Chairman’s Report 30th September 1984
1984 was another difficult year for our company. When I reported as substantial loss for 1983, it was clear that a major effort would be necessary to recover the position and I now reported that that effort was only partially successful. Much credit is due to our sales force for gaining an increase in local sales in a far from buoyant market, and in the teeth of fierce competition from other media including Channel 4 TV and some free newspapers. Unfortunately that increase was partly offset by a small reduction in national sales, and so the net increase in turnover was just under 5 percent, but marginally above our target for the year. It is a concern among all the smaller ILR stations how difficult it is to get a decent amount of national advertising but we keep in close touch with our sales agents in London to try and ensure we get a fair share of what is available
So much for the income side; in a small station like ours the containment of costs is vital and in that department success proved more than elusive. As it turned out, we managed to reduce them by almost 6% on the year before that was after another reorganisation in mid year when Ken Whitaker left the company and David Cousins assumed the managing directorship in his place. The search for economies was intensified and the station is now running with a much reduced staff and consequently lower costs. But the failure to keep costs within target was largely responsible for another large trading loss for the year of £95,000. This leaves the company in a difficult position and I will come back to the financial situation later in my report.
On the programming side it is to the credit of everyone, but especially to David Cousins and Jim Gibbons, Head of News, that we have continued to cover so many local events in the transmission area. The close involvement of the station and members of staff in the local community is reflected in the excellent figures reported in the Spring JICRAR measurement, which showed that our share of the regional audience increased satisfactorily over that shown by the previous research. The station is popular and our presenters are well-received; the support of our listeners is tremendous and is shown to its best at our annual fund-raising day in aid of the DevonCare charity appeal. As usual, this November’s programme was a great success. The amount of money raised, in excess of £15,000, is a great tribute to the efforts of everyone concerned in planning and arranging the two days of hectic money raising. There was the added competition this year of many local appeals for famine relief and the success of all of them speaks volumes for the generosity of our listeners.
In return to the financial position, it is clear that something has to be done. Part of the reason for the rather extended time, for which I apologise, between the accounting date and the general meeting, has been the time it has taken to get advice about the best way to achieve a stronger balance sheet. The National Westminster Bank has been extremely helpful and has agreed to continue to support us on two conditions; one is that we maintain the trading plan for the rest of the year and the other is that we arrange to restructure our capital according to the scheme described in the attached letter. The board strongly recommend the scheme to you and although we shall not have progressed far enough to put the resolution to you at the meeting on the 13th of May, I may of course be only too happy to discuss it and to answer questions.
The current year has started better, although the market for advertising appears to be getting ever more competitive. It is a continuing struggle to contain our expenditure and I am grateful to all the staff whose unflagging effort to maintain the improvement in our output is the best way to attract listeners and therefore advertisers. It is encouraging to hear the IBA from time to time making noises about helping the small stations like ours but the threat by the Home Office to license unregulated community stations is discouraging.
Overall I am optimistic that 1985 will show a substantial improvement over 1984 and that with your agreement we shall complete the scheme of arrangement and enter 1986 on a much sounder footing than for some time.
Ian Amory