[cma-l] FW: Community Media Association response to Ofcom's Community Radio Annual Reports 2013 - Key Commitment and other licence breaches

[Canalside's The Thread]

  _____  

From: Canalside's The Thread [mailto:office at thethread.org.uk] 
Sent: 29 June 2015 13:00
To: 'Canalside's The Thread'
Subject: RE: [cma-l] Community Media Association response to Ofcom's
Community Radio Annual Reports 2013 - Key Commitment and other licence
breaches

 

Dear All

 

I repeat and refer to my original correspondence on this matter when the
news first broke. What Dom says is absolutely correct ...however as I said .
the word ''INVESTIGATION'' is a very dangerous and negative word . it should
NEVER have been used with reference to these incidents which at the end of
day (as I said at the time) would in the main be storms in
tea-cups/mountains out of molehills --- and most mishaps would have ended up
a mishap through either ignorance, genuine mistakes, misunderstanding, lack
of experience or dare I say, lack of staff / volunteers / bodies to do the
admin work whilst at the same time trying to keep the places afloat and
operational.

We are Community Radio .. I would imagine that apart from a 'few' most were
simple mistakes and NOT intentional.

 

The situation [we] found ourselves in was absolutely pathetic and the word
'Investigation' should never have been used. It wasn't an investigation at
all . it was a letter and a couple of phone calls. If 'guilty' then 'after
the event' by all means use the word   (past tense)    INVESTIGATED
until then, leave it in the dictionary.

 

A completely barmy set of events and unnecessary .... I hope lessons have
been learned.

 

Nick

 

 

 

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From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of CMA-L
Sent: 29 June 2015 11:11
To: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
Subject: [cma-l] Community Media Association response to Ofcom's Community
Radio Annual Reports 2013 - Key Commitment and other licence breaches

 

The Community Media Association welcomes the conclusion of Ofcom's
investigation of 38 community radio stations, 15 stations having been
exonerated and removed from the original list of 53 that was announced last
November. It appears that most of Ofcom's investigations were concerned with
technical or low offending compliance issues in the reporting.

Bill Best, Operations Manager of the Community Media Association (CMA)
advises:

"The CMA was aware from the outset that a number of community radio stations
appeared to have had difficulty with Ofcom's key commitments self-reporting
system and that some stations could not meet key commitments that either had
been too rigidly drawn up or were no longer relevant to the stations'
operations. The CMA and Ofcom are here to help all community radio stations
with regulatory compliance and we urge all stations to get in touch with us
for assistance if required. The CMA applauds Ofcom's decision to take no
further action with all but three community radio stations that have been
found to be in breach. The CMA understands that Ofcom is considering a more
streamlined and targeted approach to the reporting process that is expected
to be a more appropriate system going forward and we welcome all
improvements in this area".


Dom Chambers, Chair of the Community Media Association and station manager
of Somer Valley FM said:

"This has been an uncomfortable episode and one that I feel has attracted
unnecessary negative publicity for community radio at a time when we are
trying to meet significant funding challenges. We must all make sure nothing
like the scale of these investigations happens again. The CMA will continue
to work with Ofcom and DCMS to ensure compliance monitoring is a more
straight forward process. After all we must remember that so much work in
our sector is reliant on the good will of volunteers. Maintaining morale is
key to what community broadcasting achieves as a positive social force".


http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/enforcement/broadcast-bulletins/ob
b282/Issue_282.pdf

\\

 

Community Media Association
-- 
http://www.commedia.org.uk/
https://twitter.com/community_media
http://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation

Canstream Internet Radio & Video
http://www.canstream.co.uk/
https://twitter.com/canstream

 

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