[cma-l] Review of the approach to community radio Key Commitments

Alan Coote alan.coote at 5digital.co.uk
Tue Oct 20 17:51:09 BST 2015


Phil,

Its not about the size… if a station attracts just 10 people 50% of the time and that was their raison d’être that would be perfectly fine.  

But if a station’s target is several orders of magnitude more and say they only listen 5% of the time, this may not be so good even though they have many more listeners. What are these people listening to 95% of the time and how can that number be decreased as this would, on the face seem that the station has a disengaged audience. 

I should say that ALL 84 stations we syndicate to are brilliant! Those stations will already know we’re moving towards using online and social media data to measure our radio engagement. I’m happy to share our experience with the list in the coming months. 
  
We also carried out a social media survey of over 100 stations during the Summer which will be published before the years end.   

Kind Regards

Alan

 

Alan Coote

 

Hear Alan Every Week on Let’s Talk Business The UK’s Premier Radio Programme For Current and Future Entrepreneurs - Now Broadcast To Over 7 Million People  

 

Email - alan.coote at 5digital.co.uk

Phone - 0800 949 6655

Mobile - 07801 518858

Twitter - @TheAlanCoote 



Twitter - @LTBShow

Web - http://www.LetsTalkBusinessOnline.com


From:  <cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk> on behalf of Phil Korbel
Reply-To:  "cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk"
Date:  Tuesday, 20 October 2015 17:07
To:  "cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk"
Subject:  Re: [cma-l] Review of the approach to community radio Key Commitments

Of course we need an audience to succeed but to have its size as a priority measure of community success?  In my book that's a fundamental misunderstanding about the value of community radio.  Chasing maximum audience is a recipe for blandness IMO  - let's leave that to our mainstream sector buddies ;)  

I'm very much with Bill on his response here.

best wishes

Phil

Phil Korbel FRSA - Director, Radio Regen, charity no. 1077763

www.radioregen.org 
www.communityradiotoolkit.net
www.connecttransmit.org.uk

Please note that I work at Radio Regen under 2 days a week so responses might not be as quick as we'd like.  Many thanks.


On 20 October 2015 at 16:37, Bill Best <bill.best at commedia.org.uk> wrote:
Alan

The Community Radio Order 2004 and subsequent Amendment Orders make absolutely no reference at all to audience size - so, I would strongly disagree that the only data that matters is how many people in the target group listen to a station. Audiences are indeed essential for a radio station but social gain objectives are a different, yet important, metric altogether.

Regarding DCMS subsidising RAJAR subscriptions, that would be nice but might fall foul of state aid regulations and the commercial lobby wouldn't be at all supportive of it..

Regards

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

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

On 20 October 2015 at 14:10, Alan Coote <alan.coote at 5digital.co.uk> wrote:
Bill,

Isn’t the point that broadcasting must be the fundamental vehicle by which Community Stations deliver their Key Commitments? If a station chooses to deliver them by any other means then Ofcom shouldn't be concerned with that. I think that’s where they are heading – although it could be better expressed.

We know there are very many stations which have undertaken off-air activities to meet their social gain objectives which, although worthy, may have been achieved without the use of a radio transmitter. A factor is of course the need to chase grand funding, but sadly very little is predicated on access to a radio station. 

Surely the only data that matters is how many people in the target group listen to the station, after that qualitative data can be used to better target the group. 

I go back to my point that very few stations deem it necessary to survey their audience!  A radical thought; as RAJAR collect and collate data anyway, would it not be possible for community stations to pay a nominal fee to be part of an official survey, the remainder of the cost being met by DCMS? 


Kind Regards

Alan

 

Alan Coote

 

Hear Alan Every Week on Let’s Talk Business The UK’s Premier Radio Programme For Current and Future Entrepreneurs - Now Broadcast To Over 7 Million People  

 

Email - alan.coote at 5digital.co.uk

Phone - 0800 949 6655

Mobile - 07801 518858

Twitter - @TheAlanCoote 



Twitter - @LTBShow

Web - http://www.LetsTalkBusinessOnline.com


From:  <cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk> on behalf of "bill.best at commedia.org.uk"
Reply-To:  "cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk"
Date:  Tuesday, 20 October 2015 12:39
To:  "cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk"
Subject:  Re: [cma-l] Review of the approach to community radio Key Commitments

Hi

Having read through Ofcom's proposal several times, certainly any move to reduce the administrative burden of Key Commitments reporting for community radio stations would be welcome. However I believe that the proposal would reduce Ofcom's workload and significantly  increase the workload on individual stations.

The Key Commitments template is simplified and reduces much of the community radio reporting to a box ticking exercise around some quantitative statements about the number of original hours and the number of hours of locally-produced content broadcast.

A greater onus is going to be placed on stations to record their social gain outputs - from Section 3.13:

Under our proposed new approach to Key Commitments, each station would need to take greater responsibility for planning its own social gain, participation and accountability activities. 

I think the proposed new form of reporting is going to make it difficult for stations to know the level of detail they would need to go into to record their activities and some stations will end up over-documenting their activities and some might possibly under-record. There is an opportunity here for the CMA in conjunction with Ofcom to disseminate best practice and develop some training and education around Key Commitments reporting.

Furthermore the proposed new Key Commitments template places a lot of emphasis on quantitative data - and, unfortunately, replacing qualitative outcomes with quantitative information is not going to be the best method of measuring social gain objectives. In fact the Key Commitments template reduces explicit reporting on social gain to a mere three check boxes:
the facilitation of discussion and the expression of opinion,
the provision (whether by means of programmes included in the service or otherwise) of education or training to individuals not employed by the person providing the service, and
the better understanding of the particular community and the strengthening of links within it.
And stations will have to take responsibility for locally and privately recording their delivery of social inclusion, promotion of employment, cultural and linguistic diversity, and so on.

Delivery of social gain is what makes community radio unique and any steps to reduce the emphasis on such an important characteristic of community radio would be most unwelcome.

Best regards

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

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

On 15 October 2015 at 20:07, Associated Broadcast Consultants <info at a-bc.co.uk> wrote:
This is massively key for the sector, but I don't see much conversation/energy on this forum about it.  

I wonder why?

Glyn
-- 
Glyn Roylance - Principal Consultant 
Associated Broadcast Consultants





On 15 October 2015 at 17:34, CMA-L <cma-l at commedia.org.uk> wrote:
Community radio services broadcasting on FM or AM provide social gain and other community benefits on a not-for-profit basis.

Each station is required to provide the service described in its licence, which is based on the proposals it made during the application process for the licence.

These service descriptions recorded in community radio licences are called ‘Key Commitments’.

This Ofcom consultation seeks views on a proposal to streamline and simplify the Key Commitments.

This will free up community radio stations, enabling them to focus on serving their target communities, adapt better to the changing needs of those communities, and deliver social gain.

Ofcom invites written comments on the questions raised in this consultation, to be submitted by 5pm on 21 October 2015. Ofcom strongly prefers to receive responses in electronic format and their web form will allow you to indicate your data protection preferences and send your views to the team responsible for this consultation.

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/key-commitments/

\\

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

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


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