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

Fri Aug 5 08:36:26 BST 2011

There’s a very tricky balance here isn’t there? With ofcom walking a tightrope between giving stations the room to run their affairs and being the protector of the sector. We’d all agree that if a neighbouring station was barely broadcasting and you were working hard every day to put out the very best programming you can, that ofcom ought to intervene? I’m sure the government has it’s eye on ofcom and would relish the chance to cut it down to size and there may be a chance to influence that but my hunch is if that happens giving more wiggle room to community radio will not be on the to-do list. 
As for the recent sanction. I always tell my students that ofcom is a bit like your mum; there are rules and you’ll get told off if you break them but you can lessen that if you tell her. Try and hide from what you’ve done or plead ignorance and you’ll be in more trouble. Break the rules when your brother has already been grounded for the same thing and expect her to come down even harder on you. Yes that means reading the bulletins carefully every month and considering what that means for your station and, yes, it means checking you’re in line with what you’ve said you’ll do but when you accept a licence you accept that as the T&C’s. It’s like a driving licence, there are rules attached to the freedoms. 
The report might be a mess. It’s confusing and time consuming but under the current rules it’s probably the best check and balance there is. What would the alternative be? Submission of all accounts? A visit from ofcom to look at the books and listen to the tapes? I do agree though some work could be done in making it user-friendly and maybe this is where the expertise of community engagement in the sector can help ofcom – who are after all a governmental agency used to making forms, not filling them in. 
Richard
University of Sunderland
http://www.sunderlandradio.co.uk
From: Andrew David 
Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2011 8:25 PM
To: martin at martinsteers.co.uk ; cma-l at commedia.org.uk 
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Ofcom breaches - lessons for all stations

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

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/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

_______________________________________________

Reply - cma-l at commedia.org.uk

The cma-l mailing list is a members' service provided by the Community Media Association - http://www.commedia.org.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/community_media
http://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation
Canstream Internet Radio & Video: http://www.canstream.co.uk/
_______________________________________________

Mailing list guidelines: http://www.commedia.org.uk/about/cma-email-lists/email-list-guidelines/
_______________________________________________

To unsubscribe or manage your CMA-L mailing list subscription please visit:
http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l

The University of Lincoln - a top performer in student satisfaction, enjoying an unrivalled ascent through the University league tables, set in a dynamic, research rich and vibrant campus in the heart of a great historic student-friendly city.

The information in this e-mail and any attachments may be confidential. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender immediately and remove it from your system. Do not disclose the contents to another person or take copies.

Email is not secure and may contain viruses. The University of Lincoln makes every effort to ensure email is sent without viruses, but cannot guarantee this and recommends recipients take appropriate precautions.

The University may monitor email traffic data and content in accordance with its policies and English law. Further information can be found at: http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/legal.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________

Reply - cma-l at commedia.org.uk

The cma-l mailing list is a members' service provided by the Community Media Association - http://www.commedia.org.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/community_media
http://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation
Canstream Internet Radio & Video: http://www.canstream.co.uk/
_______________________________________________

Mailing list guidelines: http://www.commedia.org.uk/about/cma-email-lists/email-list-guidelines/
_______________________________________________

To unsubscribe or manage your CMA-L mailing list subscription please visit:
http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l
Visit www.sunderland.ac.uk/tv to see the University's new TV ads
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/pipermail/cma-l/attachments/20110805/7f6f5a8f/attachment.html>