About

 

CSR LogoCSR is Canterbury’s Community and Student Radio station which launched on 15th January 2007. CSR has a five-year licence and broadcasts on 97.4FM across the entire city – you might have heard us in your local butchers where I am told we are the favourite station of choice!

Have a listen to what CSR sounds like
What we sound like by CSRFM

CSR provides students with the opportunity to make their voice heard in the city whilst ensuring there is a fresh sounding radio station that caters precisely for the needs of young students and individuals in the area. The station has an educational focus, allowing you to use the station as a way of learning about what other schools and colleges are up to in the area and also as a way of advertising your schools events, success and achievements. Along with this our focus is to broadcast 50% speech and 50% music output.

The station broadcasts from 2 studios, one at Kent University and one at Christ Church with state of the art equipment linking the two studios. Training and guidance is given in all areas of the station, so if you are interested but do not have any experience then there is no need to worry. Providing you’re interested in music, writing, performing or are just really excited by the idea of being involved in a radio station then the opportunity is there.

Whilst Christ Church Students’ Union and Kent Union head the project, CSR is not a university radio station. The focus of the project is on the wider impact and involvement of the entire Canterbury Community. Furthermore, CSR is independent from a specific institution as it falls under the independent company umbrella of Canterbury Youth and Student Media Ltd, a company set up for CSR.

Funded by:

Your Team

Click on each team members name (if it’s red), to go to their page and find out a little bit more about them!

Ryan Bartrop – Station Manager
Jeremy Lumb – Deputy Manager
Jenna Wild – Programming Manager
Jessie Martin – Head of Daytime
Shona Eyre – Head of Specialist
Daryl Smith – Head of Speech
Lynsey Mahmood – Head of Music
Chris Roberts – Technical Manager
James Stokell – Head of Outside Broadcasts
Ben Craggs – Head of Studio Blue
Isabelle Herregods – Marketing Manager
John Harris – Head of Competitions and Awards
Gavin Blunt – Head of Website

The John Pidgeon Awards

This year, CSR launched a new speech initiative which asked members to produce a 20-minute radio script and production to be considered for a cash prize in the John Pidgeon Awards. The 2011 winners were:
John Pidgeon Award winners from 2011Best Radio Script – Charles Meyrick: Glory Glory Romania
Best Radio Play – Rick Suter: To The Castle And The Moon Men

The award ceremony, held at The Parrot in Canterbury, was glittered with high profile radio guests including The Now Show Producer Colin Anderson and BBC 6 Music’s 7-times Sony Award Winner Jon Holmes.

During his career as BBC Head of Entertainment, John Pidgeon worked with top names in the media industry and helped launch careers along the way.

For 2012, students and members of the community are eligible to enter, once becoming members of the station. Applications for entries open in September, with bigger plans envisaged including workshops and valuable experience. To find out more, please get in touch with our Head of Speech Daryl: speech@csrfm.com

What Awards have CSR won?

Since CSR launched in 2007, both the station and it’s presenters, have been honoured with four prestigious Student Radio Awards.

Best Live or Outside Broadcast – 2010, Gold

CSR FM at the Student Radio Awards 2010

Best Technical Achievement – 2010, Bronze

One of the problems that had to be solved as part of the Lounge on the Farm Outside Broadcast was to provide presenters with a very long range wireless microphone, in order to provide coverage from the heart of the festival. To achieve this, Technical Services designed a waterproof box which was placed in a high location to bounce the signal from a wireless microphone to a reciever in the studio (which was in a bad location for getting broad coverage for a wireless micrphone).,

CSR was shortlisted for Best Technical Achievement in 2010, and won bronze.

Best Live or Outside Broadcast – 2009 Silver

CSR at LOTF in 2009

Our second award was given in 2009, when the station was shortlisted from around 500 entries, to make it in to the last six for ‘Best Live event or Outside Broadcast.’ We subsequently won Silver, for our three day live coverage of the 2009 Lounge On The Farm festival.

This live broadcast was a huge project for CSR, with many problems along the way. The transmission site being 4 miles from the farm and so CSR had major technical issues in building a temporary studio, in a dilapidated pig shed found on the farm. Richard Bonner, Head of the Engineering team for the project, then had to negotiate a whole range of other problems, from establishing an internet connection to securing power and an FM signal from the shed. The broadcasting of this event was a huge task for all members who took part and a great achievement for the station. This event was a huge success, much to the work of the CSR team.

Best Specialist Show – 2007, Gold

Lee Matthews collects his prize from Edith Bowman and Alex Zane

The first one came back in 2007 (CSR’s first year) and was awarded to Lee Matthews, for his ‘Departures’ show, winning the prize for best specialist music programming.

Departures still runs on the station, every Tuesday evening 7-9pm with Lee at the helm. The show brings world music to the listeners and encourages the understanding of its origin as well as enjoying its melody.

BBC 6 Music, who judged the catagory, described the winning entry as a pacy and engaging piece of programming, that presented potentially challenging subject matter in a way that broke with convention. The presenter, they said, had passion, enthusiasm, and a desire to both educate and entertain – but did so in an unpretentious style that was refreshingly warm and inviting.


Below are a selection of important documents:

There are 22 files, weighing 24.7 MiB with 402 hits in total.

Displaying 1 to 20 of 22 files.

General

  CYSM_Discipline_Procedure_2011.pdf
» 119.2 KiB - 28 hits - January 25, 2012

  Presenters_Bible.pdf
» 364.7 KiB - 40 hits - December 8, 2011

  Presenter_Agreement_2011-12.pdf
» 267.4 KiB - 62 hits - December 8, 2011

Ofcom Reports

  Ofcom Report 2010-2011.pdf
» 270.3 KiB - 77 hits - October 5, 2011

Role Descriptions

  Deputy_Manager.doc
» 1,012.0 KiB - 9 hits - February 14, 2012

  Head_of_CCCU_Tech.doc
» 1.6 MiB - 12 hits - February 14, 2012

  Head_of_Competition_and_Awards.doc
» 1.0 MiB - 13 hits - February 14, 2012

  Head_of_Daytime.doc
» 1.6 MiB - 12 hits - February 14, 2012

  Head_of_Design.doc
» 1.6 MiB - 13 hits - February 14, 2012

  Head_of_IT.doc
» 1.6 MiB - 9 hits - February 14, 2012

  Head_of_Music.doc
» 1,011.0 KiB - 11 hits - February 14, 2012

  Head_of_OBs.doc
» 1.6 MiB - 11 hits - February 14, 2012

  Head_of_Production.doc
» 1.6 MiB - 10 hits - February 14, 2012

  Head_of_Schools_and_College_Liaison.doc
» 1.6 MiB - 12 hits - February 14, 2012

  Head_of_Specialist.doc
» 1,019.0 KiB - 12 hits - February 14, 2012

  Head_of_Speech.doc
» 1,011.5 KiB - 11 hits - February 14, 2012

  Head_of_UKC_Tech.doc
» 1.6 MiB - 11 hits - February 14, 2012

  Head_of_Website_and_Interactive.doc
» 1,009.0 KiB - 8 hits - February 15, 2012

  Marketing_Manager.doc
» 1,011.0 KiB - 10 hits - February 14, 2012

  Programming_Manager.doc
» 1,016.0 KiB - 8 hits - February 14, 2012

   

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What areas of CSR can I get involved with?

    Events and Community

The Events team is the face of CSR, wherever you see an event you can bet that CSR will be there. It is also one of the biggest in CSR and we work closely with Operations and Marketing, to organize events, as well as being there on the day, to make sure all runs smoothly.

As a team, we regularly have meetings to discuss what events we will cover and how we will go about making them successful. We also go to award ceremonies and get interviews with bands and soloists.

CSR is a radio station for the entire student community of Canterbury, including students studying in schools, colleges and universities.

The Community department plays a vital role in raising the awareness and forming relationships between the station and all other educational institutions and organisations within the community.

The work the station does with schools and youth groups also offers great opportunities for members considering a future in teaching, with mentors working directly with young students to offer support on their involvement.

    Marketing

The Marketing department is responsible for the image and brand of the station. This is all the visual elements that make up a radio station, which includes advertising and promotion, along with keeping the web site up to date.

We also ensure that CSR remains in the public eye through regular press releases and work closely with the Events department, to promote the station in a way that entertains our listeners. Whilst constantly raising the profile of the station.

Finally, the Marketing department is responsible for regularly surveying the listeners to ensure as a station we are providing a service to the local community.

    Operations

Operations has the job of making sure that the station runs smoothly and carries out regular maintenance as well as being responsible for working with marketing to update the website. We have a licence to broadcast across Canterbury on 97.4 FM as well as on the internet.

In the two studios (Kent and Christ Church) there is a lot of hi-end equipment that provides an excellent broadcasting environment and also has a fast connection between the two universities for live broadcasts.

Operations also attends many events and is responsible for setting up live broadcasts from outside the studios.

    Production

The Production department is ever growing. We are responsible for making jingles, bedding tracks, promos and pre recorded shows. There’s always lots to do – each show needs promos and we also help aspiring presenters record sample shows, so they can apply to get themselves on the air. We also assist the daytime presenters with content for their shows, writing features and scripts for them.

    Programming

The Programming department is split into three teams: Daytime; Specialist Music; and Specilaist Speech. Each team has different responsibilities concerning the programming of the station. The department is always looking for individuals interested in presenting live and pre-recorded shows. No presenting experience is required. In order to get a chance to present, all you need is to be happy to talk on air, have a keenness to perpetuate debate with cutting questions, or an interest in taking your first steps to become a radio presenter.