[cma-l] Offensive language on radio - how to avoid the pitfalls

[Julian Mellor]

Interesting debate.

It does seem that there are two models of community radio.

One is a radio station that happens to use community and voluntary  
resources.  The operational style is probably very similar to  
commercial radio.

The other is a community project that happens to produce radio.

It's not to say one is better than the other, and I'm sure some  
stations combine both.  But we very much fall into the second model.

Hardly anyone had previous radio experience before we setup six years  
ago, but we had lots of community development experience.  We setup  
primarily to do community development.  In that context, we're not  
going to be negligent and we're not going to ignore what we have  
signed up to do.  But we are going to be realistic about what  
volunteers can be expected to do, and what they can achieve and  
deliver in the absence of full-time hands-on management.  From the  
conversations I've had, people from the more commercial and possibly  
top down model really struggle with this approach.  But it works for  
us, it works for our community, and from what Ofcom have said having  
monitored our output, it works for them as well.

So getting back to the original point, a regulatory system which  
relies upon stations having fully resourced staff and management teams  
presents extra challenges for volunteer run stations such as ours.    
If, at the meeting in October, Ofcom seem inclined to move towards  
increased regulation or expectations, I would ask that the Jaqui and  
the CMA represent the difficulties that this will pose for stations  
operating with minimal resources.

Julian

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