[cma-l] 4ZZZ accounts

[Two Lochs Radio]

Well for our licence they certainly looked at the business plan, and went out on a limb to award a licence even though a hard look at the figures would have had an accoutant shaking his head. The assessment of our licence application included this:

"Members recognised that financing the operation of the service could prove challenging over the long-term. However, the financial model proposed by Two Lochs Radio is similar to other rural Scottish services which, although run on minimal budgets, and with unconventional operating arrangements, have a good track record in sustaining local radio services."

Which we thought was pretty pragmatic and recognized the realities. Happily, so far we have proved their assessment correct (it certainly is challenging!).

That is not to detract from your general point about transmission power.

Alex
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Alan Coote 
  To: cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk 
  Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2015 11:40 PM
  Subject: Re: [cma-l] 4ZZZ accounts


  Alex, 


  As far as I’m aware Ofcom don’t verify the estimates from sponsorship and advertising. If they did I’m confident they would see that the revenue per listener from most 25W community stations isn’t enough.     


  The question should be, ‘Given the type, location and competition from other radio stations, what is the desired coverage to deliver a sustainable service ?’


  Answer; significantly greater than 25 Watts! 
    
  Alan  


  From: <cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk> on behalf of "tlr at gairloch.co.uk" <tlr at gairloch.co.uk>
  Reply-To: "cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk" <cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk>
  Date: Tuesday, 8 December 2015 at 17:09
  To: "cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk" <cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk>
  Subject: Re: [cma-l] 4ZZZ accounts



  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.
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