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

Thu Aug 4 20:25:43 BST 2011

Martin,

I have enormous sympathy as I'm sure others do.  I have asked that the
CMA Council discuss this and take matters up with Ofcom.  I got ticked
off for the way I submitted our report, thinking that they'd like to see
reports from some of my hard working and energetic volunteers.  None of
it I have to fill the form in with it fully referenced against the KCs.
Mmm....it's one thing being part of an organisation where process is
King/Queen.  Out at the coal face it's an entirely different story.

As a newly elected member of CMA I shall be making a nuisance of myself
by saying/nay insisting this sort of admin process needs to be heavily
stripped back and work to produce a useful document that, maybe, could
be sued in funding bids, etc.

Andrew

(Please note that there may be a delay in answering your email as on air
matters have to take priority)

Andrew David

Managing Editor

Council Member for the Community Media Association
(http://www.commedia.org.uk/)

SIREN FM - simply the home of fantastic radio, just great music,
enthusiastic presenters and the odd surprise or two!

www.sirenonline.co.uk <http://www.sirenonline.co.uk/> 

01522 886001

________________________________

From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Martin
Steers
Sent: 04 August 2011 18:05
To: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Ofcom breaches - lessons for all stations

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/c
ompliance-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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