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

Tue Nov 18 13:35:08 GMT 2014

OK Chaps              here we go with the Atomic Bomb !

As in all walks of life, you will always get a minority spoiling it for the
majority. Don’t take that too literally even though we are talking here of a
quarter of Stations. I can see where this is now heading .. it is heading
towards the amber lights that I have been flagging up for ten years. I shall
stand tall and be extremely arrogant and point out that everyone will have
to do it the way I have said since day dot as the system is unworkable and
is a debacle. This was apparent after 2 years, but of course the Ostrich
walked onto the stage and buried it’s head in the sand !

You may find that the other three quarters of Stations are fulfilling the
Commitments but they are jumping through hoops, not having a good time of
it, something that is meant to be enjoyable and a nicety is actually a
challenge beyond belief and that spinning 35 plates doesn’t last forever and
some start falling off. Most Stations tend to have one or two stalwarts
(mugs I think the word is)    you know the ones, if they were a Sunday
Football team, they would wash the strips, put the nets up, collect the
subs, mark out the pitch in the pouring rain, organise the transport etc etc
these are ones who look like the walking dead, completely burnt out, now on
their fourth lap and of course extremely frustrated with the powers that be
who refuse to take the blinkers off.

I am going to defend at least a half of the quarter of Stations who are not
ticking the boxes 
 they will be genuine, and I bet at the root of a lot of
the problems is :-

1)       Lack of funding

2)       Lack of PUBLIC FUNDING    (grants etc)

3)       Lack of available time to actually run the projects as time is
money, time builds up if you do not have that designated ‘EXTRA’ person to
carry out the tasks

4)       Radio Fund a complete and total utter shambles both   re :- the
amount and the way it is distributed

5)       Extra applications, extra bureaucracy   re:- reporting and applying
for funding from the Radio Fund, bearing in mind that when Ofcom say ‘’sorry
your application has failed on this occasion and maybe the next and the next
and the next that actually amounts to 4 applications so it is an extra 4
plates spinning.

6)       Listen to what I am saying / shouting / ranting 

 people are
spending all their time doing things they are not meant to be doing, and the
things they are meant to be doing they can’t do because they a mithering
around with the nonsense.

50% rule = more bureaucracy         No on-air advertising under the 150,000
bench mark for the apparent small commercials (which incidently don’t exist,
they are just a well thought up myth !  DCMS hoodwinked !)  =  more
headaches more bureaucracy. Decent hard working, caring, doing their best
volunteers being hauled up in front of Ofcom because they happen to have
gathered a measly £500 quid via a half way house some could argue an on-air
advert, and still we have Stations like Tudno and Bay struggling along on no
on-air adverts ?????   bizarre to say the least and barmy !

IT’S A DISGRACE, and I am very very angry & frustrated about all of it. I
also won’t walk away when the going is tough, I will see this through as the
British Bulldog has dug in !

I’ll tell you what 
. put me in a room with the DCMS and the Politicians and
watch the argument. Yes it will be an argument not perhaps a discussion and
see who wins. They will lose the argument because the whole system is
flawed. They can throw as many   ‘’ah buts’’ at me as they wish, I will
shoot the lot down in flames.

Advertising revenue ought to be just enough so that people can operate on a
Not-for-Profit manner (no divies, no shareholders, no bonuses)  just
charitable and not-for-profit and simply run the ‘end result’ which is a
Local Radio Station sounding good within it’s own parameters.

I do not want anything to go wrong for Commercial Radio, there is room for
everyone 
 perhaps if we could advertise properly the Community Stations
could work more closely with the Commercials and have shared Packages 
 this
way everyone wins. They get 75% we get 25% and the reach of listeners is two
fold. Working together not against each other 
.

A Radio Fund that can fund every Station to the tune of about £19,000 every
year     EVERYONE RECEIVING THE SAME, with no applications, no bureaucracy,
no nonsense and the rules are :-

1) With £10,000 grand of it you employ a Trainer    (there’s your training
and social bit fettled with lots of happy bunnies in the Station, at the
CMA, at Ofcom and the DCMS)

2) With the other £9,000 for a part-time sales person / fundraiser
 who if
they get their skates on can up their money to around £17,000 grand 
 the
Station survives, maybe the trainer becomes full-time and gets an extra
tickle and we have more happy bunnies.

The money dare NOT be used for anything else. If Ofcom now want to
rigorously enforce rules, here’s a good one for starters and they get my
backing.

Put a top limit on each Station 
.. for example, we need about £80,000 grand
a year to operate comfortably (we actually operate on £50,000)   don’t
permit anymore unless under extraordinary circumstances, this in itself
protects the commercial sector. If the Radio Fund was decent, we only need
another three quarters and it’s job done. 

We already have the biggest restriction of all 

.. a 25 watt / 25 watt
transmitter and power limit 
. Is that not enough ??  I would argue it is
more than enough. I f you want more examples I can give them to you, but the
e-mai will go on forever.

We then have a wonderful situation with no more aggro and angst, no more
going around in circles, no Stations being hauled up or ticked off because
all the commitments are fulfilled.

When Dom and Bill sit down with these people at Ofcom, I would hope they
will mention some of the pointers that I have been raising over the past ten
years 
 you also need the decision makers there   ie:- the Organ Grinders
and not the Monkeeees      get the DCMS in there, ask them (no tell them) to
wake up and smell the coffee, get the job done and then we can all get on
with the job in hand.

If we carry on in the manner that we are (re my e-mail yesterday)   there
won’t be any Stations left to haul up as they will all be in the Radio Skip.

For God sake, this is not rocket science. Do it this way and no one needs
investigating, not even Ofcom, and their job would be easier as well. I
could run this whole thing with my eyes shut.

Regards

Nick

Obviously Dom and Bill will put it slightly more diplomatic than moi’ 
. I’m
just wondering whether the rant might actually be the best policy now, as
we’ve virtually tried everything else. The ones who need hauling up are
actually the Ministers from both Governments over the past ten years who
quite frankly have been a complete waste of space and about as much use as
an ashtray on a motorbike or a chocolate fire guard !

IF after all of this Commitments are still not being fulfilled    GET SHOT
of the jokers    that’s it really        PERIOD !

Thanks for reading, if of course you managed to get to the end  LOL  :-)

  _____  

From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of terry mechan
Sent: 18 November 2014 12:09
To: The Community Media Association Discussion List
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Ofcom to investigate over 50 community radio stations

Who is investigating OFCOM?

terrymechan.com 

  _____  

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.”

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