Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/OSCAR Radio

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep - nomination withdrawn. TerriersFan 03:24, 8 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

OSCAR Radio

Not notable secondary school student radio broadcasting on a RSL. stripped of school related weblinks, the subject scores 148 Ghits, most of which bear no relationship to the subject at all. Ohconfucius 02:32, 25 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of England-related deletions. -- John Vandenberg 09:29, 25 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If RSLs are part of the standard regulatory scheme for broadcasting in the United Kingdom, then radio stations which operate under RSLs meet the criterion of being duly licensed by the appropriate regulatory authority...especially if it's an RSL that's renewed on a regular basis. A station that got one RSL to broadcast for one isolated period might not necessarily meet our standard, but an RSL that's renewed as often as legally permissible is effectively as close as such a station can get to being a permanent operation. So keep. Bearcat 22:25, 1 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so that consensus may be reached.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Fuhghettaboutit 03:52, 2 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: From this link posted as a reference to the article, clearly the station falls into a different category than is suggested by the above assertion "an RSL that's renewed as often as legally permissible is effectively as close as such a station can get to being a permanent operation". True that the subject does appear to be continuous, but the school has a short term RSL, whilst there is the category of the long term RSL, which several schools have. I am not suggesting that the possession of such a renewed temporary license would be a bar in becoming notable, but the reasons why it does not have a long-term license may be relevant, and could, I believe, be further explained in the talk page Ohconfucius 02:49, 3 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

As the creator of the page and also the person who set the station up and currently runs it I want to assure you that this is a factual description of the radio station. As Bearcat states, OSCAR Radio is a regular broadcaster, it also happens to be seen as one of the best stations of its kind in the UK. In the world of UK school radio stations it was deemed the best one by the BBC when they did a trawl of school radio station in 2004, it is certainly the largest, with studios that most university stations would love to have. It has a good presence in the local community and plenty of people listen either on the internet or locally on the FM transmission. OSCAR Radio is seen as a good model for other schools to view and we get plenty of visits from schools interested in putting together their own radio stations. So keep Dfcf 20:11, 2 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: Many articles on wikipedia have been deleted because the subject does not possess sufficiently notability even though they are completely factual. The fact that there are many people involved either in the creation of the article or the subject is completely irrelevant argument to avoid deletion. Although it is a fairly well-written article, it was put up for deletion mainly because I did not find insufficient independent and reliable sources which support the assertions of notability within the article. Being "best", or having a "good presence" can be quite subjective if not properly benchmarked with an important award, audited audience figures or press commentary. Dfcf cites a number of things which could be indicators of a greater level of notability than is suggested in the article, and it would be of considerable help if, for example, the BBC mention was sourced within the article. Ohconfucius 02:49, 3 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Keep - a little searching found a couple good links, which I have added, and indicates that the station does get some attention (as a Sony Music CEO came to open their new studio). The article needed some cleaning up, with the frequency and range it has, it's certainly of note, even if it only runs part of the year. --Thespian 07:32, 3 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: I would agree that the station has the potential to be notable, but I remain not totally convinced that it is. I would point out that the links are not independent - one was issued by a PR agency on behalf of the school, and the other clearly names the school as the source of the story. Ohconfucius 13:06, 3 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment If you agree that it has the potential to be notable, then this nomination should be withdrawn at this point, especially considering the only comments on it have been your nom and Bearcat and I saying 'Keep' (that's aside from the obvious keep of the page creator). And yeah, it does name the school as the source of the story - but not in terms of 'the school handed this to us and we ran it'. All secondary sources have to have a primary source *somewhere*, so while the first one, I'll concede, is not completely independent (though all I cite out of it is the 'only station operated by under 18s', which is in other articles, too), the second one is a perfectly good source from a local newspaper, and I spent about 10m on this. More could be done, though one needs to convince Dfcf (to whom it is obviously central, though he did a fairly good job of avoiding COI, some of which I fixed) that more work is needed in this direction. Give it a month and renom in August if we still haven't fixed? I'll work with him. --Thespian 22:02, 3 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: OSCAR Radio is a radio station that is part of the fourth largest public school in England. The fact that the Music CEO of Sony, Sir Howard Stringer helped fund lots of development in the station. The fact that Sir Howard Stringer is now the CEO of Sony. Isn't this enough for OSCAR to be notable?. A few years ago a number of OSCAR presenters visited the BBC radio studios. I don't know the full story but my understanding is that they appeared on a show there, they also received awards from the BBC. OSCAR broadcasts on FM to Oundle and the wide surrounding area reaching a little into Peterborough. It broadcasts to entire world via a SHOUTcast stream. I know the RSL licence for OSCAR is a short term licence, but the station has been running since 1998, nine years! Over this time the station has grown massively, with the new studios. A main studio and a news studio with a satellite link to IRN. I am in full belief that OSCAR will continue and the reason that it only has a short term RSL licence is because of an administration issue, or maybe it is easier for the school to buy a short-term licence. It doesn't matter. I know that OSCAR will be continuing in to the near and far future. Some of what I have said is fact and some is views but I believe in it's entirety and think it is petty to try and remove an article to not being notable enough. Maybe it is a rule but I think people might want to know about OSCAR and removing maybe the second port of call after the OSCAR website (which I do admit needs a bit of work) is annoying for people searching Wikipedia and not finding the information they want. I came to this discussion with a favourable idea of saying keep but with the evidence that Dfcf has written and the opinion of Thespian I am now in full belief that OSCAR is notable enough for a Wikipedia article. So in full entirety my belief is keep. Pimms 23:55, 3 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Nomination withdrawn. In light of Thespian's arguments, I will withdraw my nom, pending further work on the article. However, I would point out that Stringer is an old boy at the school, so that the visit from this industry luminary is not entirely coincidentiial or without connection! Ohconfucius 01:19, 4 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Schools-related deletions. -- John Vandenberg 12:09, 7 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.