[cma-l] Community radio letter in the Guardian today!

[CMA-L]

Fwd:

From: "Alan Coote" <alan.coote at thebayradio.com>

Andrew,

I fully support the intent of your letter, however I make the observation
that the central government's community radio  fund is intended to support
all community radio stations across the UK. And while I don't want to appear
nationalistic, I think that it is therefore a great shame that there is no
ring-fenced fund specifically for English based community stations.

I congratulate you on your the evident success.

Alan Coote
The Bay (Poole)


-----Original Message-----
Sent: 26 September 2007 20:35
To: Jaqui Devereux; 'CMA-L'
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Community radio letter in the Guardian today!
Importance: High

Hi

In response to the letter in today's Guardian I have sent the following
response!

Dear Editor

Re : Community Radio

I am writing in response to the letter that appeared in the Guardian (dated
Wednesday September 26th 2007) to say that I wholeheartedly agree with the
points being made by the authors

I was responsible for setting up one of the 15 pilot stations back in 2001
which paved the way for the creation of the community radio sector that we
now have in the UK.

The station that I established in the South Wales Valleys was born out of a
community project I ran as manager for a local housing association in
partnership with a tenants group on one of Wales's most deprived estates.
The issues the letter refers to around housing, health, crime prevention,
employment, education, regeneration and community development were indeed
the cornerstone of our public broadcasting function from the very outset -
matters that we confronted every day as housing managers and community
development workers and therefore had a wealth of knowledge and expertise
in.

Over the past 6 years as the operator of what was until recently Wales's
only community radio station I had to single handedly  try to persuade
government departments, local authorities, public agencies and local
businesses to support our work not least of all because as the letter says
funding for the valuable role we perform as a sector is in extremely limited
supply

However the main reason for writing is that I feel that I must point out
that in Wales at least signs for the future are very encouraging. Involving
our local Assembly Members from the start in our work and lobbying all
political parties in the Senedd in Cardiff Bay paid off and last year the
Welsh Assembly Government announced the creation of a Community Radio Fund
for Wales worth £0.5 million over 5 years. Whilst the overall amount may not
seem large it needs to be taken in the context of an as yet underdeveloped
community radio sector here in Wales and the fact that little more
additional dedicated funding for community radio exists through other
channels for the whole of the UK.

All this is even more impressive given that broadcasting is not even a
devolved matter to the Welsh Assembly. So why may you ask has the funding
pot been established? Well, as many Assembly Members have told me in
discussions it is because they can see the value of community radio as a way
of helping to regenerate deprived communities, getting important messages to
the grass roots and supporting training of local people of all ages and
equipping them with basic but valuable transferable skills

Wales gets little recognition in the UK media but lets hope the trail
blazing example set by our Welsh Assembly will be noticed across the border
and others will follow suit with support for community radio - financial and
in other ways!

Yours Sincerely

Andrew Jones

Project Manager

Rhondda Cynon Taff Community Radio Project