[cma-l] FAO: Chairman/Station Manager URGENT

[Ian McGregor]

Please forward this message and attachment URGENTLY to your chairman or 
station manager if that is not you!

Would you like some more money for your community radio station?

I have today launched a mini campaign to help get your station a share 
in the £1.1 million fine levied against GCap Media last week for 
misleading listeners in a paid for phone-in competition (see my letter 
to the Secretary of State below).

If you think it's a good idea, I invite you to do the following:

1: Write your own letter to Andy Burnham suggesting the same thing 
(please write it in your own words though, perhaps tailoring it to your 
own station's specific experiences but by all means refer to my letter 
to make the connection). Be polite, but persuasive in your arguments.

2: Tell your local papers you've done so to create some local media 
interest (there's an example press release below, feel free to 
personalise and localise it or write one of your own). You can use your 
press release as an opportunity to remind people about the role your 
station plays in its community and the difficulties in raising funds 
(given the restraints of the legislation). You may well be asked what 
would your station do with the money if the Treasury decide to play 
Robin Hood and share it, so please think about that beforehand.

EXAMPLE PRESS RELEASE:

(YOUR TOWN) COMMUNITY RADIO STATION SHOUTS TO THE TOP!
Local radio volunteers ask Secretary of State for share in 'windfall' money

(Your town)'s community radio station (xxx FM) is asking the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer to play Robin Hood.

Station bosses want Alistair Darling to redistribute a £1.1 million fine 
windfall - levied against radio giant GCap Media for misleading 
listeners in a paid for phone-in competition  - to help struggling 
community radio stations across the country, including (your town).  The 
money is otherwise destined for Treasury coffers.

"We think this money should be shared by community radio stations like 
(xxFM) which are run mostly by volunteers who broadcast day in and day 
out, serving their communities
whilst struggling to get by on very little money," said (XXFM's 
chairman/station manager ..........).

"If the £1.1 million was shared equally amongst the UK's 162 community 
stations, they would get £6,790 each - and best of all, it wouldn't cost 
the taxpayers a single penny, because the money is an unexpected 
windfall as far as the government is concerned."

(xxFM) has been broadcasting to ............. since ......... The 
station, based at ..... is on air for xx hours a day and it's programmes 
includes ...(local stuff here)

"We make it our business to be part of and at the heart of the local 
community including ...(examples here) ... .  But radio stations are 
expensive to run.  <<xxFM> is a mainly voluntary service, but we incur 
music royalties, broadcast fees, studio rent, utility costs and business 
rates like any other, not to mention the cost of buying and repairing 
studio equipment and computers.

"The money would be like a dream to us - with a sum like that we could 
.......................

"This is potentially a one off golden opportunity for the government to 
recognise the work of community radio stations up and down the country 
and provide a much needed financial boost for these very small stations 
that are poor in pocket but rich in diversity and community spirit.  So 
I do urge the chancellor and the Department for Culture, Media and 
Sport, to  play Robin Hood and distributing the windfall fine to help 
community radio here in ........... and across the UK."

EXAMPLE PRESS RELEASE ENDS

Please act quickly - try to meet your local paper's deadline for the 
next edition (in most cases Tuesday) - whilst the story is still topical.

As well as there possibly being a golden pot of money at the end of it, 
it will also potentially give you some valuable local newspaper 
publicity (local newspapers like local campaigns) to talk about the 
valuable work you are doing in your communities.

By all means also copy your Andy Burnham letter to the Radio Magazine 
(news at theradiomagazine.co.uk) and Broadcast (chris.curtis at emap.com is 
the editor) if you wish to support the initiative, and copy in the 
Community Media Association and your local MP as well.

For your information, there is a list of the 'dirty thirty' stations 
that broadcast the 'fixed' competition here: 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/26/gcapmedia.radio?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

I hope this all works and that you, and the other community stations, 
get the dosh!

If not, well, there was nothing lost in trying - and the local publicity 
may well bring you some new listeners and perhaps even some local offers 
of funding.

Good luck!

Ian McGregor
Just Talking BROADCAST PR
Check out our plain English radio audience guide here: []

PS: This email has been sent to all of the UK community stations I could 
find email addresses for.  But please share it with your friends and 
colleagues at other community stations in case they've been missed, 
let's keep that £1.1 million in sight before it gets lost in the big pot!

If you have any questions about this email, please send a BRIEF enquiry 
and I'll endeavour to send a BRIEF reply.  Please do not phone (sorry, 
we're a small but busy agency, and we're running this campaign informally.


---------- Attached message ----------

URGENT The Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Room 118
70 Whitehall
LONDON
SW1A 2AS


30 June 2008


Dear Sir

The news that Ofcom has fined GCap Media £1.1 million for misleading 
listeners in a paid for phone-in competition, comes in the same week as 
the sad news of the closure, through lack of funds, of one of London’s 
first community radio stations, TGR Sound in Bexley.

Many of the UK’s commercial radio stations, some of them very big and 
profitable companies, are actively reducing local programmes with more 
and more broadcasts being fed in from other areas - this very week in 
fact, GCap's 'One' network is cutting yet more local hours and extending 
'group' content.   Worse still, some local commercial stations are 
actually moving out of the towns they are licensed to serve, reducing 
costs and boosting profits at the expense of their local listeners.

In contrast, the UK's 162 not-for-profit community radio stations 
struggle to pay the bills whilst unpaid volunteers serve their listeners 
in a way commercial local stations once did but many have long since 
abandoned.

So I wondered if the Gcap fine could potentially be turned into some 
good news for the community volunteers?   If the £1.1 million was shared 
equally amongst the community stations, it would give them a windfall of 
£6,790 each – a drop in the ocean in commercial radio land, but almost a 
lottery win in the not-for-profit sector.  And better still, it wouldn't 
cost taxpayers a single penny, because the money – which I understand 
will otherwise disappear into general Treasury coffers – is an 
unexpected windfall as far as the government is concerned.

This year's Community Radio Fund of £500,000, kindly allocated by your 
department, has so far helped eighteen not-for profit stations – but 
that's fewer than one in ten, and that small number of awards has taken 
up most of the money.  That means more than nine in ten of the stations 
will get no government help at all.

I'm writing to you because I understand from the Treasury team that your 
department is the first point of contact for the GCap fine story, so 
could I ask please that you give this suggestion due consideration, and, 
if you think it a valid proposition, make the necessary approach to your 
colleague, Alistair Darling?

This is potentially a one off golden opportunity to recognise the work 
of the – mainly volunteer - community radio sector and provide a much 
needed financial boost for these tiny stations that are poor in pocket 
but rich in diversity and community spirit.

I am copying this letter to Ofcom and the Community Media Association 
for information, also, to the people in charge at each of the community 
radio stations, as well as to the media press.

I appreciate your time and look forward to your comments in due course.

Yours faithfully

Ian McGregor
Managing Director
Just Talking BROADCAST PR