[Not-a-Trekkie-Trekker]

Greetings to all members.
Today, I would like to present to you a project, a project who will be linked to this community.

It's called: Starfleet Holodeck Gaming Specialist Radio (or for short: SFHOLO GSR).
SFHOLO GSR comes from the name of the gaming division that interests me, Starfleet Holodeck. as well as a position within this division which is Gaming Specialist.


Logo concept for my project

Starfleet Holodeck Gaming Specialist Radio is a radio station that would be connected to this community. The mission of SFHOLO GSR is to: Represent the UFPlanets.com community, i.e you, on media such as radio. and at the same time, target everyone.

I discovered you a long time ago, the community and your operation, with the departments/divisions (like the FEO, FAB or FNS). It's original, we don't find an equivalent in other forums (in any case there is none to my knowledge). And then I said to myself, why not associate the community with one of my passions, the medias, essentially the radio. And that's where, SFHOLO GSR was born in my mind.

We could, for example, imagine that our editorial staff would be managed by the FNS.

I saw that the community had experience in this area (Midas Array Podcast) and that you want this community to turn towards a community spirit, and precisely, the radio allows us to cover this community as well as to capture new ones.

This project won't happen right away, but I would like to present it anyway.

If you are interested in this project, and want to get involved, please let me know.

I wish you all a good evening/day.

Not-a-Trekkie-Trekker,

PS: It would be a good idea for the administration to launch and operate a station, What do you think of Three of Seven (as well as the others FEO and FAB members)?

[Three of Seven]

Running a radio station is way outside the scope for this community, there are legal issues to deal with, the time commitment required, and so many other variables.

I don't think it's the right fit, podcasts are far easier, and require less time commitment, and less of a legal headache.

[Novalance]

I admire the enthusiasm however I agree a radio is not something we can feasibly do. Also holodeck is our assigned gaming division. Play games have fun 👍

[Not-a-Trekkie-Trekker]

Running a radio station is way outside the scope for this community, there are legal issues to deal with, the time commitment required, and so many other variables.

I don't think it's the right fit, podcasts are far easier, and require less time commitment, and less of a legal headache.

Afterwards I can offer you my help regarding the steps to take.

And then, it's going to be an innovation for the community, having its own radio station, right?

What kind of problems for example?

[Chris Wilkinson]

I do have to agree with Three and Nova on this one. Online radio stations have a lot of drawbacks and the biggest one is licencing the music which could cost a lot of money (I'm not an expert in this).

While I've done this in the past, it was a very informal thing and not broadcast widely.

I'm sure you could speak with FNS as I think they are in charge of the UFP podcast when it's done. But I could be wrong there.

[Bedders]

I love the enthusiasm and the original idea Unfortunately I've dabbled in HAM Radio and I'm VHF Marine certified here in the UK, so I know some of the pitfalls we'll have to deal with. Especially since the UFP is a UK registered company.

Ofcom don't need a license for online-only stations but if we ever look at playing music we'll need to look into PRS and PPL.

Cost is a big problem. https://www.ppluk.com/music-licensin...-and-services/ details what we need to pay - namely, we would be broadcasting to people in multiple territories, and so we'd need a band 3 license. That price is £644 + VAT per year which is a lot of money for a community like this to afford.
In addition we'd need detailed logs because we'd need to be able to report quarterly as per https://www.ppluk.com/music-licensin...ata-reporting/ including geographic location of listeners.


Let's say we get past these hurdles and get this up and running. Who is our target audience? What would we get for that time and money investment? What extra does it offer beyond the podcasts we can do for free, and people can access at their leisure?
That's the main one for me - it would be fantastic to say "We have a radio station - Listen live!" when recruting in-game but I feel most people (if they listen at all) would listen to it once or twice and then return to Spotify or Youtube...

[Not-a-Trekkie-Trekker]

Cost is a big problem. https://www.ppluk.com/music-licensin...-and-services/ details what we need to pay - namely, we would be broadcasting to people in multiple territories, and so we'd need a band 3 license. That price is £644 + VAT per year which is a lot of money for a community like this to afford.

Don't you need a "Linear Webcast License" for this radio? the price of £644 + VAT is rather for another type of license, the "On-demand clips of recorded music".

Regarding the cost, maybe we could do crowdfunding to finance this radio. We could also ask non-profit organizations if they can subsidize us.
Or else, that a member (like you) could present a program on an existing radio station. That would be a UFPlanets-affiliated show, if you know what I meant.

Unfortunately I've dabbled in HAM Radio and I'm VHF Marine certified here in the UK, so I know some of the pitfalls we'll have to deal with. Especially since the UFP is a UK registered company.

Are you (or were) a radio amateur? what is your call sign?

Edit: I was wrong, it is indeed £644 the price of the 2024 band 3 license, sorry

- - - Updated - - -

Good news, I have made a simulation on the PPL Register platform and it looks like it's going to be cheaper than expected!

[Kerry Malone]

It doesn't negate the fact that the UFP does not have £218.40 to throw at this idea, especially for as Bedders rightly highlighted - zero return on investment. We make enough through incredibly generous donations now to keep the lights on for our website. We do not have a slush fund to throw around willy-nilly on things.

You say a crowdfund? For that to actually work and pay off, people would need to know why they're investing in it. Just because you're looking to start a radio for a year with no idea on the content, what your target audience is, who's going to listen to it, etc etc doesn't mean people will fund you.

Enthusiasm is great to see, but this idea is absolutely unviable for the UFP to get behind in any meaningful way.

If you want to be part of something similar, as has been suggested already, I'd become involved in the podcast. They're as close to a "UFP Radio" as we're going to ever get.

[Bedders]

My main question is still "What extra does it offer beyond the podcasts we can do for free"? What sort of actual content (we will likely need many hours' worth) would we put out? We already have writers for FNS but that doesn't always translate well to a spoken medium.

[Not-a-Trekkie-Trekker]

If you want to be part of something similar, as has been suggested already, I'd become involved in the podcast. They're as close to a "UFP Radio" as we're going to ever get.

And to do a “UFPlanets-affiliated show” that is to say a program presented by you on an existing radio station?

[Kerry Malone]

And to do a “UFPlanets-affiliated show” that is to say a program presented by you on an existing radio station?

They'd need to have a good reason to invite us onto a pre-existing radio station to hold even an interview with us, let alone affiliate with us in any meaningful way.

Why would they do it? What benefit do they get for doing it? What benefit do we get doing it? Who is the intended audience?

[Mack]

I admire your enthusiasm, but Community Gaming has no intention of opening a radio station at the moment or the near future.

[Three of Seven]

Good news, I have made a simulation on the PPL Register platform and it looks like it's going to be cheaper than expected!

I have no clue where you got 10,000 annual listeners from, or £5,000 revenue.

If it was a profit making station, so had adverts, then it means getting someone to deal with taxes. If it wasn't for profit, then it'd require a lot of donations.

Not to mention all the legal issues needed to comply with various international regulators, like OFCOM in the UK.

I'm sure you're very keen to be involved in radio, but maybe look into getting a job at an existing station rather than trying to get a gaming community to start one from nothing. We don't have the resources.

[Bridger]

To put it simply, the answer is NO!

[JByb04]

In my opinion and one that's clearly shared. We would be better served attempting to promote the podcast as a means of recruiting vs trying to get a full blown radio station going.

I have plenty of options when it comes to music and none of them require the community to pony up for them.

I just don't see a good enough return on investment for UFP to justify it. Clearly FEO and the other Division Heads don't either.

I didn't even know we had a podcast until this thread was posted and now that I do know about it. I'll definitely tune in. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wasn't aware. So the OP at least did us the service of getting the podcast some advertising!