[cma-l] Community Radio Fund & the CMA
Canalside's The Thread
office at thethread.org.uk
Tue May 17 11:31:10 BST 2016
Dear all persons of great loveliness
What an absolutely wonderful e-mail from Bill. In fact, what a fabulous response to the original e-mail I sent to everyone. We have now at least got people talking about what matters, as opposed to discussing what size fuse we need to put in kamosaki transmitter model 345 vertical only.
Now then ………. Here comes the big BONG ………. ‘’What are we going to do about it ?’’ ie:- the Fund / Funding
Here’s how it works :- we get together and we have a discussion on the way forward. (before conference) This is a co-ordinated discussion which at the end of it builds up a ‘mandate’ which is supported by the CMA / CRF and all our Members. It is then stamped and sealed at Conference.
If the meeting is in Manchester, London, Edinburgh, St Ives, John O’Groats or the Isle of Wight ….. it doesn’t matter ….we need to do it.
I suggest this is the best thing that we can do, and it be Numero Uno on the agenda in front of and before pinning medals on people and blowing smoke up each others backsides.
I suggest one policy as of today ought to be the way the ‘Fund’ is doled out ……… ie:- EQUALLY / THE SAME for ALL Stations. If at present that means £2000 pounds for the moment, then so be it. At least we will then be all singing from the same hymn sheet and we approach this as one unit as opposed to a ruck of rag, tag and bob-tail cowboys without an ounce of fire in our bellies.
Community Radio is all about including as many as possible, opportunity, equality, fair play …. And here we are every three months all bidding against each other for tuppence. If you do your maths, with the knockbacks included, it works out at about £2000 / £3000 anyway ? so why not save all that time and bureaucracy and dare I say – nonsense ?
Whether this ‘so called’ ‘Fund’ is a Community Radio Fund, a ‘Begging Bowl’, a Charity Tin or a Floppy Hat with Community Radio stamped next to the ‘kiss me quick’ the name is irrelevant.
There is money flying around, and it isn’t (and never has been coming in our direction) 14 years this has been going on 14 YEARS ! and here we have another piggy bank that doesn’t have our name on it.
Plenty of money though for that Big White Hephalump called Community TV !
The Professor is correct, and so is Bills analysis …….. lots of observations on this message board over the past 5 years are likewise not far wide of the mark – but the powers that be seem to either :-
1) Never get the feedback relayed to them ?
2) Do not understanding it ?? (which in itself is quite worrying)
3) Don’t give a flying cactus because all we’ll do in response is have a bit of a moan and then go and crawl back in the corner and/or soldier on regardless
4) Talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk ……… if the Government and DCMS support Community Radio, then include us, put us on the Radar, put us on the Frequency when discussing ‘funds’ being made available.
I would hope that this idea of miraculous new funding & BBC monies funding profit making newspapers etc etc has been met with the same reaction in every single Community Station in the UK.
I think Professor Everitts figures are not far wide of the mark, however I am sure we are all reasonable people, and in this World of tight budgets and austerity perhaps a slight reduction on £42,500 would be sensible. I have always said £10,000 per-Station, however that was 2004’s prices. Maybe I am selling us all a bit short, so apologies for that. Putting all these figures in the mix I reckon £35,000 is reasonable.
If [we] had £35,000, it would be ‘’’game over’’’ and all the things that we are meant to be doing we could get on with them without distractions and without jumping off and on the Hamster Wheel.
One final thing re:- restrictions [there shouldn’t be any] in fact if we had £35,000, the only one we need is 50% ruling – chuck in a few volunteer hours and hey presto, onwards and upwards. Why have the people running the show over the past 14 years always gone for the most difficult option ? the tiresome option ? the long-winded approach ?
Perhaps in ‘’’the meeting’’’ yes ‘’’that meeting’’’ between the Ministers / Ofcom and the CMA this could be the first question. I would love to hear the answer.
One more thing, that I wish in ‘’’the meeting’’’ we could put to bed forever ……. Please, everyone, get it into your heads that there is more chance of me becoming Prime Minister than there is of a Community Radio Station (very local) and on ONLY 25 watts, threatening or being competition to any Commercial outfit. Plus, when all the resources are being spent on social cohesion, community liaison, local democracy, training, access for people with disabilities etc the clot that even suggested it needs putting on a Boat.
So hopefully, now at last, it is ----- onwards and upwards.
1) When is our meeting ? (for a mandate)
2) Where is the meeting ? and once decided, who is going to direct the traffic in the discussions ?
3) When is the meeting with the DCMS ?
4) When do we get the feedback ? ie:- before Conference, so all this can be discussed at conference instead of rolling out ex BBC folk who either 1) haven’t a clue about what we do and/or 2) just spend half an hour telling us what we already know
5) What is the back-up plan if blanks are drawn ? we have NEVER had a back up plan. Going away and crawling under a log is not a back up plan.
This is how it works. There are no other options. If we do this, then perhaps, just perhaps we might start being taken seriously, people just might realise we do have an important role to play and fill a hole ….. and to the arrogant ones in our industry, we are not something that gets stuck under ones shoe.
One absolutely final thing :- if Stations were to receive £10,000 grand £20,000 grand £30,000 grand … we pay our membership (s) of around £300 quid to the CMA / CRF and then this way (as Dave pointed out) we are not beholden to the person who pays the piper, and there are no conflicts of interest.
I realise from recent e-mails that funding has been stopped in 2015 to the CMA (I was neither aware of the funding not the fact it was stopped … my suggestion to take some monies out of the C R Fund and give to the CMA were suggested in all innocence ……. Having said this though, how can anyone at the CMA go into a meeting and get into discussion / debate / argument etc etc with the folk that pay your crust ???? it’s impossible …….. this needs to change.
These are my thoughts, they have never wavered or been any different in 10 years … can we now have some co-ordinated action please to properly put the show back on the Road
Thank you
Regards
Nick H Dumpty / Chairman Hamster Wheel FM
I am certainly looking for a response from the CMA Board and Chair, CRF ? Dom ? Phil ? over you ladies and gents
_____
From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk [mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Bill Best
Sent: 16 May 2016 19:00
To: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Community Radio Fund & the CMA
Thank you very much for your email Ian.
I don't think that anyone is asking for any "handouts" or "begging bowls" for community radio - a baseline position is that the CMA would like to see all community media projects fairly recompensed for their contribution to social gain outcomes such as social cohesion, crime reduction, and local democracy.
However it is worth noting that community radio was always intended to have a mixed economic model distinct from commercial radio, and that grants from the Community Radio Fund have assisted stations to raise additional revenues from other sources.
In 2003 the pilot 'Access Radio' scheme was the subject of an independent evaluation by Professor Anthony Everitt which formed the basis for present legislation. Everitt proposed a mixed funding mechanism for community radio that would assure its sustainability whilst limiting direct competition with the commercial radio sector.
A central element of Everitt’s proposals was a funding mechanism that would provide around £30,000 per annum (£42,500 at 2015 prices) per station towards core operating costs such as the employment of a station manager. The Secretary of State, Tessa Jowell, said at the time, in a letter to key stakeholders: “I have now considered Anthony Everitt’s evaluation of the access radio experiment and believe that it provides a sound basis for taking the work on access radio to the next level”.
At the same time, the Government’s own Regulatory Impact Assessment stated: “One possibility being considered is the creation by Government of an access radio fund to support the establishment and running of access radio stations. If it is decided to proceed with such a scheme the amount of Government support is unlikely to be more than £3 to 4 million per annum.” On 5 March 2004, the Secretary of State announced an intention to proceed with an initial commitment to the fund of £500,000 for 2004/05. As we know, the Community Radio Fund has not kept up with the explosive growth of radio stations in the sector but the small uplift for 2016/17 is certainly welcome.
Ofcom, in its regular reports on the Community Radio Fund, has shown that the investment from the Fund has a significant multiplier effect, increasing the income to stations from other sources. If this evidence is to be believed, and we have no reason to dispute it, it follows that a reduction in the Fund would have the opposite effect - that is to say, a diminished CRF serves to attenuate the capacity of community radio stations to find other sources of sustainable funding.
As useful as the Community Radio Fund is and has been, the CMA is looking at whether a path forward might be to replace the current Community Radio Fund with an improved mechanism to fund public service content and local news created by community radio stations, fairly remunerating community radio stations for content produced. This could be arranged along similar lines to the settlement for local television content producers.
Furthermore, the BBC has recently announced that from 2017 they will fund the costs of 150 journalists in private local commercial newspapers at a cost of around £8m per annum <http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2016/bbc-nma-partnership> . The CMA will be looking to see how community media can be similarly supported to serve local audiences.
The CMA is also looking into how best community media can work with charities, social enterprises and the wider third sector encouraging those organisations to use community media channels as a platform to create and disseminate their campaigns. Additionally, there is a good case for Government PSAs to not only be carried on commercial networks but on community platforms as well.
To conclude, the single most important change that Government could make to improve the viability of the community radio sector and its delivery of public benefit would be to significantly increase the size of the Community Radio Fund in line with the Everitt report.
Best regards for now
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
Book your tickets now for the Community Media Conference 2016: http://bit.ly/2016CMAConf
On 15 May 2016 at 11:07, Ian Hickling <transplanfm at hotmail.com> wrote:
I don't wish in any way to detract from that proposition Donald - but should we not in addition be pushing for better opportunities to stand up for ourselves in enhancing our capability to make money from what we do - rather than what is in effect just looking for handouts?
There are just a few CR operations that are being run as successful businesses and producing a respectable revenue stream.
We must all learn from those - rather than proffering a bigger begging bowl.
Ian Hickling
Partner
<http://www.transplanuk.com/>
Office: 016 3557 8435 (07h to 22h GTS)
Car: 075 3098 0115 (only responds when driving)
6 Horn Street, Compton, NEWBURY, RG20 6QS
_____
Date: Sat, 14 May 2016 16:49:48 +0100
From: donald at donaldmack.co.uk
To: cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Community Radio Fund & the CMA
The CMA has no other option than to launch an all out campaign to promote Community Media locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. If e do not stand up and fight now our sector will be setback for a decade. We have mountains of positive outcomes to share and a political opportunity to push some proactive policies and mechanisms that can support our sector.
I fully support the remarks made by Steve Buckley, we have to open up these funding streams for our sector and I urge the CMA Board to put together a major campaign.
Thanks
On 13 May 2016 at 15:55 Alan Coote <alan.coote at 5digital.co.uk> wrote:
There can be little argument that every station should receive some money from governement when local TV and now local papers are being heavily subsidised.
For example; Allocating £5,000 to each station would allow it to cover broadcast and much of the fixed running costs. Stations registered with the CMA could then afford to pay a few percent to keep it supporting the sector.
A couple of ‘intended' consequences is that the government would recover some of the funds back in Ofcom fees and tax. The big plus is that the £5,000 would be a benefit-in-kind and therefore permit station’s to increase their own revenue by another £5,000.
A £10,000 net benefit and surely a virtuous circle!
Kind Regards
Alan
Dear all
It is disappointing to hear DCMS stopped supporting CMA after over 10 years of funding across two different governments. It is not an unreasonable demand that this funding should be reinstated.
Meanwhile the CMA and its members should surely be doing more to press for an increase in public funding for the sector as a whole. With the DCMS announcement yesterday that the government plans to establish a £20m contestable public service content fund, and the BBC's announcement that they will fund the costs of 150 journalists in private local commercial newspapers at a cost of around £8m per annum, why not also replace the current Community Radio Fund with a better mechanism to fund public service content and local news carried by community radio stations?
Culture Secretary statement on the BBC reforms
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/culture-secretary-statement-on-the-bbc-reforms
BBC and the News Media Association announce ground-breaking plans for new partnership
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2016/bbc-nma-partnership
From: <cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk> on behalf of "bill.best at commedia.org.uk" <bill.best at commedia.org.uk>
Reply-To: "cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk" <cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk>
Date: Friday, 13 May 2016 at 13:16
To: "cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk" <cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk>
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Community Radio Fund & the CMA
Afternoon
The CMA did not receive any funding from DCMS for 2015/2016 and looking forward there is currently no long-term funding agreement in place.
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
Book your tickets now for the Community Media Conference 2016: http://bit.ly/2016CMAConf
On 13 May 2016 at 13:06, Phil Gibbons <philjgibbons at gmail.com> wrote:
The CMA have been receiving funding annually from DCMS for many years.
It was £20k in 2012, £19K in 2013, £19K in 2014 and £19K in 2015 and this year I believe was £19k again to go into the central core costs of the CMA.
I'm sure Bill or Cathy can confirm this - but It is all published in the accounts.
Phil
On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 11:28 AM, David Sharp <dave.sharp at academyfmfolkestone.com> wrote:
Hi
I agree that regular funding for the CMA would be a major benefit.
I assume the CMA has to remain impartial of Ofcom / DCMS etc. If they were taking an important part of their funding from the latter, this could call into question any such impartiality.
I'm not questioning their ability to actually be impartial, but how it could open them up to such criticism. However, despite this I would probably vote for such an idea personally.
Dave 'completely unbiased coverage of all my major donor's events' Sharp
--
Dave Sharp
Station Manager
105.9 Academy FM Folkestone
Mobile: 07811 407635
Folkestone office: 01303 721059 (Ext.4)
Internal Folkestone Academy: x2499
<mailto:dave.sharp at academyfmfolkestone.com> dave.sharp at academyfmfolkestone.com
_____
From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk <cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk> on behalf of Ian Hickling <transplanfm at hotmail.com>
Sent: 13 May 2016 11:05
To: The Community Media Association Discussion List
Subject: [cma-l] Community Radio Fund & the CMA
Maybe I've missed something here - but are we proposing asking the DCMS to give £25-30k to the CMA annually?
I honestly don't think there's a hope in hell of that ever happening - but I'd be delighted to be proved wrong!
Ian Hickling
Partner
<http://www.transplanuk.com/>
Office: 016 3557 8435 (07h to 22h GTS)
Car: 075 3098 0115 (only responds when driving)
6 Horn Street, Compton, NEWBURY, RG20 6QS
> To: cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk
> From: eddie at kcr.fm
> Date: Fri, 13 May 2016 00:57:26 +0100
> Subject: Re: [cma-l] feedback - Community Radio Fund & the CMA
>
> I'd certainly support a motion along these lines.....
>
> Eddie
>
> KCR broadcasts across Moray and beyond on 107.7FM
> and to the world on the internet at http://kcr.fm
>
> KCR is the operating name of Keith Community Radio Ltd.
> Registered in Scotland: No SC 173805
> Registered Office: 59a Land Street, Keith, Banffshire, AB55 5AN
>
>
>
> On 11/05/16 14:02, Canalside's The Thread wrote:
> > Dear All
> >
> > I am just interested in peoples feedback on this one. As you are aware I
> > have been banging on about this for quite a while now and with current
> > too-ings and fro-ings I think the time is right to pitch it again.
> >
> > We all know through our own experiences that one of the biggest problems we
> > all face is the constant plate spinning. Obviously the running and chasing
> > around for funding takes up about 5 wobbly canes, and all the other plates
> > spin when we can get to them. Some as we know do fall off.
> >
> > We have each come to learn how to deal with this and 'manage' ..... whether
> > 'managing' is what we are meant to be doing I don't know ? but we won't
> > trawl over the age old arguments again.
> >
> > Cutting to the chase, I don't believe the CMA (our representative body)
> > should have to operate in this manner ..... it doesn't say a lot for us, nor
> > does it help any of us if the CMA cannot represent us properly because they
> > to are also spinning plates.
> > We at least each have a Broadcasting platform to play around with, they (the
> > CMA) do have canstreem, but that in itself is time consuming and doesn't
> > leave a lot of time for the admin and the representation.
> >
> > I hope I am not speaking out of turn (Bill / Martin et al) but I believe the
> > Community Radio Fund should automatically every year donate £25,000/£30,000
> > to the CMA.
> > I believe we would all benefit from it as the CMA would then be doing what
> > it is meant to be doing as opposed to learning the craft of plate spinning.
> > I suggest they leave that to us.
> >
> > Over the past few months I have been in liaison with David Rutley our Local
> > MP and Ed Vaizey to get feedback from them and whether it could be done.
> >
> > Obviously the questions are :- can we have a mandate from members please
> > to officially put this forward and can I/we get authority from the
> > DCMS/Ofcom that this could be made possible.
> >
> > Thoughts ?
> >
> > This of course prevents us from going round in circles, or dare I say going
> > backwards if people cancel membership because they feel they aren’t being
> > represented. I'm not one for Chinese whispers behind closed doors as you
> > know, and this should an open discussion. Do it now and then either throw it
> > through the window at Conference or officially stamp it.
> > I don't particularly fancy still discussing it in ten years time which tends
> > to the norm in this game of Community Radio.
> >
> > The Right Honourable Sir Nicholas H Dumpty / Chairman and current Plate
> > spinning World record holder
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> > Reply - 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
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>
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