Copyright
In terms of copyright, it is important to make sure that intellectual is properly protected. We will protect our content by ensuring that we receive written permission forms from the musicians whose music we feature on the show and ensure we have a valid PRS license. All of the adverts we broadcast during our show will have been created by the organisation that is being advertised and all of our discussion topics will be appropriate and will not infringe any copyright laws. For our pitch, the 'Sheffield Underground Sounds' idea sample audio is copyright free because it consists of an interview recorded by ourselves featuring a band called Monoking, who gave us verbal permission to record. We didn't use any sound effects in our sample audio, but if we did then we would have referenced them to prove that we have permission to use them.
Performing Rights Society for Music
In regards to a PRS license, we will require one just in case the bands we feature are signed up to PRS. Additionally if we cannot get the written permission from the bands prior to broadcasting then we may have to rely on music covered by PRS as a contingency. However, if the bands are not covered by PRS then we will simply gain written permission using contracts to officiate our agreement to only play music with the consent of the person/people who created it. This should help us avoid running into any issues in terms of the music we play on our programme.
Legal & Ethical Issues
When considering legal and ethical issues, we will avoid broadcasting any offensive material during our programme. To avoid unfiltered opinions and input from our listeners, we have decided to not include live phone-ins on our show and alternatively listeners are invited to contact us via social media and email. This means that we will be able to moderate what we broadcast while allowing our audience to actively get involved. We will also be pre-recording all of our interviews to ensure no profanity or offensive language is broadcasted on our programme. We must be familiar with the regulator Ofcom's guidelines such as their equality and diversity policy which reads "treat all colleagues with dignity and respect in an inclusive and fair working environment, promoting equality of opportunity for all". If we were to breech any of these policies then we would most likely be reported by a listener and be put under investigation by the organisation. This is why we will explicitly follow the Ofcom guidelines in order to avoid this.
