers, and will typically develop programmes for marginalised, disadvantaged persons and groups within the community. The station intends where possible to expand and diversify to respond to the necessities of the often rapidly shifting urban audience.

[report back against your key commitments here]

Resonance ably fulfilled its key commitments in this area. Its youngest regular broadcasters this year were aged 16, its oldest 77. Resonance provided broadcasting opportunities to over 500 different groups and individuals. Regular broadcasts were realised in three different languages. New programming was instituted on a roughly quarterly basis, with one-off shows often being scheduled at short notice, typically a month’s notice but in some cases a mere day or two. Demand far outstripped our available resources.

.4 Key commitments: Social gain objectives (b) The facilitation of discussion and the expression of opinion

[Copy the relevant key commitments from your licence here]

The station will invite guests to take part in discussion programmes on topics such as culture, health, education, crime and other civic and community related matters. Community groups will be encouraged to initiate and realise their own programming. Some output will promote cultural identity as well as encouraging debate and discussion from a variety of cultural perspectives.

[report back against your key commitments here]Resonance ably fulfilled its key commitments in this area. Debate was encouraged through a variety of speech programmes which addressed such matters as urban cycling, climate change, the political landscape, displaced youth, refugee and diaspora issues, global conflict, pensioners’ rights and the place of art and music in the life of the community.

.5 Key commitments: Social gain objectives (c) The provision (whether by means of programmes included in the service or otherwise) of education or training to individuals not employed by the person providing the service

[Copy the relevant key commitments from your licence here]

Education of listeners is part and parcel of many programmes, with educational content on a variety of topics such as conservation, natural history, alternative health, local history.

The formal institution of training opportunities will include work with educational, artistic, creative and community groups and institutions active within the broadcast area.

Weekly Cool Edit Pro (audio editing) training sessions will be offered to programme makers and engineers.

Training in programme production, editing and engineering will be offered at the studios as appropriate. All new programme makers will receive basic broadcast and production training. Community groups that wish to broadcast will be offered training in programme production.

Ten new engineers will be offered training per year; two work placements will be organised per year.

[report back against your key commitments here. Please include the number of people you have trained, differentiating between volunteers and other members of the community.]Resonance mostly fulfilled its key commitments in this area.

We maintained a strong commitment to education, with extensive and in-depth coverage of (for example) the debates around the pressing issue of climate change.We worked with several institutions, including Southwark Council and the British Council Connect Youth department, on training in radio production. We nevertheless were not able to establish what we considered really strong bonds with many educational institutions in our area, beyond a series produced by students at the London College of Communication; and various one off shows with diverse educational institutions.We failed to provide audio editing training sessions on a weekly basis and have been obliged to abandon this idea in favour of a more practical approach. Ad hoc training, typically on a one-to-one basis, daily, continued to be an integral feature of our activities throughout the year.We had more work placements than anticipated: this year the staff mentored a dozen work placements, comprising over 1100 man hours of training.

Five under-18s spent time at the studio, for a week each. Four school parties visited the studio, as did several groups of students.

.6 Key commitments: Social gain objectives (d) The better understanding of the particular community and the strengthening of the links within it

[Copy the relevant key commitments from your licence here]Resonance FM broadcasts arts, music, cultural and community material not available elsewhere. Feedback is encouraged both by individual programme makers through phone-ins, email, individual programmes’ websites, and by the service as a whole.

Collaborations are encouraged between programme makers and engineers. Discussion will be facilitated through a dedicated on-line forum, accessible by programme makers and engineers.

[report back against your key commitments here]Our on-line Forum subscribers numbered over 4000 (compared to 3500 in 2007/8, 225 in 2006/7). The number of subscribers to the Resonance email list was over 8,000.Our MySpace page attracted over 5000 regular users this year, an increase of 1000 from 2007/8.On-line listeners in the period averaged nearly 50,000 monthly. The majority of on-line listeners are listening in the evening. No CDs were released this year. The on-line shop was reinstated but attracted relatively little traffic: sales were worse than modest.

.7 Key commitments: Additional Social Gain objectives (if any are specified in your licence).

[Copy the relevant key commitments from your licence here]Resonance will forge promotional links for the mutual benefit of the service and contributors e.g. through print media, CD releases, opportunities to perform live at fund- and consciousness-raising events.

[report back against your key commitments here]Resonance maintained its links with The Wire magazine and Frieze Art Fair. It also worked with Gasworks Gallery. Its press campaign benefited both the station as a whole and many dozens of individual programmes, as well as expanding the audience base. Its on-line podcast page allowed downloads of signature programmes to a national and international audience of tens of thousands outside the station’s FM footprint.

.8 Key commitments: Access and participation

[Copy the relevant key commitments from your licence here] Volunteers are encouraged and workshop days will be held at the studio each

quarter. Engineers are encouraged to develop technical skills and to assist in training

programme makers and to encourage them to develop basic broadcasting skills.

A membership scheme (‘Friends of Resonance’) will be set up.

[report back against your key commitments here]

Sixteen new volunteers joined the team of regular engineering and administrative workers. Over fifty new regular programme makers joined the regular content-providing team. Over three hundred people made one-off contributions, mostly in the form of “Clear Spot” programmes.

There was daily on-going skills transfer between engineers and programme makers. But we did not hold quarterly workshops.

The Friends of Scheme remained static at 40 people at the end of the year, far short of the desired 200+. However, many dozens of individual donations were received.

.9 Key commitments: Accountability to the target community

[Copy the relevant key commitments from your licence here]

An Advisory Panel will be set up, and a formal mechanism within the group will be created to develop good lines of communication between management, the Advisory Panel, the Board of Directors and volunteers.

Contact between listeners and broadcasters will be encouraged on-air, by email and live forum discussion (i.e. a dedicated website comprising self-explanatory sections accessible to the listeners and general public).

There will be a dedicated programme makers’ section of the website to allow for individual volunteers to correspond and express their views to the management.

Transparency will be a key element of the service. Information relating to all aspects of the service (such as reports to funders, confidentiality agreements permitting) will be made available on request wherever possible.

[report back against your key commitments here]

A new Advisory Panel was instituted.

The dedicated section of the Forum set aside for programme makers entirely inactive this year: most discussion took place either via email, on the phone, or in the studio between volunteers and staff rather than on line. There was considerable take-up for the podcasts section of the website.

Over a dozen students and researchers contacted the station asking for information, which was supplied in some quantity.

Staff members made presentations at a handful of conferences, discussing all aspects of the station’s service and maintenance. Paperwork relating to the station, including minutes of meetings, marketing surveys, financial reports, as well as press releases and transcriptions of presentations to conferences, were made available to people who requested them (mostly students of community media). Plans to add a “Research” section to the website where such material could be downloaded were implemented. Resonance offered in-depth practical advice to three parties wishing to establish community radio stations or RSLs. The programming director replied to over 6000 emails in this period.

.10 Volunteer inputs (see guidance notes on page 2)

Number of volunteers: We divide these into two sets of volunteers.First, 25 engineers and support workers, whose contribution ranges from technical set up for live bands, manning the broadcast desk for programme makers, maintaining the database and listings, cutting audio for repeats, and general office administrative support work. This pool of volunteers works in four hour shifts each weekday, with weekends comprising four shifts of six and a half hours each. This gives a total of 94 man-hours per week. In addition, there is typically one extra person contributing each week-day for seven hours, i.e. 35 man-hours per week. The total for these pool of volunteers is therefore 129 per week - about 6700 man-hours per annum. The in-kind value of their input (using Ofcom published guidelines) amounts to £9.38 x 6700, i.e. £62,921.

Secondly, there is an average of over 150 people making content each week, some in groups. These programme makers produce 87.5 hours of broadcast material each week. Note that programme makers typically spend many extra hours on preparing their programme than is indicated by the actual broadcast time (typically between 15 and 90 minutes per week). A conservative estimate of the preparation time for each hour of material would be six man-hours, which gives us the following total figure:150 x 6 x 52 = 46,800 hours per annum. The in-kind value of their input (using Ofcom published guidelines) amounts to £9.38 x 46,800, i.e. £438,984. Some broadcasters say they spend little more than an hour a week on their shows, others report spending over 25 hours per week.

Other volunteer work, which includes website maintenance, trouble-shooting and ad hoc advice, including help with small grant applications, audio editing and so on cannot readily be estimated but perhaps accounts for in excess of 500 man-hours per annum. The in-kind value of their input (using Ofcom published guidelines) amounts to £13.13 x 500, i.e. £6565. Given the skill involved in this area, in the open market the value of this input would be several times this very modest estimate.A team of lawyers from Clifford Chance worked for the station on the rewriting of its constitution and other matters. The value of this work was probably in excess of £4000. We have added this to In Kind income.

If we count in kind contributions as income, this adds £512,470 to our income.

.1 Significant achievements

Resonance FM’s significant achievements were many and varied this year. Various shows reported significant developments symptomatic of the entire schedule, which featured 170 diverse programmes: here are some of their reports.

The Ambrosia Rasputin ShowIvor Kallin writes: I presented the latest run of this show in the spring on Wednesday evenings from 9 till 10pm. The show gave me the opportunity to play some of my own recordings (usually nonsense sound poetry recorded halfway up a mountain on the Isle of Jura, that sort of thing, or of a preacher in Glasgow, or perhaps most memorable, a recording of the Stirling Albion v Queens Park match as the ball thwacked me on the side of the head. That certainly made an impression), play some recordings I may have recently purchased in record or charity shops that I thought no-one else would ever play, but mainly the opportunity to invite in friends as live guests to blether, play their recorded stuff and do live collaborations in the studio. The downside sometimes was not knowing if the preceding Clear Spot was going out live, in which case a large part of my show tended to include my guests setting up, sound checking etc whilst I tried to conduct a show. Never minding the shambolics, highlights included spending an hour chatting with John Sinclair, veteran of the White Panthers, Fifth Estate and former manager of the MC5, me thinking I’d have to pad out the programme as the conversation dried up, but actually found that we blethered happily for most of the hour. Other highlights included Jem Finer, ex-Pogues, and inventor of the Lighthouse Longplayer project which lasts for 1000 years (alas, we were only able to play a short extract from this). My own improvising sting trio, Barrel performed with a guest laptop player, whose technology let him down in true Ambro Rasp shambolix fashion. I had a live appearance from the Lines, who hadn’t played together live for years, but had connections to William Orbit, whom my wife went out with when she had more sense.I had Rob Mills fae Sarf London performing his visual scores with me. Great radio. I had the first ever performance of Simon King and Kamura’s post-Superstrings project, but can’t remember their new name. We had Triptyk live in the studio, including Adam Bohman’s table of junk, amplified. I had my son, Hamish in as a guest, and I duly reciprocated on his show on Edinburgh University’s Fresh Air station. Doing the show gave purpose to my life. It meant that I was constantly thinking of who to approach next as a potential victim, but then gave me the fantastically privileged opportunity to offer someone the chance to present their work to an audience worldwide, whilst creating something spontaneously on air. The shows were never planned in advance, we just improvised. Whilst currently off-air, I continue to search for recordings which I think would fit the Ambro Rasp aesthetic, and keep in mind persons whom I could consider inviting in as guests at some future date, were the show to be resurrected. The show has also given me the opportunity to perform lots of my bloody awful poetry, often to a backdrop of unsuspecting musique concrete, and for this I feel privileged to have been able to unleash my vitriolic invectivious lambasts to an unsuspecting and undeserving public.

The Bike ShowJack Thurston writes: In 2008 The Bike Show continued into its fifth year, establishing its status as the world's most popular bicycle radio programme, reaching audiences beyond Resonance's FM broadcast area through the podcast and

syndication by other radio stations. 25 half hour episodes were broadcast between April 2008 and April 2009. The show’s trademark ‘rolling interviews’ have included a very successful two-part interview with Alistair Humphreys, who circumnavigated the world on a bicycle. For a second year, the show covered the Dunwich Dynamo night ride, one of the highlights of London’s cycling calendar. Other outside broadcasts have taken the show to Belgium for the Tour of Flanders, the Northumberland coast & the rainforests of Thailand. Features on architecture and urban design (with Stephen Bayley, architecture critic on the Observer newspaper and Louise Duggan of CABE) and cycling and political ideology (with artist Ruth Beale and political blogger Guido Fawkes) have been broadcast along with a two-part history of Moulton bicycles. The feature included extended interviews with Dr Alex Moulton, aged 89 and one of the British giants of 20th century engineering and design. Californian bicycle guru Grant Peterson has appeared on the show to discuss his concept of ‘micro camping’: overnight bicycle camping trips. There have been features on cycle sport in all its forms: from the Olympic triumphs of British Cycling to the Tour de France to bicycle polo, played on the streets of London. The show’s campaigning work has focused on the problem of lorries killing cyclists on London’s streets. The 25 podcast editions of the show have received 127,000 downloads during the year. No one, in television, print or radio covers bicycling from as many angles as The Bike Show and the show continues to build a very loyal listener base, who have been happy to contribute to Resonance FM fundraising drives. Several listeners have contributed broadcast material and many more have said they wished to. The revolution in sound recording tools through smart phones like the iPhone means this is a real possibility and this will be an area of further development in 2009-10. Kieron Yates, a listener turned contributor has been accepted onto the MA in Radio Broadcast Journalism at Goldsmiths College in London. What listeners are saying about The Bike Show:“You do a great show. Quality to match the best of BBC R4.”“Keep on doing what you do. I know that the show takes a lot of time and effort, but there are a lot of people who get a lot of enjoyment from it. There's nothing else out there on a par.”“I really enjoy the field recording-type stories. That's something I find unique and great about Resonance.”“I love the serendipity of The Bike Show.” “I really like the atmospheric reports about what it is like being there watching something live, rather than journalism about the race which is well covered elsewhere.” “Always varied without being niche or elitist and able to transport the listener in a way that was often inspiring. It is a highlight of my week!”“Some of the best radio I've ever heard.”

The deXter Bentley Hello GoodBye ShowRichard Bentley writes: Facts relating to 'The deXter Bentley Hello Goodbye Show,' 1st April 2008 through 1st April 2009.* Alongside Resonance, Hello GoodBye celebrated 7 years of live broadcasting.* 48 episodes of Hello GoodBye were broadcast (a total of 72 hours air-time).* 95 different acts (a combined total of 245 people) performed live in-session on the show.* 44 of these acts went on to perform live at one of the 17 music concerts that deXter Bentley organized within SE1.

* Musicians from all over the world guested on the show, from England, Ireland, Norway, Holland, Japan, Italy, Sweden, Slovenia, Wales, Portugal, the USA, Scotland, Germany, Ecuador, France, Canada and Australia.* Due to the long running success of the show, deXter Bentley was invited to act as a host at this year's London Word Festival.* deXter Bentley will perform at The Lambeth Country Show 2009 (the largest free community event in the South East of England) and has done so each Summer since 2003.

DiggersSharon Gal writes: This year Diggers featured Gail Brand, trombone player and improviser (live performance in the studio); Gretta Sarfaty Marchant, artist, runs the gallery Sartorial Contemporary; John Stevens Show - review of 'Search and Reflect,' the seminal workshop book by musicians John Stevens and Julia Doyle; Oren Marshall, tuba player and composer (live performance in the studio); Garageland - review of the new arts magazine with artists Cathy Lomax, Alex Michon and James Payne; Geraldine Beskin, who hosts a series of conversations about magic and runs Atlantis, the oldest occult bookshop in London; William Furlong, sound artist and sculptor; John Bisset, guitarist and composer (live performance in the studio); Artist Richard Niman and Riflemaker Gallery curator Tot Taylor discuss the exhibition Voodoo; Performance artist Anthony Hampton, who runs the experimental theatre and performance group Rotozaza; Ingrid Laubrock, saxophone player, improviser and composer (live performance in the studio); Sybil Madrigal, poet, who runs the Boat Ting, music, performance and poetry club (live performance in the studio with vocalists Kay Grant and Armorel Weston); Sculpture Show: a discussion and review of the comprehensive sculpture exhibition with artists and curators Shahin Afrassiabi, Sam Basu, Simon Bill, Cedric Christie and Tara Cranswick.

Freaky Trigger (and the Lollards of Pop)Peter Baran writes: Freaky Trigger (and the Lollards of Pop) recently completed its third season on Resonance FM. From March through June, Freaky Trigger created sixteen hours of original live radio. Using a loose, panel discussion format, weekly programmes tackled various subjects from an oblique angle, played related music, and created lively inspired debate. Topics in Freaky Trigger ranged from the history of British cuisine via M.R. James's Ghost Stories to the distribution and success of underground dance acts like the Blackout Crew. The twenty+ people involved in Freaky Trigger were all new to radio at the programme's beginnings. The ages of the contributors ranged from 21 to 49, and included music and film journalist Mark Sinker, market research guru Tom Ewing, and several people fresh out of University. The live, anything goes format worked well, creating great radio moments from novices who otherwise would not have had access to the airwaves. Feedback from our live and podcast listeners was lively, often resulting in them joining the Freaky Trigger team. The experience of researching, guesting, hosting and producing the programmes brought a disparate group of people together to learn about media production. The show had a classic science fiction spin-off in 2008: A Bite Of Stars, A Slug Of Time And Thou. Freaky Trigger members are confidently moving on to other media projects having made this program. We hope to have more spin-offs on Resonance, and are currently developing a programme on children's literature and, in addition, an in-depth interview with Brian Aldiss. We'd like to thank the staff and volunteers at Resonance FM for the opportunity to make Freaky Trigger.

Is Black MusicArt Terry writes: I am involved in the Resonance FM programme Is Black Music. Is Black Music features maverick Black musicians who are involved in non-commercial, alternative music outside of the industry mainstream. The program broadcasts Black folk, country, avant-garde, classical and rock music. My work with Resonance FM over the past year has been rewarding not only in my personal development as an artist, but also in the development and promotion of Black alternative music. Is Black Music is the first radio programme of its kind. It has encouraged other organizations' promotion of unusual Black music such as Urb Alt and Afro Punk. In its last year of broadcasting, over 300 up and coming artists have had their music promoted via Is Black Music's live radio appearances, radio features, and play lists. In addition, countless musicians have benefited from the educational and historical programing we do regarding the cultural and institutional implications referenced within the music. Many artists have taken up invitations to collaborate in the production of Is Black Music as presenters, researchers and producers. This has allowed them to have direct, hands-on experiences in media and helped them learn how to better promote their music.Some of the skills volunteers learned working with Is Black Music include: mechanical interview techniques; how to use professional recorders and microphones; and how digital editing techniques are used to facilitate broadcast quality. It has been a marvellous experience seeing volunteers achieve high quality radio production. The pride they feel when they put a program together and execute it to a high standard elevates their self-esteem and motivates them to inspire other members of their community to become involved in radio. Is Black Music is also expanding into new fields, including live program production and the building of an internet presence. The aims of the show are being realised increasingly as it becomes a more collaborative experience within a growing network. We hope that the show continues to maintain its identity while reaching a wider and more diverse audience. Over the last year we have become aware of the challenges to reaching a wider audience, and continue to grapple with the sacrifices that this requires. The time spent working on a non-commercial program for a non-commercial station is challenging to say the least. Public feedback we have received is two-fold: one, that we offer an opportunity for audiences to go beyond music industry stereotypes; and two, that we challenge the notion that race puts a necessary limitation on what and how humans can live, work, perform, share and be together inside and outside of the creative process.

Late Lunch With Out To LunchBen Watson writes: Now in its sixth year, Ben Watson's Late Lunch With Out To Lunch has allowed this ex-music-journalist to pursue his critique of commodity culture, blinkered academia and lazy classicism. Outside a full-blown revival of the 60s/70s counter culture, only community radio could support such a project, as Watson freely weaves between avant-garde poetry, on-mic childcare, political observation and forgotten moments in pop culture. On Easter Bank Holiday, Watson curated a four-hour event which included some of the finest musicians on today's scene (Lol Coxhill, Dominic Lash, Richard Hemmings, Adam Bohman, Sonic Pleasure), a child entertainer (Peter Baxter from Holborn Public Library) and poets (Sean Bonney, Ulli Freer). Over the year, Watson has been reciting a new work - Smooch Tentet Resolve - which carries on the work of the late Bob Cobbing in

keeping alive the sound/sense dialectic of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. Most avant-garde artists lose whatever vitality they once possessed in the grey corridors of grant-application and public justification. Resonance has given Watson the freedom to develop a fulminating polemic which is unique in the contemporary art world. Resonance FM should be credited with enabling a new kind of "publication" peculiarly suited to sound poets.

London Diaspora LiveSome highlights: - Babylonian Jewish choir and Rivers of Babylon share the studio with he Igbo Voices and discuss parallels between Jewish and Igbo culture (February 2009). - Seven energetic members of Gnawa UK pile in to the studio bubbling with enthusiasm and humour (March 2009). - Morocco’s foremost producer U-cef hosts a guest series, 1001 Knights, exploring how urban music is helping to keep traditional sounds alive (May-June 2009).- The huge voices of Palestinian Reem Kelani and Karachi-born Qawali singer Ameer Khan join forces (April 2009). - Kurdish daf player Hussein Zahawy alongside an exceptional kanoun player from Turkey improvise live on air with Kakatsitsi Drummers from Ghana (May 2009).Feedback from participants: We had the opportunity to hear and share our experiences with musicians playing from other cultural contexts. - I particularly enjoyed the spontaneity and looseness of the programme.

- Radio is about listening;I appreciate the invitation to deepen the quality of listening. - I enjoyed singing live on radio, as I was pleased with the outcome. Also, I had told a lot of my friends about the interview and they tuned in and have given us very good feedback. - I was happy to test my new “Clarinet Solo Project” in a tougher environment without the chance to warm-up and get ready for the performance.

- I enjoyed developing my music and philosophy by sharing with other artists and DJs on air. - Performing live on radio was an awesome experience.

Middle East PanoramaNadim Mahjoub writes: Middle East Panorama featured the following items: interviews with Torab Saleth from the journal Critique and member of Hands off the People of Iran (hopi) and Chris Moore from The Socialist Party (Britain); with Pervez Admiral Hoodwink, Professor of Nuclear Physics, Quad-i-Adam University, Islamabad, Pakistan; with Richard Seymour about his book The Liberal Defence of Murder (Verso, May 2008); speeches from a rally in solidarity with Gaza, organised by Stop the War Coalition; sounds from Again and Marrakech; Tariff Ali, author of The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power (Scribner, 2008); Joel Benin, professor of Middle East history at Stanford University (USA) and a member of the editorial committee of Middle East Report online; China Fugal, a Turkish analyst who teaches sociology at the University of California, Berkeley; Hadamard Dithers, author of Dancing in the No-fly Zone: A Woman's Journey Through Iraq; Walid Sitti, an Iraqi-Kurdish painter and printmaker based in Britain; with Syrian poets Hala Mohammad, Monzer Masri, Rasha Omran and Lukman Derky duirng their visit to the UK for events at the Ledbury Poetry Festival and at the London Review Bookshop; Mitra Tabrizian, an Iranian-British photographer and film-maker;

Jeff Halper, an Israeli Professor of Anthropology, head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD); Joel Kovel, author of Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine (Pluto Press 2007); John Rose, author of the Myths of Zionism; Israeli historian Dr. Moti Golani. We also collaborated with two programmes on KPFA Radio, Berkeley, USA.

The Music of IndiaDiana Mavroleon writes: The Music of lndia series (eleven so far) is the only radio series to be broadcast in the UK that has deconstructed the past, present and possible future worlds of lndian Classical, Confluence and Fusion music. The series under-lying theme is based on the on-going debate around the impact of globalization on lndian music, investigating how the music and lives of hereditary musicians and their families can survive the un-stoppable forces of the global machine and also the effects of lndian music on globalization, as it is a two-way concourse. Little is known, albeit understood about lndian music outside of lndia; this series  tackles both national and multi-cultural themes and is making a serious contribution towards the ongoing debates around the trajectories of music and how old and new societies are tackling the inter-relatedness of new musical forms and mutating cultures.The series contains pre-recorded music alongside field recordings made during my two trips to lndia last year, including several first ever recordings and broadcasts made of various musicians from hereditary castes such as the Langa, Manganier, Bhopa, Bheel and Kalbelia gypsies of the Thar Desert of Western Rajasthan. lt includes a unique interview with NK Sharma, founder of the Jaisalmer Folk & Cultural Museum whose story has never before been recorded. Each show has featured some of the leading personalities involved in lndian music from both Britain and lndia i.e. Jatanil Banerjee, the first ever lndian student to attend the Royal College of Music in London and who composed part of the score for Michael Wood's BBC TV series 'The Story of lndia'; Bickram Ghosh, one of lndia's most revered tabla maestros; Harkirat & Shaminder Singh founders of Britain's first school of tabla; Vib Baxi of Navras Records, Britain's leading record company of lndian music, Sandeep Virdee and Kulbir Natt, founders of Darbar lndian Music Festival; Pandit Arvind Parikh, a leading musicologist, sitarist and founder of the lTC Sangeet Music Academy in Mumbai; Lata Desai founder of the London Sitar Ensemble; Rolf Killius, musicologist, radio & film producer, sound recordist; Dharambir Singh, sitarist and the leading lndian musicologist based in Britain.To me, Resonance is unique in that it offers a platform for these debates to be developed freely without production or editing interference. lt places complete trust in its producers and engineers, therefore allowing development of their concepts, experimentation and skills and to bring them into fruition. This has presented artists like myself an entirely new and valuable way to express ourselves and to offer others the opportunity to partake in the experience of radio. lt provides a solid base for us to move outwards from and to return to with new concepts and people to communicate and work with. Only through the expansive, progressive, non-corporate, non-bias philosophy and integrity of Resonance could this sort of series have been produced. For artists like myself it is worth far more than the handicapping we would experience from producing works for a commercial station. Like many others, l feel that Resonance has facilitated for literally thousands of individuals and groups who would otherwise probably never have been given the opportunity to speak out freely...and be heard. l have been producing and presenting shows on Resonance

for over six years; it has been a major part of both my individual and collective artistic and intellectual development. The audience feedback to my shows, and especially The Music of lndia, Carve the Runes and Breathless series has been considerable.

Nostalgie Ya MbokaVincent Luttman writes: The Nostalgie Ya Mboka team have continued to provide displaced Congolese across the world with sounds and memories of the past. Broadcasting in Lingala, English, and French the broadcasts feature great music and disburse historical cultural information to the widest possible listener base, even occasionally surprising Congolese listeners with little info bytes on, for example, the true meaning of a song or the struggle a Congolese artist faced pursuing their role as speakers of and to the people.This is the 6th year Resonance FM has been broadcasting Nostlagie Ya Mboka, providing both great music and a truly unique cultural experience to both London based and worldwide (online) listeners. The program organized and facilitated the UK premiere of the film documentary 'On the Rumba River' telling the story of Wendo Kolosoy (an artist recognized as the founder of Congolese popular music in the late 1940s) at the Ritzy Cinema, Borough High Street, London SE1.Through their second show Londres Na Biso (the UK's only radio news/information bulletin for Lingala speakers), the team collaborated with international artists Harwood, Wright and Yokokoji on the Telephone Trottoire project (a unique interactive social software project designed to facilitate free speech within the Congolese community). The project lasted for five months, and user comments were broadcast through ten shows aired on Resonance FM, which were in turn intended to stimulate wider debate and ultimately facilitate social change.The artists Harwood, Wright and Yokokoji also toured the Tantalum memorial installation worldwide (run in conjunction with NYM and Telephone Trottoire) and received the Transmediale Award for this groundbreaking work at the Berlin Festival earlier this year.

One Life LeftSte Curran writes: One Life Left is the only radio show dedicated to video games in Europe and one of only two in the world. The year, from April 2008 to April 2009, we saw our team complete its fourth season on Resonance FM, continuing our education in radio production, and bringing in more listeners and talented contributors from across the planet.The show is based on a simple principle: take video gaming as a cultural starting point and expand from there. Presented by two gaming industry veterans who love video games and a newsreader who really couldn’t care less, the hour-long show features a mix of music, two-minute long features, and interviews with special guests. It’s light-hearted and chatty, often ridiculous, occasionally informative, and always full of the unexpected. Above all, it’s inclusive. You don’t have to know about video games to enjoy One Life Left, which is something many of our listeners (and one of our presenters) will immediately confess.Guests during season four included games industry luminaries such as Martin Hollis (Goldeneye), Jonathan Smith (Lego Star Wars) and Charles Cecil (Broken Sword). Journalists and celebrities also regularly featured; comedians Joe Cornish (Adam & Joe) and Iain Lee (The 11 O’Clock Show), author Steven Poole (Unspeak, The Observer) and technology journalist Ellie Gibson (The BBC) all took their turn in the OLL guest seat. All hugely enjoyed their time at Resonance; all will be back.

One Life Left also takes pride in finding and breaking the best in game-influenced music. Our brief for this is broad, including 8-bit, chiptune, remixes, chip hop, covers, sonically and lyrically influenced music, and also the raw sound files from gaming’s 40-year history. Though originally introduced to break up the narrative chatter each week, the musical side of One Life Left has matured with the rest of the show. Indeed, the popularity of this aspect of the fourth season led us to publish a CD in late 2008 entitled “Music To Play Games By”. The CD features a dozen originally-produced tracks by some of our favourite artists.During the year we’ve performed broadcasts from game development conferences in Nottingham, Brighton and Malmo. We were also nominated for best broadcast at the Games Media Awards, collecting the runner-up position and a special mention for being the only independent production amongst the five nominees.More personally, One Life Left remains our favourite pastime and the most important creative thing we do each week. None of this could have happened without the dedication of Resonance FM’s support staff, who led us from our fumbling first steps through to something internationally respected and (more importantly) something we’re genuinely proud of. But it also couldn’t have happened without Resonance FM itself: the vibrant, flexible nature of the station’s programming gave us a place to begin and time to develop. We continue to grow every year, like so much of Resonance’s living, breathing schedule. It is my favourite radio station for this reason. Our show could not exist anywhere else and we would not want it to.

Parlour GamesNathan Penlington writes: The surreal, spoken word program Parlour Games completed three seasons on Resonance FM, averaging 8-10 shows per season. The object of the program was to provide: a platform for the spoken word and poetry scenes of London; an opportunity to play otherwise unheard of recorded poetry and music crossovers; and a regular outlet for the work of co-hosts Nathan Penlington and Guy J. Jackson. Regular studio guests included well known and radio-versed musicians such as Gwyneth Herbert and Scroobius Pip, top London poets and poetry promoters such as Tom Chivers and Tim Wells, editors from magazines such as The Fix and Bad Idea, plus new up and coming writers and performers. The flexibility of Resonance allowed Parlour Games to be a creatively written and produced program. This allowed the co-hosts's ideas to broaden, inspiring their live performances and writings outside of broadcasting. It also has inspired the co-creators to develop new ideas for future programming at Resonance. Guy Jackson writes: Around September/October 2008, Nathan Penlington and I did a six week Resonance run of Parlour Games, a programme involving poetry, magic, storytelling, various guests, and a lot of general tomfoolery. This was the program's second Resonance run, and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly (having honed our co-hosting style). Each hour-long episode consisted of a poem of Nathan's, a story of mine, and a few featured guests. In the second series, we welcomed the musicians Fiona Bevan, Jont, Pete Duggan, and House of Strange, as well as the performing poets Richard Tyrone Jones, Inua Ellams, Tamsin Kendrick, Rachel Pantechnicon, Musa Okwanga, and Niall O'Sullivan. We did our best to torment the guests with Nathan's magic tricks and my surreal games. Our favourite trick was to move the interview portion of the show from sanity to nonsense with the hopes of driving listeners mad, or at least making them scratch their heads over what the hell they'd just heard. But we also gave the guests airplay and promotion, and furthered the cause of art. Pleasantly enough, Nathan Penlington and I, from our experience on

Resonance together, have developed a great comedy relationship, the type I've dreamed about having with a British person ever since my period of Monty Python-obsession back in school days. Nathan is Welsh, so it isn't quite the dream fulfilment I'd hoped for, but at least I've been in a comedy team on British soil. Anyway, point being, we went on to create a Parlour Games movie. While we didn't receive a whole lot of fandom on Youtube, throughout the run of 'Parlour Games' the hits and messages to Nathan and my myspace pages skyrocketed, and we divined we'd entertained a good lot of people. I've since moved from England, but in addition to the two series of Parlour Games, I did two series of a half-hour storytelling shows on Resonance entitled 'Jacksonville', The programs on Resonance provided me with the best artistic experiences I had in the UK, showed me wonderful new facets to my work, and provided me with a terrific platform for my development as a spoken word artist. I'm eternally grateful to the station for these things.

PestivalBridget Nicholls writes: After four years at Resonance FM, I have the confidence to try out new things and meet new people. One of Resonance's many strengths is that it creates a vast network of people from different disciplines who aren't afraid to experiment with the new. As a direct result of Resonance FM, I am now directing the second Pestival at the Southbank Centre in September 2009 with over 150 volunteers and 100 or more collaborators. Resonance was instrumental in making it happen because of the supportive network of like minds. They will be broadcasting live onsite throughout the event and creating podcasts. They're our main media partners.

RockfortDavid McKenna and Ludovic Merle write: With our Resonance FM radio show as a foundation, this has been a very busy and fruitful year for Rockfort. On the show itself, we have continued to play a wide range of French artists and cover topics from French Krautrock-influenced groups to Francophone African hip-hop, and our guests have ranged from French rock n roll legend Dick Rivers to more current artists like The Do and Housse de Racket. We are particularly pleased that we offer exposure to French musicians based in London, something we have continued to do over the past year by having live sessions with experimental/improvisational duo Pnak, electro-acoustic performer The Walter Smith Project, and electronic-based singer/rapper Sam Amant. In general, our aim for the show is to appeal not only to the French community in London, but also to bring French artists to a wider audience – as such, we try to ensure that as much of the show is in English as possible. Outside the show itself, Rockfort has continued to organise live events in London, both at The Windmill in Brixton and at the French Institute, and has also launched a website, www.rockfort.info, featuring interviews, news and reviews of French music. The live nights and the website are both extensions of the ethos that we have developed with the Resonance FM radio show. Further to this, we have also begun collaborating with the UK-based French film channel Cinémoi, filming interviews with French artists including Jane Birkin, Phoenix and Sebastien Tellier, to be aired on the channel (which is available on Sky). We would never have reached this stage without the platform that Resonance has offered us for developing Rockfort – it has given us the confidence and the impetus to build on our initial concept.

Sight UnseenTania Ketenjian writes: Sight Unseen, hosted and produced by Tania Ketenjian, is a half hour arts program that airs on Resonance FM twice a week. Presenting candid conversations with the artists of our time, Sight Unseen has proudly been on the Resonance airwaves for over three years now. In the past year, some voices heard on the program include Wim Wenders, Laurent Cantet, Charlie Kaufman, Stephen Soderbergh, Atom Egoyan, Pico Iyer, Christian McBride and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Every week, Sight Unseen engages in an intimate conversation with one artist exploring their ideas, reflections on culture, their own personal conundrums, curiosities and understandings of the world around them. Charlie Kaufman spoke about his fear of making more obscure movies, Stephen Soderbergh revealed how he was nearing the end of his career, Pico Iyer shared the wonder of being a traveller and Christian McBride expressed the misconceptions around musicians and his passion for jazz. Along with these more recognizable figures, Sight Unseen speaks with emerging artists who are engaging in vital discussions around identity, sense of place, sexuality and creativity, amongst other contemporary issues. The goal is to engage the listener such that they find themselves identifying with the artist thereby gaining a deeper understanding of themselves. Resonance FM has been an ideal home for Sight Unseen because it gives broadcasters a sense of freedom and exploration. With a willingness to break boundaries and move beyond the confines of traditional radio, Resonance FM allows for the beauty of the medium to shine through. It’s a gift within the world of art radio and radio in general, and is true to its remit of being “an invisible gallery, a virtual arts centre whose location is at once local, global and timeless” and delivering “a radical alternative to the universal formulae of mainstream broadcasting”. Sight Unseen is honoured to be part of its airwaves.

Six Pillars to PersiaFari Bradley writes: We had a show dedicated amongst others to each of these subjects: the history of Persian esoterica, The Iranian Association of Researchers, Persian funk music from the 70s, international travel to Iran, narcotics in Persian history, Persian experimental sound, Polish WWII orphans in Iran, the endangered and once secret religion Mandeism, live jazz on TV in Iran in 60-70s, London Iranian art's and theatre shows at Asia house, Royal Festival Hall, Xerxes Art Gallery, Barbican, Saatchi, British Museum's "Babylon", Southwark Playhouse and more. For each of these shows an interview was conducted with a spokesperson on the subject.We also interviewed personalities such as writer Firoozeh Dumas, tennis star Mansour Bahrami, face to face or over long distance phone calls and all of whom highlighted the effects of leaving Iran due to the revolution. Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari was a guest and is now in prison in iran since the elections, we also interviewed actress Mania Akbari whose son was arrested. The show has been useful and far reaching tool for counter-acting media representations of Iran and its people as well as highlighting the often fringe arts of the diaspora. Outside of the show I have DJ-d at art galleries such as the Mall Galleries, we were asked to speak on a panel after a performance of the play Deadulus, and we gave away tickets to most of the large venues we were covering something for. Most importantly a lot of the stories on the show were previously untold or little known and

we have acted as an important platform for the English speaking community with an interest in Iran, which is not served elsewhere in this way.

The Sound ProjectorEd Pinsent writes: It's mostly “business as usual” for The Sound Projector Radio Show. For this period there weren't any interesting guests, nor were there moments of great civic and social import. However, the show appears to be slowly building up a listener base through broadcasting and podcasts. Comments dribble in, and the abiding theme seems to be that listeners are grateful to be hearing unusual music that is normally not broadcast. One American listener found his way in via a tribute show to Yma Sumac, but ended up describing the show as “Considerable durations of music no-one’s heard of. What could be better?” Musicians and record labels are, of course, grateful for airplay; one of them even used an impromptu on-the-air comment as part of their press. One need hardly mention that we're saturated with culture at a time when everyone seems to think they're a musician, but nevertheless it's a good thing to promote an obscure record or label. Uses of technology: does it count that I figured out how to make recordings of the show myself? Thanks to Chris Weaver who told me precisely what Flash disk to buy, and with the aid of high-tech pliers deployed at 7pm after the show, I'm able to get a podcast and playlist up about 3 hours later.

The Traditional Music HourKevin Sheils writes: I have been one of the presenters of The Traditional Music Hour on Resonance since October 2003. What started out as an invitation to do a one off programme has turned into a pleasurable 6 years of "approximately" monthly chances to share my love of traditional music and song, in all it's varied facets, with what, in  my opinion, are the most open and welcoming radio audience in London. The variety of programming put out by Resonance is amazing but whenever I meet listeners they always seem to know and appreciate our show. Of all the broadcast radio stations, both national and local, Resonance is the first to give regular airtime to archive recordings of (mostly) British traditional music since the heyday of the "As I Roved Out" presented by Alan Lomax and others on the BBC in the 1950s. In fact the Resonance show has probably lasted longer. It is a privilege to be associated with it.

Us and ThemStephen Coates writes: This series was prompted by and ran in conjunction with a commission for the Victoria and Albert Museum's "Cold War Modern' exhibition. It traced an arc of music used for ideological and political purposes from the second world war onwards, focusing not only on the wealth of material from the US but also including German, Italian British, Cuban and Russian sources. The weekly hour-long format gave a chance to treat this vast subject with depth. Each program was produced as a collage of music, archive sound recordings, and commentary including interviews with experts on specific areas such as Akin Fernandez and the shortwave broadcast phenomena known as 'Number Stations'. Resources used include: the archives of the Imperial War Museum; the National Sound Archive; the British Film Institute; the Prelinger Collection; and a variety of specialist record labels. The programmes were publicized through the V&A's Cold War Modern micro site. The commissioned performance on December 10th in the Raphael Room was a kind of live recreation of selections of the material from the Resonance shows with

an added visual dimension. Playlists, podcasts and archive references were published on the Clerkenwell Kid Blog. In addition to my own fan base and the existing Resonance listenership, the series also gained attention from other sources, particularly in the USA.

Venus RisingSharon Gal writes: Between September and November 2009 I recorded and broadcast Venus Rising, a series of eight conversations with women about feminism and the changing role of women within the arts. Guests included Maggi Hambling (painter/artist); Lee Maelzer (painter/artist); Jemima Stehli (photographer/video artist); Catherine Wood (curator, Tate Modern); Pilar Corrias (gallery owner); Valeria Napoleone (collector of art by female artists); Lina Dzuverovic and Irene Revell (Electra Productions, a cross artform agency); Marhsa Rower (writer and co-founder of seminal feminist magazine, Spare Rib).

WavelengthWilliam English writes: The year April 2008 to April 2009 included numerous programmes of Sound Poetry. Since Clive Graham’s epic series ended (Sound Poets Exposed), I have continued with this ‘niche market’ and had Clive himself on the show to talk about CDs released on his own Paradigm label and his work with Morphogenesis. There were interviews with Patrick Sutherland (Spiti Music), Gerry Smith (Belgium and the Belgians), Ian Bone, and Class War (with anonymous representative of Class War Youth Death Squad who subsequently presented a series on Anarchism due to my introducing him to Resonance). The four interviews with Ed Baxter which could have continued almost without end. There was an interview with Alan and Steve Freeman, proprietors of Leicester record shop Ultima Thule (the record shop as dying breed is possibly another mini-series). Standard Wavelength guests who contributed to the absurdist streak included James Tregaskis and stalwart Captain Maurice Seddon, whose ongoing battle with local authorities to retain his pack of dogs is a hardy perennial. Another guest on the programme was “seekers of lice” a book artist whose real name I have yet to find out. There was the welcome return of Bill Burns (director of Safety Gear for Small Animals) passing through from Toronto to Denmark discussing amongst other things Children’s Choir (pilot project), in collaboration with the Mammalian Diving Reflex and Alpha Alternative School Toronto. Other notable guests included: Barry Miles, co-founder of Indica Bookshop and publisher of the International Times; Nick Rochford, founder of Compendium Bookshop; Fluxus artist Henry Flynt who described his theory of film making; Jonas Mekas, legendary avant-garde filmmaker and founder of the New York Filmmakers’ Co-operative; Hugh de la Cruz (cough-in); and Barry Landeen, manager of Tree Frog Radio Vancouver.

Welcome to MarsKen Hollings writes: From October through December 2008, Resonance FM ran a complete re-broadcast of the 12-part series Welcome to Mars, originally created for Resonance Spring 2006. Resonance ran the series again to coincide with the publication of my book 'Welcome To Mars: Fantasies of Science in the American Century 1947-1959' published by Strange Attractor Press. Based on the original series, this book looks at how notions of scientific progress map out a concept of the future that is both strange and threatening to the established human experience. The original series was presented live with an improvised electronic soundtrack put

together by producer Simon James. Extracting an entire book from the programs with new details and insights whilst maintaining the structure of the series took some time but was worth it. Welcome To Mars is now turning up in university libraries and on reading lists. It is being translated into Italian and has been the subject of a number of lectures and readings in San Francisco, Bern, Lucerne, Valencia, Berlin, London and Manchester. The original programmes continue to be downloaded as podcasts. It's been an unusual experience developing an entire book out of a series of live radio broadcasts but I can't imagine getting the opportunity to carry out such an experiment anywhere but at Resonance FM.

Resonance EngineersNick Hamilton writes: During the last year Resonance FM has become a central part of my life. I have been an avid listener to the station since its’ inception which inspired me to take evening classes where I studied broadcasting theory and practice. In May 2008 I submitted my final project to Resonance FM who offered to broadcast it. On delivering the CD I was invited to become a volunteer at the station which I excitedly accepted. I learned more about broadcasting in my first month as a volunteer at Resonance than I had in the previous year at college. In addition to the practical skills I was gaining during my time at Resonance I was also meeting dozens of other broadcasters, artists, musicians etc..  and friendships were being formed. In addition to my regular shifts I was occasionally offered the opportunity to take part in one-off broadcasts (Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde / US Election All-night Special) , and off-site projects (Frieze Art Fair / The Art of Walking / Dans le Noir) where production and engineering skills were stretched beyond the usual confines of the studio and schedule. As my own confidence was increasing I began to discuss my ideas with the Resonance team and friends I had made at the station and I began working on a proposal for a new series based on walking around the London Borough of Hackney which was accepted and took me three months to complete. This project was one of the most exciting and empowering things I have ever done, it enabled me to make contact with various artists, and writers that I admired (Iain Sinclair, Stewart Home, John Barker, Laura Oldfield-Ford) and to establish myself further. Throughout the project Resonance’s pastoral care was second to none and they frequently offered both technical and practical support and advice. The series was a success, I received several complimentary emails from listeners and I have gone on to meet many other artists with similar interests.I have just produced  two programmes around the theme of London Writing to compliment a season of events at Housmans bookshop.  I have also just finished a ten-part series of sound art miniatures.All of the above greatly raised my skills, confidence and profile and in early 2009 I applied (at the suggestion of, and with invaluable help from Resonance staff) for a job at another community radio station which was successful and I now occasionally undertake various freelance projects for several Community Stations and Arts Projects.In the near future I am hoping to publish a journal inspired by my first series and I am hoping to study for a Masters Degree.My only regrets are that: a) I didn’t get involved earlier and b) I can’t give more time to Resonance.I am still an avid listener to Resonance FM.

Alex Lindsell writes: I worked as a semi-regular Resonance104.4fm engineer between April 2008 and April 2009, and feel that my involvement with the station was a primary factor in my undergraduate academic success during this period. During April 2008, I completed a four-week internship on the BBC6 Music Shaun Keaveney Breakfast Show. I had been interviewed for this placement by the producer of this programme during March 2008, and it was evident (from feedback provided after the interview and after the completed internship) that my engineering experience at Resonance had given me an edge over other candidates. Producer Louise Orchard was particularly impressed with the fact that I had experience engineering live music sessions during certain programmes on the Resonance schedule (primarily gained during Martyn Myers’ ‘Bonanza’ on Sunday afternoons). Many BBC colleagues that I spoke with during this period were voluble on the subject of how inspirational they consider the station to be - an example of genuine innovation and creativity in radio. I was able to write a 7,000 word dissertation about my experiences at the BBC during this internship. This formed the bulk of my academic assessment for the second year of my undergraduate degree. Richard Thomas of Resonance allowed me to interview him for this piece of work.Further to this, my 12,000 word third year research dissertation concentrated more directly on Resonance as one of three case study subjects that I examined as an ostensibly ‘alternative’ arts organisation. Alongside BBC 6Music, and Sound and Music (the UK’s largest agency for developing new music and sound art), I explored Resonance’s position within a wider cultural context, with particular emphasis on the extent to which listeners/’users’ are required to possess a certain level of cultural competence (or not!) in order to engage with the schedule of the station. Ed Baxter, Chris Weaver and Richard Thomas all gave up valuable time to allow me to interview them as part of my research, as did Resonance board member and broadcaster Cecilia Wee. The involvement of these individuals proved invaluable to me – I was awarded 90% for the dissertation, as a result of which I will graduate with a First Class BA (Hons) degree.My ongoing engineering involvement with Resonance has led to other professional engagements; for example, I worked with Production Company Lumin on the Faster Than Sound festival at Aldeburgh during June 2008. I am very proud to be associated with the station, keen to continue refining my engineering skills and grateful that Resonance provides me with a stimulating professional environment within which I can continue to do so.

We ran a series called The Free University of the Airwaves: historian Ariel Hessayon (Goldsmiths) lectured on two subjects, about Jews in England from their expulsion in 1290 to their readmission in 1659; and "Restoring the Garden of Eden in England's Green and Pleasant Land," on the seventeenth century Diggers. Plymouth's Professor Malcolm Miles, who specialises in types of Utopia, talked about Herbert Marcuse; while at the other end of the scale Mark Miodownik of King's College's Materials Library took us through an elemental reading of the making of a cup of coffee – illustrated in robust fashion in the station's kitchen. Professor Steven Connor (Birkbeck) talked about The History of Air; and ethnographer Caroline Osella asked, How do you make a man? There wass a strong anthropological strand, with contributions from Monica Janowski (Potency, Hierarchy and Food in Borneo), Magnus Marsden (Muslin village intellectuals) and Edward Simpson (Remembering natural disasters and memorials in Gujurat); while Alpa Shah asked, Would Yosemite be a better place for the Elephants of Eastern India? Influential professor

of design Peter Rea offered various insights into Visual Literacy; Julian Stallabras talked about visual representations of war; Professor Jean Seaton had recourse to George Orwell's enduring relevance; and Roberta Mock asked what constitutes avant-garde performance.  Philosophers AC Grayling and Jonathan Wolff, mathematician Kevin Buzzard and Christine Kinnon, Professor of Molecular Immunology at UCL, were among others of the two dozen contributors to this extraordinary project.

The station was media partner for concerts and festivals (by Henry Flynt, Netaudio London 2008, Spectrum etc). It broadcast live from Frieze Art Fair 2008, featuring Yoko Ono, Morgan Fisher, Stuart Comer, Raqs Media Collective, Alasdair Gray, Tom McCarthy, Prof. Peter Osborne, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Judith Williamson and more.

Volunteer James Tregaskis added a new section to the Resonance website, “Research.” This consists of documents that might be of use to researchers or the general public.

Having passed his A-levels, programme maker Seth Pimlott went unexpectedly to Namibia to study and record termite activity in the run-up to the Pestival 2009.

Robin Warren did some work for us at the Arvon Foundation to make experimental radio as part of a summer school involving the writer Simon Armitage before landing a trainee manager's job with the World Service.

Chris Weaver travelled to Vienna to work with our partners in the Radia network what exactly to do for our proposed "Intimacy and Distance" project.

Ed Baxter attended RadiaLx, a radio art festival featuring Knut Aufermann, Sarah Washington, Xentos Fray Bentos, Ricardo Reis and Patrick "framework" McGInley.

Jonny Trunk broadcast OST live from Jersey International Film Festival.

Ed Baxter was featured in the Independent on Sunday's Happiness List as one of the 100 people who made Britain a better, happier place.

Our average number of on-line listeners per month between November 2007 and August 2008 was 45,819, with an average listener duration  of 33 minutes. This puts our reach - given the majority of our listeners are on FM -  within striking distance of many far, far larger organisations.

.2 Significant difficulties

Do you wish this section to be kept confidential? No

This year we had no complaints to Ofcom from listeners.

Our main problems lay in the restructuring of the organisation, which was long-winded (and still on-going at the time of writing this report). We decided to change the Board of Directors to make it more robust and forward-looking; to establish legal ownership of the Company, which we discovered was ambiguous, and to start planning our activities around the goal of the 2011 licence renewal.

We had one major financial disappointment. Our “Resofit” benefit concert and comedy fund-raisers in May 2008, which relied upon the generosity of many VIP performers, resulted in no income whatsoever to the station: Jack In The Box, the company responsible for The Arts Theatre in Soho, where we ran the events, went into liquidation before paying us the box office takings. Repeated requests for payment to be expedited between May and September 2008 went unheeded until it became apparent that no money would ever be forthcoming. This left a bad taste in our mouths.

Resonance contributor Ken Campbell died.

PRECIS OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION

£Income On-air advertising 0

On-air sponsorship (programme & station) 0Off-air advertising and sponsorship 1,000Grants 105,100Service contracts/SLAs 1,947Fundraising, events and merchandising 6,014Donations 2,500Education and training 5,000Membership schemes 3,930Broadcast access fees 0Other income 244Total income 125,311

In-kind support 512,470

ExpenditureStaff (total full-time equivalents) 66,826Volunteer expenses 0Premises (rent, mortgage etc.) 14,631Technical costs (studios, transmitters etc.) 21,435Marketing costs 897Administrative costs 8,772All other expenditure 12,750Total expenditure 125,311

Surplus/(Deficit) (excluding in-kind support) 424

.3 Audience research

Please provide a summary of any audience research/ data you have collected during the year.

Resonance Listener’s Survey 2009 Executive Summary

From a survey completed by 765 people, we have established that the archetypical Resonance listener is 36 - 45 years old, white, male, works in the arts, tunes into the Resonance online stream a few times a week, in the evenings at home in South London. He heard about Resonance through word of mouth and has been listening for about 3-5 years. A few of his friends listen to Resonance. He likes BBC Radio 4 and The Guardian and is most interested in deepening his interest in music and attending music events.

Age of listeners: Positive: really good spread of listeners across age ranges (16 to 65+).

Listeners’ employment: Positive: strong recognition of station by arts audience.

Listener income: Resonance is most popular with people on lower and middle incomes.

Listener ethnicity:52% of listenership defines itself as “white English”.

Listeners with disabilities: 6. 7% of listeners identify themselves as having a disability.

Geographical spread of listeners:57% of listeners within London;24% from rest of UK;11% from rest of Europe;6% from North America;2% from rest of world.

How listeners heard about Resonance: Positive: presence at Frieze Art Fair, ads in the Wire and word of mouth are strong ways to get brand out.

Methods of listening: Positive: online stream is well-used.

First listened to the station: Positive: strong following.

Listening frequency: Positive: listeners are loyal and listen regularly.

Listening decisions: Positive: Resonance listeners like the eclectic/random nature of the station.

Length of listening periods: Positive: listeners are probably listening to whole programmes rather than flicking.

Location of listening: Resonance is very strongly associated with listening at home.

Friends or family who also listen: Positive: good proportion of the listenership shares their knowledge of the station with others.

Potential station improvement: Positive: listeners like the diversity of the station, quite a few of the comments were to carry on with the good work.

Donating to Resonance: Positive: a third of respondents have previously donated/donate to Resonance, half of listeners would potentially contribute to the station, especially if they were clear about what the money would go towards.

Section 2

1 Declaration

I hereby declare that the information given in this annual report is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, true and correct.

Signature

Name Edmund Baxter

Position Programming Director

Station Resonance FM

Email address info@resonancefm.com

Telephone number 0207 407 1210

Date 24 June 2009

Section 3

2 Checklist

Please ensure that you have done the following:

Read the Guidance Notes.

Checked that all sections of both forms (i.e. this document and the accompanying spreadsheet) are completed.

Ensured that the declaration is signed and dated by a member of the board of the corporate body which has been awarded the community radio licence, and that the person has the authority to act on behalf of the board.

Then

Submit your form by email to community.radio@ofcom.org.uk and send one signed hard copy to

Community Radio Team (5th Floor) Ofcom Riverside House2A Southwark Bridge Road LondonSE1 9HA

Annual report forms must be returned to Ofcom by Friday 26 June 2009