[cma-l] Ofcom breaches - lessons for all stations

[Martin Steers]

I am sorry to see any station get breached for not submitting KC or finance
report, and I feel for any station that had troubles, and glad your getting
it sorted with Ofcom.

However when stations apply for a license, and agree their
key commitments that includes a commitment to full the rules and regulations
of which filling these documents falls under. The reports are worthwhile as
they are the only was at present that stations
can demonstrate their fulfilment of the KC, and remember the KC and social
gain are the only things that define us as community stations.

I would welcome the discussion on other practical and realistic ways that
stations can evidence and report back on the fulfilment of their KC's?

My advice is to track data as you go, maybe every month or quarter you draw
down the numbers and evidence for the KC, and as far as I know the finance
report can be drawn down from your organisations annual return.

This is a one size fits all, because we all have to evidence our KC, it
could be a lot worse, Ofcom could ask for more validated document or
externally audited data (in terms of live hours, speech / music ratio,
training numbers etc). At present they take all that on face value from
community stations and trust them all in their reports.

Just my thoughts

Martin

On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 2:57 PM, Studio, TMCR 95.3fm <studio at tmcrfm.co.uk>wrote:

> **
> And, in the latest list of breaches issued today,
> http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/broadcast/radio-ops/breaches/compliance-reports.pdf,
> is TMCR FM. I'd just like to add my 2p worth.
>
> One of the big problems in trying to run a community radio station is the
> amount of time it takes to look after paperwork. At one point we had some
> volunteers helping out in the office, but they decided they didn't want to
> carry on and left. We have only one member of staff, me, and it's near
> impossible to keep up with everything. Volunteers tend to come and their
> shows and we may get them to appear at a local event, but they're not
> interested in the office side of things.
>
> I "don't do" Excel and have really struggled trying to work out what's
> needed in the financial report. No use passing it to the treasurer as he's
> recently retired and was never a fan of computers. So, we're now under
> threat of sanction but, in fairness to Ofcom, they have now provided an
> alternative means of submitting the information. That seems to be my task
> for the rest of today.
>
> It's something I know little about as I am not usually involved in the
> book-keeping side of things. I don't feel comfortable doing the report but
> there's no option.  There's no easy answer, the reporting has to be done -
> or else. One of those 'one size fits all' situations that simply does not
> fit, as no less than 10 stations in the latest report appears to show.
>
> Of course, not all stations are equal. There are those with lots of paid
> staff who may be able to churn out an Excel spreadsheet in 2 minutes flat.
> For what we are, a very small community radio station, I think TMCR works
> wonders and our listeners like what we do.
>
> I didn't get involved in the station to spend hours on paperwork. My
> priority is to keep things running and make sure the presenters and
> listeners are happy.   I'm told that Rolls-Royce used to have a word for
> it - MAGPIE = Manufacture And Generation of Paper Instead of Engines...
>
> Gordon Sharpe, Station Manager, TMCR FM, Doncaster
>
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