[cma-l] Message from Phil Shepherd, CMA Chair

Jaqui Devereux jaqui.devereux at commedia.org.uk
Fri May 15 11:42:22 BST 2009 

Dear CMA members and friends

There is a CMA Council meeting tomorrow (Saturday 16th May) in Sheffield and
I'm getting in touch to alert you to what is on the agenda and to the issues
that are current for us as we work to represent the sector across the UK.

*  A new round of community radio licence opportunities announced in London.
Prospective applicants should bear in mind:
- frequencies are very scarce in this area - more so than in any other.
- consider applying for an AM licence in view of
   frequency scarcity.
- keep up-to-date with the CMA mailing list, check the CMA website and
perhaps follow the Twitter feed for signposting to further information.

* United for Local Television (for whom CMA provides the secretariat as well
as much creative input) has submitted fully developed proposals to
government making a cast iron and brilliantly argued case for a network of
local terrestrial TV to build on the success of the CR sector.  If your
station or local authority or RDA would like to write to Any Burnham
expressing support and enthusiasm for the idea then now would be a very good
time for this to happen.  I will place an update letter for your use in this
respect on the lists over the next few days.  A decision on local TV is
expected in the next few weeks in tandem with the Digital Britain
announcements.

* Good news at the Sony Awards with not for profit Electric Radio from
Brixton Prison winning the Listener Participation award - see attached
article from Wednesday's Evening Standard making the case for increasing the
Community Radio Fund.

*  Very good feedback from the Conference and AGM in Leicester -  "What a
great two days we had with you in Leicester - such a well-organised event,
which left us totally enthused and energised." (Voice FM)  - and for the
previous day's  Your Media, Your Tools - the Ofcom sponsored media literacy
event.   A question in my mind post Conference takes me back to the
principles of community media -  how do we sustain the critical debates
within the sector about what we are all trying to achieve and about what's
important  alongside the inevitable and often debilitating fight for
survival, for funds and support?  Answers on a postcard please!

* The need to develop regional working was discussed at the conference and
we have had feedback since from both East Anglia and the North East where
moves are being made to take things forward.

* CMA Council members Javed Sattar (Awaz FM) and Murray Dawson (Station
House) are members of the Scottish Community Broadcasting Network whose next
meeting is on 9th June.  Javed tells us that at their last meeting the SCBN
agenda included a dialogue with a government representative on the use of CR
stations to carry government messages.  Unfortunately neither Murray nor
Javed are able to attend this week's Council meeting but hopefully more of
an update from Scotland next time.  In the future we are hoping to work more
closely with SCBN in terms of scheduling meetings - thus allowing us to
formalise and organise the reporting between the two bodies more
effectively.

* Some international news:  Grassroots Radio Conference folk are being
invited by the organizing committee of the NCRA, the National Campus and
Community Radio Association of Canada, to join the conference being held in
Montreal, Quebec, Canada, June 7-13, on the campus of McGill University.
Many of the panels and sessions are not Canada-specific, but those that are
can be an opportunity for comparisons and contrasts.   There's an outline of
the schedule here:   http://ckut.ca/ncrc.php .

In recent weeks our Director Jaqui Devereux has been very busy as always -
some highlights:
* spoke at the Tuning Into Radio Skillset conference
* made a submission to Stephen Carter on community radio in respect of
'Radio in Digital Britain'.  Topics addressed included 50% Rules, Different
Sources of Income, Community Radio Restrictions, License Extensions, Digital
Inclusion and Community Engagement, Future Expansion and Funding of the
Sector.  Note Ofcom's response:  http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radio/ifi/myers.pdf
* attended Digital Britain Summit (radio & TV),
* attended Radio Industry Diversity Group
* met with shadow Secretary of State
* spoke at Local Media Summit in House of Commons
* met re John Myers¹ review of local radio
* met with Ofcom CR Team
* contributed to Radio Academy podcast
http://www.radioacademy.org/listen/podcasts/
* atended London CR meeting
* submitted detailed papers to Secretary of State on training and employment
opportunities in local TV, partnership proposals with local newspapers and
other local players
* contributed to the Ofcom Local Media Review
* extended partnerships with among others NIACE, WEA, UK Online, DC10, UK
Online, MLA, VAN
* co-completed Your Media, Your Tools, plus attended Welsh Media Literacy
conference
* attended DIUS Informal Adult Learners Strategy launch
* spoke at the Tackling Social Exclusion conference
* attended National Digital Inclusion conference
* met in Salford re potential ³Make Media² com media Centre of Excellence in
Media City ­ Concept Proposal to NWDA very soon
* met (along with myself) with BBC ­ community media on the iPlayer?
* with Bill Best liaised with members and PPL re community radio licensing
* met next phase of work with ACE
* progressed work in European Leonardo project as partners (training the
trainer in community media)
* registered CMA for VAT

Coming Up for Jaqui:
* Follow up meetings with Sec of State re community radio and local TV
* Digital Britain announcement due 16 June
* Speaker at Radio Academy NW event on community radio
* Euro project meeting Poland early July
* the annual reception of the All-Party Parliamentary Media Group on 17th
June

* Our bid to the DCLG Empowerment Fund was sadly not successful this time
round.

* What is your station or community media group doing for this year's
Refugee Week?  It's just over a month to go till Refugee Week starts on
15th June, see: http://www.refugeeweek.org.uk  Community radio has a strong
role to play in Refugee Week, whether debating the issues, taking part in an
event or training people to report on what's happening locally - and many
stations have always been involved.

For this year's Refugee Week you're invited to publicise what you're
doing via the RWRadio network, share some of your audio and even host a
live programme.Have a look at the Refugee Week Radio websites at:
http://www.refugeeweekradio.net- info and live programmes and:
http://rwradio.ning.com

* Looking forward to NIACE event on 16th July.   The intended aim of the
event will be to disseminate good practices in digital media creation and
consider the role of digital media creation in informal learning.

NIACE are steering their event towards creativity, digital/media capability
inspired in part by the aims of the European Year of Creativity and
Innovation.  This aims to raise awareness of the importance of creativity
and innovation for personal, social and economic development; to disseminate
good practices; to stimulate education and research, and to promote policy
debate on relevant issues.  The Year addresses a wide spectrum of related
themes such as:
      - fostering artistic and other forms of creativity through
        pre-school, primary and secondary education including vocational
        streams, as well as non-formal and informal education
      - maintaining engagement with creative forms of self-expression
        throughout adult life
      - cultural diversity as a source of creativity and innovation
      - information and communication technologies as media for creative
        self-expression
      - promoting innovation as the route to sustainable development

* Bristol based Council colleague Shawn Sobers drew our attention on the CMA
list to the sad death of Augusto Boal who " inspired by Paulo Freire's
Pedagogy of the Oppressed .. understood the
activist and emancipation role of culture for individuals and
communities living in societies where power is in the hands of the few,
where the majority are disenfranchised from being seen, heard or being
in a position to affect change, which both Boal and Freire knew was
basically every society in the world.  They both also understood how
culture could be used as a tool to pacify and numb the masses.  For
Freire his emancipation weapon was education ­ for Boal it was Theatre.
For community media education activists, it is essentially both".

Best wishes to all

Phil

Phil Shepherd
Chair of Council
Community Media Association
c/o Engine Room
52 High Street
Bridgwater
Somerset TA6 3BL

-- 
Jaqui Devereux

Director
Community Media Association

15 Paternoster Row
Sheffield
S1 2BX

+44 114 279 5219


Join the CMA now for discounts, networking,
workshops, streaming, information, support
and a voice for community media

www.commedia.org.uk

Access to the media for people and communities













-- 
Jaqui Devereux

Director
Community Media Association

15 Paternoster Row
Sheffield
S1 2BX

+44 114 279 5219


Join the CMA now for discounts, networking,
workshops, streaming, information, support
and a voice for community media

www.commedia.org.uk

Access to the media for people and communities

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