[cma-l] 4ZZZ & born to fail

Tony Bailey ravensound at pilgrimsound.co.uk
Wed Dec 9 10:52:13 GMT 2015 

Absolutely Roy,

I haven't run a full time license but my experience over the years of 
being involved in applications, ranging from county wide ILR to sallie 
and community was that all of them were a licence to spend money!

As you know, the frightening costs involved in the old IBA regs meant 
huge borrowings and eventual sale (weren't GWR famous for buying most if 
not all their stations?).  Some people managed to get round the rules by 
using office space (then virtually impossible due to floor loadings).  
At least you were guaranteed coverage although you couldn't overlap 
anyone else.

The "incremental" licence followed, I suspect had more to do with 
unlicensed than licensed broadcasting, one well know operator was busted 
by the enforcement brigade on a virtual daily basis and eventually was 
given a licence.  I think they spent a small fortune over the years in 
trying to provide what was probably one of the first genuine community 
services.

The pattern was repeated with the infamous sallie (small scale 
alternative location local licence) a scheme of dubious legality, also I 
think "light touch" whatever that means. I remember working out that 
based on local press rates it was barely possible to balance the books 
even if you sold all the spots and all the sponsorship.  The only 
salvation with that scheme was you could sell the licence after a year 
to avoid liquidation.

In my opinion the requirement to have a business plan that delivers a 
profitable outcome for the duration of the licence would only be 
feasible in flying pig land.  A case I an aware of amply demonstrates 
this: a licence awarded to a prospectus with a no profit forecast and 
eventually sold on after a year to a tax loss enterprise.  Another case 
where the licence was awarded and withdrawn due to fiscal irregularities.

With this background the draft of the community radio licence scheme 
always looked like it was designed to bring about a rapid demise of the 
whole proposal.

Put all this lot into a city like London, add a dose of heavy politics 
to the mix and a total lack of commitment to develop a third tier and it 
becomes a no-go area - easy.

It is nothing short of a miracle that a dedicated band of people who 
believe in community radio (all right, media) still manage to soldier on 
in spite of the impossibilities of the regime they have to work with.

Regards,  Tony Bailey

On 08/12/15 21:24, Roy Parsons wrote:
> Hi Tony,
> As far as I know the JFMG contract is now with Ofcom.
> I would like to call this post born to fail.
> I have personally worked on over 100 rsl stations as the equipment 
> provider and many have gone on to win a full time licence.
> Why do many of these stations still struggle?
> And what about the ones that sold out to commercial concerns
> The take the money and run attitude that was the result of the Sallie 
> licences (remember them)
> Another licensing shambles.
> OK Richard Branson and Chris Evans did Ok from it but people thinking 
> that playing with radio in order to just make money is part of how 
> this system works.
> The funding is a big part but the lack of coverage to get any 
> commercial support is always the final killer.
> We can go a long way on 25 watts but in an urban enviroment with bad 
> terrain and local RF pollution it is a no hoper.
> Link FM in Havering Essex gave back their licence for this reason and 
> are not the only ones.
> I really only do community stations now abroad where we can have 1kw 
> FM transmitters!
> Roy Parsons
>
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> ----------------------- *Original Message* -----------------------
> *From:* Tony Bailey <ravensound at pilgrimsound.co.uk> 
> <mailto:ravensound at pilgrimsound.co.uk>
> *To:* cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk <mailto:cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk>
> *Cc:*
> *Date:* Tue, 08 Dec 2015 18:20:34 +0000
> *Subject: _Re: [cma-l] 4ZZZ accounts and parameters_*
> Alex:
>
> There has probably been more contention about delivering that part of 
> Section 105 than any other and not confined to community radio either.
>
> I hadn't heard that JFMG no longer had that contract, it looks like 
> the new contractor bounced it.
>
> I thought that most radios used a high local oscillator which would 
> start around 98 megs?  Is the other one an image?
>
> I also thought that one of the arguments for low power (<=25 W) was 
> that overseas co-ordination wasn't required.
>
> The point about users having control over the assets is that the 
> parameters can be changed.
>
> Regards,  Tony
>
> On 08/12/15 17:09, Two Lochs Radio wrote:
>> /Alan Coote wrote: I've long contended that Ofcom have a 
>> responsibility to only license stations that stand a fair chance of 
>> being financially sustainable. /
>> //
>> Isn't that a legal obligation on Ofcom when awarding licences, Alan? 
>> It certainly is a primary consideration when licensing commercial 
>> stations. In fact, while they aren;t in orde rof priority, it happens 
>> to be the very first of the criteria laid down in the Broadcasting 
>> Act, Section 105, which says:
>>
>> Ofcom is required to have regard to...
>> (a) the ability of each of the applicants for the licence to 
>> maintain, throughout the period for which the licence would be in 
>> force, the service which he proposes to provide;...
>>
>> Maybe it's not the same for community licences, I haven't checked, 
>> but I thought it was.
>> /Tony Bailey wrote: Actually now may be the time for the CMA to bid 
>> for this, if the authorities wish to devolve licensing?  For special 
>> events (JFMG) and radio amateurs (RSGB) are doing it already./
>> Didn't Ofcom most recently move in the other direction - I thought 
>> they brought JFMG back in-house?
>> It would be easy to underestimate the amount of work that would be 
>> involved in administering a community sub-band. The coordinating body 
>> for such a sub-band wouldn't have a free hand within that band, since 
>> as well as keeping clearances within the band, you also have to keep 
>> clear of local transmissions that are +/-10.7MHz from any given 
>> frequency, and around the periphery also coordinate with the 
>> French/Dutch/Irish and co. That's a fair bit of work, and potential 
>> duplication of effort in parallel with the same coordination done for 
>> BBC/ILR frequencies. If the frequency coordination and clearance 
>> paramters weren't changed it seems unlikely that a separate body 
>> could do a much better job - it's the parameters being used for 
>> frequency planning that generally control the way things end up, not 
>> who does the leg work.
>> Alex
>>
>>     ----- Original Message -----
>>     *From:* Alan Coote <mailto:alan.coote at 5digital.co.uk>
>>     *To:* cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk
>>     <mailto:cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk>
>>     *Sent:* Tuesday, December 08, 2015 12:59 PM
>>     *Subject:* Re: [cma-l] 4ZZZ accounts
>>
>>     A prominent person at Ofcom told me that there wasn't a community
>>     station in the country that doesn't want more power -- which
>>     tells you quite a lot about Ofcom and their willingness and
>>     ability to support the sector!
>>
>>     I've long contended that Ofcom have a responsibility to only
>>     license stations that stand a fair chance of being financially
>>     sustainable. It stands to reason the larger the audience the
>>     greater the potential revenue.
>>
>>
>>     Kind Regards
>>
>>     Alan
>>
>>     Alan Coote
>>
>>
>>
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>
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