Category Archives: Top level pages
Local events
Note: This calendar is still in development and not meant for public use.
Welcome to the Frome local events calendar, sponsored by Frome Chamber of Commerce. Browse what’s on in Frome using the different calendar views, categories and tags or add your own events for FREE by clicking the +Post your event button below.
We will do our best to mention your event on air, but we need at least 72 hours notice and with live radio it is not always possible, we can’t be held responsible if we fail to mention your event, but we want to ensure you we will do our best to keep you happy. All events, where given more than 72 hours notice and where possible will be published on our Local events calendar. We do reserve the right not to publish an event both on our web site and/or on air.
The events on this page are posted “as-is” and FromeFM cannot be held responsible for any mistakes, errors or cancellations. Please check with event organisers in advance.
Services
Studio Production Services
Frome Community Productions can provide studio recording facilities for spoken word. You will use AKG 391 microphones and will make a stereo recording onto Tascam recorders through an Allen and Heath Zed 14 mixing desk. This is ideal for productions with 1 or 2 voices only - Hourly recording/post production rate – £30 per hour (inc engineer).
An alternate approach is to multitrack record i.e each microphone is recorded on its own track. This is more appropriate for complex audio recordings. The session is recorded via a Presonus RM32AI digital mixer and saved on a MacBook Pro into Presonus Capture . The session will be edited using Sony Sound Forge and produced through Avid Pro Tools 12 on an iMac computer using Waves SSL 4000 Collection Plugins, Waves Vocal Rider, Fab Filters and Avid Native tools. You will receive a stereo mix down and a copy of the multitrack files. Hourly recording/post production rate – £50 per hour (inc engineer).
Outside Broadcasts
The price will depend on the nature of the broadcast but a rule of thumb is to budget at £125 for every broadcast hour. This figure will cover a crew of up to four, OB equipment, post production (if required) and/or broadcast time.
Audiobook Recordings
Frome Community Productions can offer a risk share publishing deal to local authors within which the costs of production are deferred and taken as a 55%/45% split of sales. A 5 hour ‘listen’ will usually take 15 hours to produce (or 15 x £30 = £450 of cost). There are some additional variable costs that FCP will absorb (ISBN, artwork development, preparation for digital download, library/royalty free music, SFX). These costs and the publishing fee are taken from sales incrementally on a % basis. If authors prefer to meet those costs themselves, then the sales % will change to a 30%/70% split in favour of the author. This arrangement also assumes that the author will narrate the book. Where an actor has to be employed to narrate, the author will be responsible for meeting those costs.
Equipment Hire
Item | Daily Rate | Weekly Rate |
AKG Handheld Radio Microphone | £10 | £30 |
Dual Sennheiser Handheld Condenser Radio Microphones
2 microphone package |
£40 | £120 |
400 watt PA System
Mixer Amp , 2 speakers on stands + 1 cabled SM58 microphone and 1 microphone stand |
£40 | £120 |
Microphone Stands Package (3 off) | £10 | £30 |
XLR cables (10 off) | £10 | £30 |
8 channel multicore (15 metres) | £10 | £30 |
Soundtracs 16 channel mixing Desk | £25 | £75 |
Allen and Heath Zed 14 Mixing Desk | £15 | £45 |
AKG 391 Condenser microphones | £5 | £15 |
Edirol Handheld Recorder | £15 | £45 |
To enquire about any of our services please use the form on the Contact us page.
Programmes
Our broadcasts at FromeFM are split into the following channels to allow you to more easily find your favourite shows.
Click on the images below for information on all our programmes or listen to the FromeFM sampler.
New Stuff |
Music |
Talk |
Sport shows |
Music Feature |
Talk Feature |
Drama audiobooks |
Frome Festival |
Christmas holiday |
The Old Fire Station
FromeFM originally started broadcasting from The Old Fire Station studio since 2008 but it wasn’t always a radio station as the clue in the name might give away…
Information and photographs kindly supplied by Frome Museum and used with permission.
1700′s
On 10th September 1773 it was agreed that Frome needed proper provisions to deal with fires rather than simply buckets and St Johns Church in Frome decided to purchase the towns first engine.
1800′s
In July 1826 the Bishop sent a letter to the churchwardens asking for the engine to be removed from the Ken Chapel. This was to be the start of a fitting fire service for Frome.
On 17th May 1828 a specification was put together by carpenter William Brown to be sited behind the Packhorse area. The cost for this building was estimated at £82 0s 0d.
The Frome Times printed an advert for a new or nearly new engine on 24th August 1859. One was found and the old rotary engine was sold at auction for £12 16s 6d, and a new one purchased for £96 10s 0d.
In 1876 plans started to be put into place to build a new much larger engine house on Christchurch Street.
A Japanese Bazaar event was held in the town on 21st to 23rd February 1895 to raise money for a new steam fire engine which was purchased later that year.
The “new” fire station was finally completed in 1895 on Christchurch Street west at a cost of £220. This was a much more modern building with double the space of the old one and enough room for two engines. The original engine house was then demolished.
When The Old Fire Station was originally built the keys were kept at The Old Police House and by the engine man who lived opposite. Success in fire-fighting often depended on how quickly horses could be obtained!
1900′s
In 1902 the fire station was decorated to celebrate the coronation of King Edward VII and a procession was held in front of the engine house. It is perhaps relevant to us as a radio station that King Edward was a patron of the arts and sciences and helped found the Royal College of Music. When he opened the college in 1883 he used the words;
“Class can no longer stand apart from class … I claim for music that it produces that union of feeling which I much desire to promote.”
-King Edward VII, 1883
In 1911 the building was again decorated for the coronation of King George V.
By the 1930s, the availability of more modern equipment allowed the Frome Fire Brigade to purchase the first motor engine in 1932 to replace the steamer.
The final time the fire station was decorated was for the coronation of King George VI in 1937.
Somerset Fire Brigade formed on April 1st 1948 which amalgamated with the Frome Volunteer Fire Brigade.
A much larger fire station was completed in October 1970 and the old fire station was vacated. It was briefly used by the ambulance service before they moved to premises on Marston Trading Estate. It then came under private ownership before being converted into business use.
2000′s
In May 2008 FromeFM moved into the ground floor of The Old Fire Station where our studio was built and put together. FromeFM now broadcasts 24 hours a day online and on 96.6FM with live shows recorded during weekends and some weekday evenings.
In 2013 FromeFM moved to a portacabin aka The Albatross in the car park of the Memorial Theatre while The Old Fire Station was refurbished by the new landlord. We moved back into refurbished studios in January 2014.
At the end of 2016 the lease for The Old Fire Station expired and while we waited for a brand new space to become available at the newly re-opened Frome Town Hall, we temporarily moved into The Old Police Station.
Gallery
Frome Community Productions CIC
Frome Community Productions is a community interest company (Company Registration Number 6585776) in Somerset, UK. We are a community radio production house, our main service being FromeFM, an internet radio service producing music and talk based programmes. We also offer a wide range of services, dramatising literary works created by local writers and creating audio books, short stories and travel guides.
If you’d like to get involved in making radio programmes, working behind the scenes in the studio or as a reader for our audio books, then visit the get involved page.
Frome Community Productions CIC
Frome Town Hall
Christchurch Street West
Frome
Somerset
BA11 1EB
Company Registration Number – 6585776
Community Radio Station ID – CR230
FromeFM Directors – Jeremy Westcott, Suzi Sims, Rupert Kirkham, Graham Gillions, Julian Crawley.
The board meets regularly.
Please visit the contact us page for details on how to get in touch.
Frome Community Productions is supported by local sponsors and through donations. You can support us by making a donation to:
Frome Community Productions CIC
HSBC Frome Branch, Sort Code 40-44-33, Account Number 62079968