[cma-l] Ofcom to investigate over 50 community radio stations

[CMA-L]

The CMA has issued a statement below in response to yesterday's news that
Ofcom intends to investigate more than 50 community radio stations:

http://media.info/radio/news/ofcom-to-investigate-over-50-community-radio-stations

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Whilst it is of significant concern that 53 community radio stations are to
be investigated by Ofcom to determine if those stations have breached their
key commitments, it is important to note that such an investigation does
not imply that the broadcaster is automatically in breach. Not all
investigations result in breaches of the licence or other regulatory
requirements being recorded.

The Community Media Association (CMA) cannot comment on the details of any
individual station in public as we would not wish to prejudice or otherwise
pre-empt the outcome of any investigation. However a community radio
station and CMA member under investigation has advised us:

"When responding to the investigation, we realised that we had in fact
over-delivered on the key commitments in question. Our reason for ticking
‘no’ was because we felt that our work had not fitted the exact wording".

Bill Best, Operations Manager of the CMA:

“A number of stations that we have counselled informed us that they had
misunderstood the reporting form and checked the wrong box in error.
Furthermore, it is possible that some stations have not offset volunteer
hours against advertising and sponsorship, and might appear to be in breach
of the 50% restriction. We urge all member stations to contact the CMA if
they require assistance with the Annual Return. The CMA looks to Ofcom for
further guidance on this matter which we will disseminate to the sector”.

CMA members report that Ofcom is usually sympathetic to the issues that
stations face when working to address potential shortfalls in their Annual
Report. Previously the Community Radio Team has assisted stations to more
accurately redraft their key commitments where targets may have been
over-estimated, and the CMA expects that Ofcom will continue to support the
sector in this regard. The CMA fully supports the role of Ofcom as the
regulator in ensuring that social gain, as defined in the Community Radio
Order 2004, remains at the core of community radio broadcasting.

In spite of an unprecedented adverse economic situation community radio
continues to do an outstanding job in delivering social gain outcomes with
minimal central funding - and any issues with compliance reporting should
be understood within that context.

Community radio stations are working with very few resources to hand and no
formal training on completing the Annual Report. The CMA calls for the
Community Radio Fund to be enhanced in order to make funding available to
support the education of community radio stations around compliance issues
and best practice.

Ofcom’s Communications Market Report 2014 advises that over the past five
years, the average income for community radio has fallen from £84,000 to
£55,500 per year. This represents a 33.9% decline over the period. Median
income (the value at the mid-point in the distribution of incomes) now
stands at £33,250 per year, a decline of 5.6% in the last year.

However over a full broadcast week of 168 hours, a typical community radio
station broadcasts live for 78 hours, with an average 90 hours per week of
originally-produced output. Speech output averages 30% of daytime output
and the average station works with 82 volunteers.

Dom Chambers, Chair of the Community Media Association:

“It is a matter of great concern that around one quarter of community radio
licensees are being investigated by the regulator in the area of key
commitments. I know what extraordinary levels of social impact are achieved
in our sector so we need to analyse where there are shortfalls in getting
that information back to the licence regulator. Ofcom investigations can be
very demoralising to those operating from a volunteer base. I am also
concerned at the length of time it has taken for these investigations to
come to light nor that this was brought up in our last quarterly meeting.
As one who has filed five annual returns on behalf of a licensee I very
much look forward to discussing this situation with Ofcom as CMA chair when
we attend our next meeting in December.”

*Notes:*

Information on community radio regulatory issues including guidance on
volunteer input, changes to stations’ key commitments and details on
complaints may be found on the Ofcom website here:

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/radio/community/regulations/

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Community Media Association
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http://www.commedia.org.uk
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