[cma-l] 4ZZZ & born to fail
Ian Hickling
transplanfm at hotmail.com
Wed Dec 9 13:34:47 GMT 2015
I thought I was a miserable old pessimist Tony - but you're obviously much better at it than me.Just a few points:The awful term "Sallie" - allegedly short for "Small Scale Alternative Location Local Licence" is often used by the unenlightened to describe stand-alone commercial stations - whereas none as far as I can find were ever put in place under that scheme.
Ofcom requires a detailed Business Plan in a CR Application - so, as it's fact, it's feasible - regardless of the form of animal husbandry at that location.
We all know how local commercial licences have been traded, but that's irrelevant with Community Radio.There are currently 236 CR stations on air, only 7 of which are on AM, 7 with licences have yet to launch and 21 have failed out of a total of 281 licences awarded.
Agreed, some are run as a hobby and few are operating with a sensible level of business income.
But there are a few which are doing the job successfully and there are moves afoot to spread their expertise for the benefit of the others.
That, I suggest, is a positive side to the argument.
Ian Hickling
Partner
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Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2015 10:52:13 +0000
From: ravensound at pilgrimsound.co.uk
To: cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk; roy at rplradio.com
Subject: Re: [cma-l] 4ZZZ & born to fail
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
RPL
Worldwide Broadcast Equipment Suppliers
Radionet House
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London W3 8DU
England
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----------------------- Original Message
-----------------------
From: Tony Bailey <ravensound at pilgrimsound.co.uk>
To: 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
To: 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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