This document discusses community radio stations' practices for covering emergency situations. It examines how three UK stations covered recent events like a bin lorry accident in Glasgow and flooding in Somerset. Stations take different approaches, from brief news coverage to special programming. The document also looks at stations' plans for events like a royal family member's death. Most stations have basic plans but could improve with rehearsals. It emphasizes verifying information and having clear procedures, contact details, and decision hierarchies for emergencies.

1. Janey Gordon
Principal Lecturer
University of Bedfordshire
CMA 2015
Planning on-air content for
an emergency situation

2. Community Radio
 Globally, community radio plays
an important part in reporting of
conflict and catastrophic events
 Earthquakes in New Zealand and
Haiti
 Sumatra-Andaman tsunami
 Hurricane Kathleen
 Conflict - both positive and
negative broadcasts.

3. Community Radio -UK
Our ‘Key Commitments’ usually
suggest that we will tell our
listeners about significant events in
their area.
How will national or international
incidents impact on our listening
communities?

4. Emergency planning for :-
• An internal station emergency (power
outage, fire, flood?)
• An unpredictable event (an accident or a
serious crime?)
• A natural disaster or incident (flooding,
bird flu?)
• A ‘predictable’ incident (the death of a
national or significant international
figure?)

5. Community Radio UK -
current practices
 Examined three recent events
 Contacted community stations in
the area
 How did they cover these
events?

6. Glasgow – bin
lorry accident

7. Glasgow – bin
lorry accident
18 September 2014 - Scottish
independence referendum
23 July 2014 – Glasgow hosted the
Commonwealth Games
29 November 2013 -
Glasgow helicopter crash

8. Glasgow – bin
lorry accident
“…it was sad and a news item
but it didn't effect our
community directly other than
our compassion and heart felt
thoughts. This came across
on one or two shows, maybe
some more.”
Javed Sattar, Awaz FM

9. Glasgow – bin
lorry accident
“The Glasgow bin lorry tragedy, we covered in our
news…we have news from IRN and we read newspapers
for our listeners….. we never did any special
programming around that….. Our topical speech
programming would be more about accessibility issues…
we do things on crossing roads generally. Right now we
are are supporting a campaign run by the RNIB about
street clutter.”
Stuart Barrie, Insight Radio - community of
interest station for those with a visual
impairment; on Freeview nationally)

10. Murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby –
22 May 2013

11. Murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby –
22 May 2013
“Our news team were all over it,
bulletins, updates and so
forth…[But] in the aftermath our
focus was, what advice are the
military command giving to their
people?…What to do, what not
to do… the wearing of uniform,
the not wearing of uniform [or]
identifying things like the Help for
Heroes T-shirt.”
Chris Pearson, BFBS
Community Radio, UK

12. Flooding of the Somerset Levels
winter 2013–14

13. Flooding of the Somerset Levels
winter 2013–14
“It was out of our area of coverage but obviously of
concern so we :
•Promoted volunteering opportunities down on the
Levels as help was needed over several months-
done via a couple of weekly shows
•Promoted the Somerset Emergency Volunteers
organisation that arose and interviewed several
people involved with that during the key point and
afterwards.
•Used social media occasionally to highlight their key
messages
I think that was all we managed.”
Allan Trinder, Glastonbury FM

14. Forward planning?
Death of a member of the
Royal Family?

15. Forward planning?
Death of a member of the
Royal Family?
• Obituary procedure is well defined.
• There is a physical folder of
instructions.
• The main concern is that social
media will break a story erroneously
and a presenter will rebroadcast
without checking its validity.
• The instructions are cascaded
through the organisation.

16. Forward planning?
Death of a member of the
Royal Family?
“We have a very loose plan for a royal death in
that we have a folder with a plan in it and have
some appropriate music in the playout system
ready to go. We haven’t rehearsed it, but
probably should. …Our plan would be to play
music and take what we can from any national
feed – as most small ILR’s did in 1997.”
Richard Berry Spark FM, Sunderland

17. Forward planning?
Death of a member of the
Royal Family?
“We have a pre-recorded hour of “solemn
music” in our cart system and as soon as we
have a confirmation from the BBC that this is
really happening we will default to this and
then, in consultation with the BBC we opt into
BBC Radio Lincolnshire who’ll be opting into
Network. ….We opt back to local
programming as I decide is right and at the
appropriate level.”
Andrew David, Siren FM, Lincolnshire

18. Forward planning?
“We don’t have a formal disaster plan,
although I think we should. I have tried to get
Spark bundled into the University’s disaster
planning…That move was prompted by a
flooding threat a year or so again. The
Environment Agency warned that the Wear
might burst its banks, so the University
decided to evacuate the halls and our
building. We attempted to argue that staying
on the air was more use than getting out
…hopefully this idea has now taken root.”
Richard Berry, Spark FM, Sunderland
General Emergency?

19. Forward planning?
General Emergency?
“We are part of the emergency plan for the city
and county and do this in collaboration with BBC
Radio Lincolnshire and the Lincolnshire County
Council…. We are also used by the Emergency
Services for their emergency training events and
provide real-time reporting experience for
Emergency Service personnel. We also are on
standby for emergency events that may happen
at the various RAF bases in the county.”
Andrew David, Siren FM, Lincoln

20. Forward planning?
“Thankfully, there have been no major
incidents in the city. It is something that I do
worry about…partly as we are so reliant upon
volunteers with no experience of what to do
when the snow starts falling and doesn’t
stop.”
Richard Berry, Spark FM, Sunderland
Volunteers?

21. Forward planning?
Volunteers?
“We have a range of contingency
plans but they all revolve around the
‘refer this upwards’ approach in an
emergency and it all refers directly
to me and I then delegate through
my volunteers.”
Andrew David, Siren FM, Lincoln

22. Emergency planning-
Good Practice- considerations
• The ‘plan’ will be needed unexpectedly
• The incident will need verifying
• The incident may be distressing
• The ‘plan’ will be needed
unexpectedly!!!

23. Emergency planning-
Good Practices
• Have a physical folder detailing the
agreed procedures and instructions
• Stress that verification is essential
(are reports of the incident true?)
• Have a clear hierarchy of decision
making, with contact details.
• Have a rehearsal occasionally

24. Janey Gordon
Principal Lecturer
University of Bedfordshire
CMA 2015
Planning on-air content for
an emergency situation