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

[Andrew Jones]

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







e mail awjones at tesco.net

to find out more go to the website www.radiocwmni.co.uk
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jaqui Devereux" <jaqui.devereux at commedia.org.uk>
To: "'CMA-L'" <cma-l at commedia.org.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 10:22 AM
Subject: [cma-l] Community radio letter in the Guardian today!


> http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,2176972,00.html
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> Jaqui
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