FAQ

At the moment, Cross Rhythms Radio is broadcast in two ways:

• On FM: 101.8FM in Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-Under-Lyme; 96.3FM in Plymouth and 107.1FM in Stockton-on-Tees.
• On the Internet across the world, using Windows Media streaming audio.

We don't have any immediate plans for this, but it's something that we're keeping under review. This is where you can help us - we need to know whether listeners would prefer us to expand by adding more Windows Media capacity, or by offering alternative formats. Tell us what you think in the guestbook or by filling in the form on our contact pages.

The playlists are the tracks that are currently listed for regular inclusion in our programming. A track on the "A" list will get played six or seven times a day, and a track on the "B" list will get played four or five times a day. How often you hear them depends on how much you listen!

The playlists are not exclusive; we also play other current and classic tracks as selected by the presenters or in response to listener requests, and some specialist shows don't use the playlists. For normal daytime programming, the playlists make up about 80% of the output, with the rest being tracks chosen by the presenters or requested by listeners.

We regularly audition CDs from independent bands and artists for possible inclusion in the playlists. If you would like to submit a CD for review, please send it to: Maxine Cummings, Cross Rhythms, PO Box 1110, Stoke-on-Trent, England. All CDs received are allocated for review on the Cross Rhythms website and then passed to the Cross Rhythms Radio programme controller for airplay audition. It helps if you can send us two copies, as that speeds up the review process.

Cross Rhythms Radio, like the rest of Cross Rhythms, is funded primarily by voluntary contributions. The rules of the Community Radio licence that we have for broadcasting in Stoke-on-Trent restrict the amount of paid advertising or programme sponsorship that we can take, as we're not allowed to be in direct competition with local commercial radio stations. We rely on you, the listener, to keep us on the air. If you want to help support Cross Rhythms Radio, take a look at the Friends of Cross Rhythms pages.

We've got two fully-equipped radio broadcast studios, plus editing and pre-production suites. Normally, our live programming comes from Studio 1b, which is the one with the studio webcam in it. We use a digital playout system, called Enco DAD, which holds all the music tracks as well as jingles, promos and other broadcast items. The presenters run the system from the studio computers - we only need to use physical media such as CD, minidisc or DAT if we have something to play that isn't yet on the digital system.