OCEAN CITY RADIO

LOCAL RADIO FOR LOCAL PEOPLE

Ocean City Radio is your alternative to mainstream radio stations. We offer a unique blend of music, information and chat.

All our presenters are local volunteers who contribute their services because they love radio and community life.

We offer a very wide selection of music, interviews and local news. Our music spans eight decades and caters for every taste. In addition, we invite you to listen-in to our programmes on current affairs, politics and other topical subjects of importance to the people of Plymouth.

Ocean City Radio is an all-inclusive organisation that strives to not only cater for listeners from all walks of life, but also to employ the skills and attributes of a twenty eight strong team. We always aim to make “being on the radio” accessible to everyone irrespective of social barriers that many of us face in everyday life. Some of us have a background in media and others came to OCR with little or no experience. We also attract students who are undertaking a course in one of the media subjects who need work-experience to meet course requirements. Most of us are just fulfilling a childhood dream. Applications to join us are always invited and can be made via our website.

OCR was launched in 2018 from a converted caravan in Plymstock. However, we have recently secured funding to enable us to purchase a permanent building. Not only does this give us scope for growth but also provides better access for physically impaired people.

We have recently teamed-up with Citizens Advice Plymouth who will be providing their usual services via radio broadcasts. This will in some part ease the pressure caused by the pandemic and increase awareness of an organisation that has a fast growing need in our city.

Our listeners increase in number week on week and we are achieving our objective to become a household name. Our target audience is the Plymouth community but we are listened-to all over the world in good numbers. Our second highest listenership is the USA.

Ocean City Radio is the trading name of Ocean City Radio Community Interest Company limited by guarantee with Companies House in England. We are a not for profit organisation and our status dictates that any profits we might make are injected back into community concerns.

We have a very robust ethics policy and have strong links with the church. We have a firm mission statement and always strive to serve our listeners better. We do this by regularly surveying our listeners and responding to their needs and ideas.

The main studio is fully compliant with health & safety including current fire regulations. We also operate with full compliance to The Data Protection Act.

Ocean City Radio is licensed with PPL/PRS to play copyrighted music and is also fully insured for liability in-house and external events.

We are currently an internet only service whose objective is to establish a presence on DAB radio should the funding become available. As a result, we are NOT regulated by OFCOM. We do however conform to the standards set by the regulator in our programme content. We do our utmost to ensure that our output is suitable for all audiences but reserve the right to observe the watershed requirements that OFCOM lay down. Bad language seems to have become common place in modern music but we do our best to ensure that alternative “clean” versions are used by our presenters where possible. If this is not possible and the bad language is only mild, we allow it to be played after 9pm.

We are all experiencing a trend of local radio stations being swallowed up by nationally networked services. This was all too apparent when Radio Plymouth was lost from our dials. Mainstream local radio has become financially nonviable and the temptation to sell-out to the networks irresistible. The advent of internet radio has introduced a “real” alternative. “Local radio for local people” is the motto of Ocean City Radio and we believe that Plymothians like the quirkiness and local accents of our presenters. Many of our overseas listeners are British ex-pats from Plymouth that love to retain the connection with their home town.

We hope you enjoy and benefit from the service we provide and make Ocean City Radio your station of choice.

Ocean City Radio has a board of seven directors. This helps to ensure that the operation is run with complete transparency and in a democratic way. If you would like to be involved with the station, either in front of or behind the microphone, please get in touch.

info@oceancityradio.co.uk

Founder

Ocean City Radio