[cma-l] Community Radio Order

Thu Jan 22 12:13:53 GMT 2015

True Paul

Good e-mail, yes it can be done. I think if the authorities though are ‘now
saying’ or ‘always have been saying’ give us the numbers and you are more
likely to receive £££ then again my argument is we are all skew-whiff

..that’s encouraging competition and then the restrictions kick in.

Numbers in the community participation ?  listeners ?  organisations
directly involved ?     we’re running blind ?

The bottom-line is that nobody should have been interfering per-say 
. We
ought to have been left alone to find our own feet with the focus on keep
one eye on what we SPEND our money on   ie:- are we investing it back into
the ‘community bit’ of our projects ??    the answer must be yes !    if so,
there are NO issues.

That is exactly the point I am making 
. Keep it simple, if we had kept it
simple we would be flying now. The Government could have helped make it
simple by giving us a decent fund fairly shared out to everyone. If we have
the money we are no threat to the commercial station as we don’t need to go
knocking on the door of the local car dealer 
. They can do that. Each to
their own. 

I seriously guys have never seen any problems with simple Community Radio

.the difficulties have been created 
 man made as they say.

Regards

Nick

  _____  

From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Paul Golder
Sent: 22 January 2015 07:38
To: The Community Media Association Discussion List
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Community Radio Order

I don't see anyone saying that they have more listeners than anyone else by
way of trying to prove a point about popularity.  I do see people talking
about where there's 1/2m or 10m listeners to CR - and I was happy to weigh
in and say what I thought of that by using my own knowledge.

I think listener numbers are highly releveant. There's a lot of people who
say that they don't want to copy commercial radio and aren't worried about
popularity - and rightly so.  I didn't get involved in CR because I wanted
to have a hits-only station with little content that fought for market share
and I'm sure everyone in CR agrees with that.

However the biggest problem with CR is funding.  Advertisers won't come to
you if your station is sacrificing a professional sound for maximum
community involvement.  And despite what every government says about
supporting CR, they're much more likely to increase the CRF if it's proven
that there is 10m listeners as opposed to 1/20th of that figure.  

Both our listener numbers AND our community engagement have gone up in the
last couple of years, so it can be done.  If the content is good, people
will listen, talk about you, and eventually give you the money you need to
stop you looking for another job!

Cheers

Paul

www.phoenixfm.com

On 21 January 2015 at 19:35, Canalside's The Thread
<office at thethread.org.uk> wrote:

You see guys, sorry to appear to be looking for an argument, but all of this
ought to be irrelevant under the original launch of Community Radio. It is
the fact that we have less or more listeners or the same that causes the
problems. If we are going around saying we have more listeners than whoever
?   then the restrictions kinda come into play. I know they shouldn’t and I
know that if we have more listeners (or don’t) it shouldn’t matter. It ought
to have no bearing on it. Sadly it has had a bearing and my point weeks ago,
was that the message being sent out there now is all gobbledy gook.

Are we competing, are we not competing, if we are not ought we be, if we are
should we not be  ??   it’s a shambles .I believe Community Radio should be
simplistic, it should be Que sera sera and restrictions should be no where
in sight. Whatever will be will be and we all deal with it.

I don’t care if we have more or less listeners than Silk ..why ?  because if
Community Radio was running how it is meant to be, we would have enough
funding from the Community Fund Pot, to pay for the essentials and core
costs. In otherwords, if we were 100% voluntary, with folk wandering in
willy nilly, we could still function in some way shape or form. This is with
or without a Station manager and/or someone on sales etc                 I
think this is how many saw Community Radio. Right or wrong, poor image or
good image, it shouldn’t matter as we ought to be able to function even if
we are rag tag and bobtail.

Does everyone know where I am coming from here or am I waffling again ?    I
feel that we have lost our way, but it isn’t exactly our fault. What the
restrictions have done, along with the lack of financial support in the Pot
has distorted the whole Venture, hence why I was saying there is confusion.
It isn’t confusion in the true sense of the word but I think a few shots in
own feet have taken place.

Keep it simple has been my message. I don’t expect everyone to agree 
.. but
???                  Rajar shouldn’t even be on the Radar, if that makes
sense. The moment we start asking to be placed on Rajar, I think we are
going away from our values. We’re not here to compete, even though in a
roundabout way we are. We have to compete because the financial support has
been woeful 
.. so is it a wonder why I reach for the defensive stick ??

If I’m wrong here, please say so, that’s fine by me    no probs.

Nick

  _____  

From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Two Lochs Radio
Sent: 21 January 2015 18:39
To: The Community Media Association Discussion List

Subject: Re: [cma-l] Community Radio Order

Well done Paul! 

>From RAJAR's latest available quarter that reach would put your listener
numbers ahead of at least 20 of the commercial stations that are RAJAR
subscribers, including Smooth Radio Essex, and ahead of many more that don't
pay RAJAR!

Alex

RAJAR quarter ending Sep 2014

Station

Reach

Eagle Extra

3,000

Fire Radio South Coast

4,000

Connect DAB

7,000

Radio Ceredigion

16,000

107.8 Arrow FM for Hastings

17,000

107 JACK fm (Reading 107FM)

18,000

The Breeze (Cheltenham)

18,000

107.6 Banbury Sound

18,000

Free Radio 80s (Shropshire)

19,000

Rugby FM

20,000

Lakeland Radio

20,000

107.5 Sovereign Radio

21,000

96.2 Touch FM - Coventry

22,000

Time FM 106.6

23,000

North Norfolk Radio

23,000

Radio Exe

24,000

Pulse 2

26,000

3FM

26,000

Smooth Radio Essex

28,000

Oak FM

28,000

Smooth Radio Devon

29,000

Cheshire's Silk 106.9

29,000

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Paul Golder <mailto:paul at pvg.co.uk>  

To: The Community Media <mailto:cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk>  Association
Discussion List 

Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2015 6:01 PM

Subject: Re: [cma-l] Community Radio Order

I've contracted with a private market research firm a few times since we
took to the airwaves full time in 2007.

We're currently getting a 20% weekly reach which implies about 30,000
listeners a week.  Our website visitor figures (over 200,000 per month, with
12,000 a month viewing the schedule and local events pages) seem to make
sense in this context.

I wasn't aware that RAJAR was skewed towards its members' areas, which would
make any extrapolation of the "other radio listening" figure quite
meaningless.

It's natural for CR to be defensive with the suggestion that CR has half a
million listeners - but I'm just not buying it.  That's only an average of
2,000 per station - I could probably NAME at least 3,000 people who engage
with us regularly!

Cheers

Paul

Phoenix FM

www.phoenixfm.com

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