INCREMENTAL

adjective and noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) In the UK, adjective: Of an independent local radio station: additional to the quota of broad-spectrum stations; belonging to a set of extra stations designed to provide for a small community or specialized audience. noun: One of these extra, specialist stations. Etymology: An increment is an increase or addition; the IBA chose to describe these planned stations as incremental in its report of 1988 (see below) because they were to operate in areas where a local radio service already existed, but provide increased minority-interest or specialist coverage, filling in the gaps in what was already available. History and Usage: The term was first used officially in proposals set out by the Independent Broadcasting Authority in December 1988, when the Home Office authorized the licensing of the first twenty such stations. Typically the incremental stations cater for a very local community, an ethnic minority within the community, or a special-interest group (such as devotees of a particular style of music), but all sorts of ideas have come out of the move, including a station broadcasting only travel and flight information from Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Baldwin suggests a doubling or slightly more of the current 75 franchises (52 stations and 23 incrementals, not all on the air yet) to 150-200. Management Today Dec. 1989, p. 59 Only in 1988 did the IBA bow to the pressure of unsatisfied groups of listeners and allow 20 'incremental' stations to form. KISSFM, the last of these to go on air, opens next month, offering dance music. Daily Telegraph 8 Aug. 1990, p. 28