[cma-l] CR and the 50%

[Phil Korbel]

Dear all

a true story:

Ed Richards - head person of Ofcom - came to meet the managers of the 12
stations in Greater Manchester a few years ago.  The ad quota was a
question he asked of us - to get our views - simply asking 'I'm guessing
that you'd like to scrap the quota.'

As I recall, all of us there [not all of the stations were represented]
felt OK with the situation - but I expected dissent from Simon Walker who
was at the time running Tameside Radio.  Simon's background is commercial
radio through and through, and he was doing OK with his advertising
revenue... and he said he was selling all the ads he could.  He felt that
the "50%", along with the volunteer time as match funding in your turnover
rule, gave him all the lee-way he needed.

This backs up the point that it'll be a very rare station that could
increase its ad revenue even if the quota was relaxed.

Which leads me to my central point - expressed ably by commercial radio
veteran Henry Loeser here
<http://www.communityradiotoolkit.net/?s=loeser>- that relying on ad
revenue simply doesn't play to community radio's
strengths.  A community radio station is many things, one of which is a
'radio station' - as Zane Ibrahim of Bush Radio so ably put it - we're 90%
community.  There are so many other things that we should be 'selling' -
our place in the hearts of our listeners, the way we reach people who are
harder to reach, our ability to give life chances to people who are denied
them, the way that we give a voice to the un-heard.  These are things that
very few other community organisations can do as well as we can,  and as
economically as we do.  You may chose to go head to head with experienced
advertising salespeople in an over-crowded market or you can play to your
unique selling points.  That's not a utopian vision, it's business sense.

I also disagree with 'speech being expensive', we're not trying to be Radio
4.  Simply training your presenters to be able interview will unlock a
great flow of fantastic local voices on your station, within a great music
policy of course, another thing that both lends distinctiveness and plays
to the core mission.  And for every interviewee in the station you'll have
a community 'face' more aware of you too.  OK, speech may be less popular
and I'm not proposing wall to wall speech - but to be another 'juke box' on
a dial littered with juke boxes again detracts from the USP.  We need the
right audience for our stations - not only to make us popular but with
distinctive content that makes us 'necessary' [to borrow more wisdom from
Zane]

I'm in no way underplaying the severity of the Austerity Economy but that
should drive us away from over-reliance on one source of revenue and
playing our strongest hand as vital social enterprises, with a good range
of essential services, at the heart of their communities.  This might
involve taking 'radio' people out of their comfort zones but it's the only
way that stations will survive and the sector thrive.

All power to your many elbows

best wishes

Phil






On 14 February 2014 11:51, "Paul Scarth" <paul at alphacrust.co.uk> wrote:

> I've been kicking back and reading through some of the comments made
> about the balance between on-air advertising and aditional revenue.
> My views are...
>
> I can see Ofcom's need to look at drawing a balance between commercial
> input and other revenue streams.  Take a look at short term RSL's and
> how many are funded through local businesses.  A large amount of
> revenue is often generated over a short period of time causing most
> stations to fall foul of the 50% rule when they suddently thnk they
> can sustain a five year community radio license.
>
> The community sector as a whole has been suffering for the last 10
> years.  Having worked in community media I've seen the likes of the
> local council, goverment and european funding being cut back to levels
> where you're getting no more than pocket money to support community
> based projects.  People need to remember that although these pots of
> money come around, and sometimes in large amounts, they'll only be
> offered once every so many years.  Seeing more than one station
> applying for a licence in the same area to me is nothing short of
> commercial suicide...
>
> Although stations need to diversify and look at different revenue
> streams I think it's going to be difficult, to darn right impossible,
> to look at sustaining a community radio station purely on "funding"
> opportunities.  I can see stations needing to break the rules and look
> at "other mean" of bringing in money just to stay afloat...
>
> All this said...  I'm waiting to hear if we get a licnese soon...
> Eeeek! :)
>
> Paul Scarth
> Harmony FM, HUddersfield.
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