[cma-l] update

Mon Dec 12 15:18:57 GMT 2016

Dear All

Not wishing to be negative ……… honest                :)                  remember that there is always a danger that the figures that come back to us are not quite what we were expecting ???             you may have to take Graham Taylor ex England Manager on as Station Manager so that the response could be ‘’Do I not like that !’’                          then again, being positive (as has happened to us over the years)     we actually think more are listening than we give ourselves credit for                so, it could go either way.                            Do I like that ?   Ho Ho Ho   you bet I do !

Merry Christmas everyone

Nick

From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk [mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Paul Pennington
Sent: 10 December 2016 16:34
To: The Community Media Association Discussion List <cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk>
Subject: Re: [cma-l] update

I think your right about the absolute number of listeners - it is about being able to identify the types of listener and any audience measurement tool needs to include this . I wish the Westminster government and Welsh & northern Irish took the same approach as the Scottish government  and I totally agree with you about RAJAR - it certainly needs replacing as a system. 

Paul Pennington

Broadcaster, executive coach and media trainer.

paulpennington at btconnect.com <mailto:paulpennington at btconnect.com> 

T:020 7272 3915 / 07711 181 374 

www.paulpennington.com <http://www.paulpennington.com>   

www.wordonhealth.com <http://www.wordonhealth.com> 

@wordonhealth

@oneononeMT

On 10 Dec 2016, at 14:13, Alex Gray, Two Lochs Radio <tlr at gairloch.co.uk <mailto:tlr at gairloch.co.uk> > wrote:

I don’t think the absolute audience figures are the most important measure for community radio as far as government and some other funders are concerned, though they may be for advertisers. For what I’ll call loosely, social/public information messages the thing government needs to know is ‘are community stations reaching audiences that I wouldn’t reach with mainstream advertising?’. 

In many cases the answer to this is ‘yes’, particularly in remote areas such as mine, where the nearest is mainstream commercial radio is 70 miles away. It is also the case for urban community stations that cater to sectors of society that don’t listen to mainstream pop stations for example.

As for how you prove this without audience figures, in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland we faced just that challenge. The government wanted to advertise on community-based radio, as it ‘felt’ it was reaching an important sector, and would help the government fulfil its duty to get its messages across to as many citizens as it could. The problem was it needed a way to demonstrate that it wasn’t just chucking away money. With the large commercial groups it could indeed use audience figures to demonstrate this, but it couldn’t do that for community stations.

The government-appointed agencies weren’t interested in helping, because if asked to, for example, reach 90% of the commercial radio listening population with a campaign, they could do this by placing a booking with just two commercial radio conglomerates, and didn’t have to do all the legwork of placing 10 or 20 bookings with all the independent stations needed to reach the other 10%.

The answer to all this for us, back in 2005, was to persuade the Scottish Government to fund some test advertising campaigns, followed up by local focus groups in the relevant communities at which they discussed the value and impact of community radio. These produced very positive results with which the government could back up its planned spend. The government also asked us to devise a practical scheme by which the buyers could place advertising with the small stations without having to negotiate rates with each station every time. Which we did easily enough. 

>From that year to this, the Scottish Government has instructed its buying agencies to put a certain proportion of advertising spend with the non-profit stations in the scheme, and it has been of great mutual benefit. 

Audience figures are more useful for sponsors and local advertisers. Rajar is no help of course, and we found the best answer was to conduct widescale surveys of the local population from time to time in order to gather feedback on what sort of programming they wanted, what was good/bad about what we were doing, and most usefully of all for sponsors, what our weekly reach was in the local area (in our case around 70%, but as I said we are lucky enough to have no big commercial competitor stations). With survey response rates of 15-20% our results have a very high confidence level.

Alex

On 9 December 2016 at 17:21, Paul Pennington <paulpennington at btconnect.com <mailto:paulpennington at btconnect.com> > wrote:

Thank you Nick for continuing to be the voice of common sense.  

For me the one thing that stands in the way of the future development of community radio is proving how many people are listening – how can you demonstrate to government/funders/sponsors/advertisers the impact and value of the work everyone puts into each station, without it? How can the likes of PRS/PPL set appropriate fees/reporting structures without this data? This is a situation that needs to be urgently addressed – it doesn’t need another consultation, it needs action. 

P

Paul Pennington

Word On Health

www.wordonhealth.com <http://www.wordonhealth.com> 

paulpennington at btconnect.com <mailto:paulpennington at btconnect.com> 

@wordonhealth

From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk <mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk>  [mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk <mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk> ] On Behalf Of Canalside's The Thread
Sent: 09 December 2016 14:55
To: 'The Community Media Association Discussion List'
Subject: [cma-l] update

Dear All

In response if I may please to an e-mail I received from a gentlemen last week I would like to point something out that is very important.

Regardless how it may seem I am actually a very very positive person and lend 100% of my energy and support to our great project that is Community Radio. I merely point out the things that I see as wrong. To do this is not wrong, it is in fact a duty.

In times when the other side of Road to Jericho is packed full, I think focus should be given on how we can help each other and especially how those in authority can also lend a hand as opposed to putting up barriers.

Key points :-   (that could be discussed next week)

1)      Pro rata the Radio Fund has plummeted over the past 8 years at a rate faster than a greased Pig going down a Hill … to add to this, there has been a golden opportunity to at least pop a token gesture into the Pot, if nothing else. Instead, the 8 Million has gone elsewhere.

2)      Over a period of a number of years and many consultations it is now technically taken ‘as read’ that to run the AVERAGE/GENERAL Community Radio Station under AVERAGE/GENERAL rules we ON AVERAGE need around £80,000 per-annum. This is well known within and outside the sector. However, we still have a 50% ruling (which I don’t agree with as know, nor do I agree with any restrictions apart from targeting ‘the spend)      this 50% ruling if applied correctly, surely should at least come out at an allowance fee of ‘’’half’’’     ie:- £40,000 Pounds as opposed to £15,000 which is the point the restrictions kick in. At least what this would do is loosen the straight jacket, and give plenty of room for manoeuvre ………… and still provide protection to those about to throw their Toys out of the Pram.

3)      Tweaks (only tweaks) to Licences where both the Station itself and Ofcom ‘got it wrong’            this in our case could simply be adding ONE WORD to the Licence and where permitted allowing some Stations (as long as it caused no one else a problem) a small power boost.

4)      An acknowledgement that Key commitments can actually change, and change back again over a period as short as 12 months, sometimes out of control of the actual Station itself, and waiting for a consultation to come round again is not helping anyone.

5)      PRS/PPL actually doing the decent thing and acknowledging that ALL OF US are not for profit, and although at the end of each year we may have £5,000 - £10,000 in the account, this is in fact only a type of ‘float’ and not profit. We are being asked to report on nothing. This is also a matter of principal and not the amount of money. We report on how many songs we play per-hour and then send the agreed average/minimum fee. Yet again it seems we have had another process with opportunities missed, that in reality would have pleased and sufficed everyone concerned.

There are others, but it’s Christmas and I won’t bore you. The gentleman in question, please don’t shoot the messenger and don’t have a pop at those who are trying to help, even if the method is a bit off-piste. My only crime is, I just say it as it is, as pussyfootying around doesn’t bode well with my make up.

I have always tried to remain polite, it has just been the odd time frustration gets the better of all of us.

Is ones heart in the right place is the key question for all of us ??? ---------- the answer to that is most definitely ‘’yes’’       I always try to add a bit of humour to the observation to keep it light, even though it may be mixed with a touch of sarcasm.

All Mariah Carey wants for Christmas is you, All Mr N H Dumpty wants is a bit of common sense and all this nonsense gone by Spring 2017. Everything is possible you simply have to have the get up and go and the will power.

Let’s have another go ……………. Get a big meeting and get everyone in the same room --- DCMS/Ofcom/PRS/PPL and Uncle Tom Cobbley

Onwards and Upwards

Feliz Navidad

Nick

_______________________________________________

Reply - cma-l at commedia.org.uk <mailto:cma-l at commedia.org.uk> 

The cma-l mailing list is a members' service provided by the Community Media Association - http://www.commedia.org.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/community_media
http://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation
Canstream Internet Radio & Video: http://www.canstream.co.uk/
_______________________________________________

Mailing list guidelines: http://www.commedia.org.uk/about/cma-email-lists/email-list-guidelines/
_______________________________________________

To unsubscribe or manage your CMA-L mailing list subscription please visit:
http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l

  _____  

 <https://www.avast.com/antivirus> 

This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. 
www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/antivirus>  

_______________________________________________

Reply - cma-l at commedia.org.uk <mailto:cma-l at commedia.org.uk> 

The cma-l mailing list is a members' service provided by the Community Media Association - http://www.commedia.org.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/community_media
http://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation
Canstream Internet Radio & Video: http://www.canstream.co.uk/
_______________________________________________

Mailing list guidelines: http://www.commedia.org.uk/about/cma-email-lists/email-list-guidelines/
_______________________________________________

To unsubscribe or manage your CMA-L mailing list subscription please visit:
http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/pipermail/cma-l/attachments/20161212/e7225884/attachment.html>