[cma-l] Continued Viablity of Community Radio Stations

[terry mechan]

Suggest Direct Action

All Community Stations to have an hour of silence or a complete switch off for the day to protest at the lack of Government support to allow Community radio Stations to earn enough to keep the stations
viable.

Target Ed Vazey and demand action this day.

The alternative national media would have to cover the story.

www.terrymechan.com 
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From: Canalside's The Thread 
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2014 10:48 AM
To: 'The Community Media Association Discussion List' 
Subject: [cma-l] FW: Superstation in Orkney ceases broadcasting

Dear All

 

Yet another one going belly up (t ……………..up) in our neck of the Woods ….. I sent an apology via this message board to Mr Vaizey as I had as good as accused him of not caring. Of course he cares as no doubt others in authority do and folk in fraternity most certainly do ….. however, I am an Action man (not literally J)   and actions speak louder than words.

It’s almost as if someone has a fiddle and we’re doing a ‘’’Nero’’’          

 

The whole malarkey from the outset has allowed the commercial radio mob to dictate the situation … completely, totally and utterly wrong in my opinion, though I’m sure everyone knows my strong opinion on all of this.

 

So, for a quick re-cap :-

 

1) If the DCMS / Ofcom / CMA / Community Radio Brotherhood / Uncle Tom Cobbley n’ all decide that we are going to have this wonderful thing in this Country called ‘’’Community Radio’’’ with of course all it’s warts n’ all  (as that is the charm)   then for goodness sake ‘let’s get on with it …. We ought to have done this from the outset.

 

2) Commercial Radio has absolutely NO BEARING and NO BUSINESS to be even given a second thought. They look after their sector, and we will look after ours. They have the option of operating not-for-profit if they wish, no one is stopping them, or making less money or more money or whatever ?   I quite frankly couldn’t give a flying cactus whether they make a fortune or not … it is not my concern nor my business. So why since the outset have they been poking their ore’s in the process ?   I’m sure us charging a couple of hundred quid a year for a sponsorship is not going to affect them at all, in fact a Business good run with both as our prices are so low ?

 

3) They claim ‘commercial viability’  (I think that’s the term?)   well, what about our viability and sustainability ….. if they have an issue with it, don’t we ?   I would argue that sat watching 23 Station fall over, the majority of them to do with lack of funding is a good enough reason to actually do something about it. Whether we have a Station here or not, whether I am involved in Radio or not, the end result is that the fraternity will end up having to do it the way I suggested from the outset anyway - so why all the dithering around ?… surely better now, sooner rather than later, before it is toooooo late !?

 

4) I repeat :- It isn’t how we earn the money, it is what we spend it on that matters. As long as the money goes towards the ‘provision of service and commitments’ ‘with a not-for-profit’ structure, then where is the problem ?   there isn’t a problem. The problem has been invented and cooked up because commercial radio have poked their noses in pot, and worse still, they been allowed to.

 

It really has just become a complete debacle, and coming into work again this morning and reading this just exasperates me even more.

 

Please bear in mind that this isn’t quite as simple as someone not getting sponsorship ….. a Radio Station could get £50,000 sponsorship and NO Grants or Public Money support !   if this is the case then they also end up in a pickle as they don’t fulfil the 50% rule. I know the CMA managed to push through the Volunteer time to off-set against the overall funding …..but alas ! are we not again just creating more admin, more bureaucracy instead of doing what we are meant to be doing ?    How many hours and days have all of us spent writing e-mails complaining about all of this ?  the meetings ?  the letters ?   the phone calls ?  not just with each other, but with Local MP’s etc etc     it really is pathetic !

Are we actually going to wait for the 23 to become 43, then 93, then 153, then 193, then 223 .. and then with one left   (possibly Swindon)  LOL  [well done everyone]     and then decide     ‘’er, hang on a mo’ something isn’t quite right here’’

 

And finally, it is absolutely disgusting and sickening that we still have a few Stations on the ‘no on-air advertising at all’    especially when you see the absolutely Bull that the commercials have come up with !  most of these Stations are not independent, they are part of conglomerates and bigger networks but feign that they are small ILRR ……..

 

One absolute final thing :- if anyone wishes to throw in the argument about commercials not getting grants and we do, then let me remind everyone that this is a red herring …. THERE ARE NO GRANTS AVAILABLE ANYWHERE FOR PROVIDING RADIO !     the grants are for providing ventures / training / accessibility / projects etc   THIS HAS NO BEARING IN COMPETING (or apparently competing) with commercial radio. On the contrary actually … it soaks up a lot of time and in facts damages our ability to compete as volunteer and staff time is taken up away from actual Radio output.

 

What a load of twoddle ….. it has been twoddle from the start, it still is twoddle, and I shall continue to shout twoddle until it is done and dusted. Every opportunity I get, whether in Radio or not I shall carry on as I feel so strong about it.

 

Commercial Radio has NOTHING to do with Community Radio and should have no influence at all. 

 

Rant over

 

Regards

 

Nick

 

PS

 

I await another e-mail next week for another Station going belly-flop …. Perhaps we could run a sweep or something and place bets ??

 


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Shame as I sometimes listened online. The Super Station was run from Manchester I understand. 

 

Kind Regards

Alan

 

Apparently, it fell off the air at midday today.

http://media.info/radio/news/superstation-orkney-ends-community-radio-broadcasting

J


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