[cma-l] E-petition DCMS - Community Radio - Please sign

Tue Aug 16 18:36:36 BST 2011

Alex, Ian, et al,

In my experience Ofcom have absolutely no interest in ensuring community
stations have sufficient output power to meet their key commitments. 

In the case of The Bay 102.8;

.         We have compiled with the help of Arqiva a details and compelling
technical report 

.         We've now have had all three of our MPs write to Ofcom.  

.         In the meantime, our antenna is on the highest building, on the
highest point in the centre of our area. We are sighted on the same ridge as
3 of the  4 commercial stations and our site is very sort after by
commercial companies.

I have absolutely no doubt that the interests of the 250,000+ people that
live and work in our are not being served by Ofcom.  

Our requirement isn't unreasonable either, only that we cover the area
specified in our key commitments which was agreed by Ofcom.  

Ofcom - hopeless!

Alan

From: Two Lochs Radio [mailto:tlr at gairloch.co.uk] 
Sent: 05 August 2011 1:29 PM
To: Alan Coote; cma-l at commedia.org.uk
Subject: Re: [cma-l] E-petition DCMS - Community Radio - Please sign

Hi Alan

I fully appreciate that the power limit is according to application of
Ofcom's policies, and that they are not specified explicitly in statute.
This is no different than the position for commercial licensees. CR licences
are supposed to be granted in terms of the communities (geographic or of
common interest) that they are intended to serve, and it was the clear
intention of parliament that these would generally be very local
communities. The radiated power and the intended geographical area flow from
consideration of the community to be served.

The clearly expressed expectation when CR licenses were introduced was that
they would be for typical service areas of around 5km radius. But this is
only a rule of thumb, not set in stone. Ofcom has the discretion to license
for larger areas where it thinks appropriate to a community. So it's not
really a 'one size fits all' for power, except that with a rule of thumb 5km
radius coverage in typical circumstances 25W would suffice, leaving
non-typical circumstances to be dealt with on their merits.

The reason I don't think the petition is ideal at the moment is that it
really should be couched more in terms of allowing geographically larger
communities to be properly served where it is appropriate to the intended
function of communty radio (as for example in CCR's case for macclesfield
and neighbouring towns), or to maintaining acceptable signal strength across
the licensed area. Increased power (or relay transmitters) would very likely
then be required to meet accepted signal strength and protection ratios
across a wider area or one wih challenging terrain. But it should be that
way around. To simply lobby for increased power would be to call for the
tail to be wagging the dog.

Of course, if Ofcom did agree to significantly increase acceptable
commmunity radio service areas across the board, it would then be very
likely also to decide that fewer stations could be licensed in many areas,
owing to the likelihood of interference from other more powerful community
stations in the distance. While 25W may give generally acceptable coverage
of 5km radius in typical conditions, in particularly good conditions or in
particular directions it could easily provide a usable signal 15-20km away,
and that has to be allowed for when planning acceptable transmitter
locations and frequencies.

Alex

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Alan Coote <mailto:alan.coote at thebayradio.com>  

To: 'Two Lochs Radio' <mailto:tlr at gairloch.co.uk>  ; cma-l at commedia.org.uk 

Sent: Friday, August 05, 2011 1:04 PM

Subject: RE: [cma-l] E-petition DCMS - Community Radio - Please sign

Hi Alex,

.         In many cases the extremely low power affects a station's ability
to fully meet their key commitments, particularly in dense urban or hilly
areas. 

.         Ofcom have the ability to allocate more than 25W if the choose -
their 'Policy' is NOT to. 

.         There are currently 21 Community Stations that have greater than
25 Watts - mostly in hilly or sparsely populated areas of the UK 

.         The statute does not specify a power limit - it is Ofcom which
apply their own 'policy'.

.         Retrospectively altering the power requirement is often permitted
for commercial stations - almost never for community stations

.         The new round 3 application form does not even have a section for
power requirement 

.         The one size fits all rule is a nonsense. It assumes every town,
city, village is exactly the same. 

Please sign the petition there really is reason not to.

Kind Regards

Alan

Alan Coote

Business Development Director 

The Bay Radio

Office 01202 580200

Studio 01202 571028

Mobile 07801 518858

Email alan.coote at thebayradio.com

Web www.thebayradio.com <http://www.thebayradio.com/> 

The Bay Radio, 25B Elliott Road, Bournemouth, BH11 8LQ

Description: The-Bay-logo-small.gif 

From: Two Lochs Radio [mailto:tlr at gairloch.co.uk] 
Sent: 05 August 2011 11:45 AM
To: Alan Coote; cma-l at commedia.org.uk
Subject: Re: [cma-l] E-petition DCMS - Community Radio - Please sign

Alan

Playing Devil's Advocate for a moment, isn't Ofcom's position already that
it can and will authorize greater powers where a proper case can be made for
that within the purpose of a community radio licensee?

I noticed, for example, that recently sanctioned station VoAR had originally
been authorized to use up to 50W and that had recently been increased to
permission for 200W, which with a good antenna site should give a pretty
good coverage area. (Mind you, they'll need to make sure now they have
better ready access for commissioning the new transmitter!)

I think also in London Desi Radio and Westside are authorized for well over
25W. Several stations in the midlands are authorized for more than 25W.

And bear in mind if they allow more than is needed for reasonable coverage
of the licensed area, that may mean more restrictions or interference for
other stations elsewhere.

Alex

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Alan Coote <mailto:alan.coote at thebayradio.com>  

To: cma-l at commedia.org.uk 

Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2011 10:06 PM

Subject: [cma-l] E-petition DCMS - Community Radio - Please sign

..

Local radio in the past was successful in informing communities with local
news and specialised programmes. 

There are numerous community stations doing that job at present with
hundreds of volunteers but restricted to low power transmission by OFCOM. 

To survive these stations must be given sufficient power to get out to their
whole community. 

Your e-.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l

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