[cma-l] Community Radio Fund - open letter to PM

[Steve Buckley]

Dear all

It is five years ago today, that the House of 
Lords passed the Community Radio Order 2004 
http://bit.ly/11voFK with the Order coming into force on 20 July 2004.

It seems a fitting time to remind the government 
of some unfinished business - that is the 
woefully inadequate Community Radio Fund - and to 
support the CMA's efforts to keep this issue on 
the agenda. As a volunteer and director of 
community radio licence holder, Sheffield Live!, 
I am painfully aware of the gap between what we 
could achieve and what we do achieve as a result 
of the lack of adequate funding for the sector.

So, to mark the occasion, I have drafted an open 
letter to the Prime Minister to be signed by and 
sent on behalf of community radio stations and their supporters.

If you would like to join in signing this letter, 
please reply to me with your name and 
station/organisation affiliation (if any). If you 
feel moved to do so, why not also use the 
occasion to ask your MP to raise this issue with 
the PM. If there is sufficient interest in a 
fresh initiative on this, then we might also look 
at launching a petition, or more?

Best wishes

Steve

//
[draft for sign on, replies to 
sbuckley at gn.apc.org, deadline 12 noon 20 July 2009]

Open letter to Prime Minister

Rt Hon Gordon Brown
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London

[date]

Dear Gordon

It is five years since the Community Radio Order 
2004 came into force. The growth, since then of 
community radio has been described by Ofcom, in 
its Annual Report 2008/09, as “one of the great 
UK broadcasting success stories in the last few years”.

Over 200 community radio services have been 
licensed by Ofcom since 2004. Around 150 of these 
services are “on air”, creating around 400 jobs, 
involving over 10,000 volunteers, and serving a 
potential audience of more than 10 million people.

Yet this new sector is economically very 
precarious. Six stations have failed to launch, 
three have handed back their licences. Others are 
at high risk. This is not only a result of the 
recession but is a direct consequence of a failure in government policy.

Community radio broadcasters, the vast majority 
unpaid volunteers, are disappointed that their 
achievement is not matched by greater government recognition and support.

The Community Radio Order 2004 restricts 
community radio to a maximum 50 per cent of 
revenue from advertising and sponsorship and, in 
some locations, advertising is prohibited 
entirely. This settlement was to be complemented, 
in part, by a sizeable Community Radio Fund. The 
governments own impact assessment, in line with 
the recommendations of the Everitt Report, 
suggested the Fund would require £3-4 million per 
annum. In its first year £500,000 was provided 
and all 17 applicants were supported. Average 
grant per station was £26,119. Since then annual 
government spending commitments to the Fund have 
not increased at all. In 2008/09 the Community 
Radio Fund received 117 eligible applications, 
against which only 30 grant awards were made, 
with the average grant per station being just £14,978.

To put this in context, the money available 
annually through the Community Radio Fund to 
support the operating costs of 150 community 
radio stations is less than the annual salary of 
a Radio 1 breakfast DJ. From being widely 
applauded in 2004 as a model of good practice, 
the UK settlement for community radio is now 
looking poor in comparison with many other 
western European countries. France, for example, 
provides around Euro 25 million per annum for around 600 community radios.

The sums needed to put the community radio sector 
in the UK on a sustainable long term footing are 
modest by comparison with the government’s 
separate proposals for investment in local news 
consortia, the objectives of which can partly be 
met by the provision of news and information 
services on community radio stations.

We are aware the Department of Culture Media and 
Sport is currently conducting a review into the 
Community Radio Order 2004. Alongside that review 
must also be a serious commitment to support the 
sustainability and development of community radio 
and its continuing delivery of social and 
economic benefit, by substantially increasing the 
government's public spending contribution to the Community Radio Fund.

Yours