CASE STUDIES

• Wild Card PR
• Clarity
• Add Juice
• AG Design
• Altcom Ltd
• Atlantic FM
• Business Cornwall
• Channel Computing
• Design for Sport
• German IT Development
• Go24
• InfoTeam
• IntoArt Solutions LLP
• Leap Media
• Luminate Marketing
• Niddocks
• Richard Quick Design
• Seed Brand Communications
• Unique Media
• Webfooted Designs

REPORTS

ICT and Media

Overview
When Atlantic FM was first conceived, co-founder and director Jeremy Scott imagined a radio station where one could look out and watch the sea while broadcasting. "I wanted premises that were inspiring, where people would look forward to coming to work," he said. Atlantic FM went on the air in the summer of 2006 and it has fulfilled that vision. It occupies part of Wheal Kitty, a "fantastically well restored" historic mining site at St Agnes. "It's a very interesting site with a lot of resonance," said Jeremy Scott. "The building reflects Cornwall's mining heritage and the community of businesses that occupy it now, which include surfing suppliers and web developers, provide a little microcosm of where Cornwall is heading." Phase II of the Wheal Kitty development was opened in 2006 by Colin Wills, the last tin miner in St Agnes, who struck a symbolic sledgehammer blow linking the past with the present.
Atlantic FM was founded by Jeremy Scott, Former Programme Director of the Southern Radio Group, and Andrew Laming, owner and editor of the Newquay Voice. The Board is chaired by Richard Eyre, former Chief Executive of Capital Radio and the ITV Network. Atlantic FM's programming is aimed at the 25-45 age group and provides a mixture of local news, talk and quality music chosen for easy listening. Its editorial brief is to cover the whole of Cornwall, but it also has some listeners across the Tamar in Plymouth and South Devon. Cornwall was one of the last areas of the UK to get its first commercial radio station and also one of the last to get a second. Jeremy Scott takes the launch of Atlantic FM as a sign that broadcast media is finally coming of age in Cornwall.

Workforce
Atlantic FM employs 20 staff, although this figure may increase in the future. The key attributes that they were looking for were vitality, broadcasting skills and a passion for Cornwall. The journalists who provide the station's news coverage live in communities across Cornwall and spend a lot of time out and about, and so have a genuine understanding of the issues that affect people in the county. The marketing agency Artavia, which has an office in Truro, was brought in to help launch the station. Transmission is handled by Arqiva, and programmes are broadcast from Redruth and Caradon Hill near Liskeard.

Technology
A modern radio station cannot function without broadband. Record companies and advertisers are increasingly distributing digitally using uncompressed audio files which need the kind of high quality, high speed connections that Atlantic FM has in place.
Like many stations today, Atlantic FM makes its programmes available on the web. If you visit the website on www.atlantic.fm you can listen live, or download a podcast.

Support
Atlantic FM is entirely privately funded. It has, however, benefited significantly from the general upsurge in business energy in Cornwall. The station is on course to break even in its fourth month of trading - a full year ahead of schedule. The premises it occupies at Wheal Kitty were converted by Carrick Council with the help of the RDA and Objective One. Atlantic FM then had to develop their part of the project to suit their own needs and install their state of the art equipment. But it is thanks to the vision of Carrick Council and its funders that Atlantic FM is able to broadcast from what must be the most scenic broadcasting locations in the UK.