[cma-l] looking forward

Sun Dec 24 14:51:12 GMT 2017

I agree very much with Nick's suggestions.
Dom's interview was very revealing - even to the point Ed had also made to me that he would love a CR station in his Constutuency - right next to where I live - but we couldn't find any willing bodies to take it forward.
Possibly - now we might have done - we're looking at a meeting.

Ian Hickling

Partner

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From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk <cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk> on behalf of Canalside Community Radio Ltd <office at canalsideradio.net>
Sent: 23 December 2017 15:14
To: 'The Community Media Association Discussion List'
Subject: [cma-l] looking forward

Dear All

First of all seasons greetings and a Merry Christmas and let’s hope prosperous New Year.

I just want to take this opportunity to point people of our lovely throng towards the recent ‘’’third sector radio’’’ piece where Dom Chambers talks to Ed Vaizey.

There are a number of very interesting points that I have clocked onto :-

Listening to it, it sounds like he actually wasn’t a million miles away from ‘’’our vision’’’   the problem looking as though it wasn’t necessarily him and that his hands were tied. The concerning bit is the fact he was the Number 2 and there was only one above him but nothing was done    ??

£5 Million he states in the wider scheme of things for Community Radio is a mere drop in the Ocean as you look hard at Government Budgets ----- this is austerity or no austerity ---- we have been saying this for years, instead we had £500,000   half a million that then reduced to £395,000. Bearing in mind that more Stations are coming on-board the common sense approach surely is that it at least needs to be moving in the other direction.

We can’t demand money from the Government, we can ask them nicely (I believe we have done that ?)    we can try to friendly persuade ……….. what we can’t do, and must not do is to take ‘’no’’ as an answer whilst at the same time there are restrictions placed upon the earning and gathering of funds. I say it again for about the 50th time --- the two things do not tally up and do not go together. It is one or the other. We either have a poor fund and no restrictions or restrictions and a good fund ….. we had the old thing ‘’’a’’’ about ‘’’t’’’ for the last 15 Years. Surely it is not unreasonable for someone like myself and many others to constantly bang on about it ??

We can’t as I have said do anything regarding demanding money but we can do something about the other thing. One thing we can do is not have members of our team in the same room as the DCMS if they themselves actually believe the restrictions are a good thing ?  and that this system is in some way acceptable ?        this is absolute folly. And I’m afraid ladies and gentlemen this is where we have fallen down.

One will never get all their own way in these matters (that’s life)   but on basic common sense matters I expect my membership fees to contribute towards common sense and not folly.

You may find it strange but I do believe in some form of regulation on our sector. Listen to the interview and you will hear Mr Vaizey talk about a sector (if) awash with Government funding then attracting all the wrong sorts      I think the word Charlatans was used    😊         it’s true ------ I think as anything in life ‘moderation’ is the key     finding a half-way house. Trouble is, we haven’t been anywhere near it.

Regulate the spend and not the earn.

So my challenge to our New Team (old team plus two)      can we change our approach and take the blinkers off please. We need to know if the Fund can be upped     (you know my vision on the distribution)  (it should be evenly distributed amongst all Stations)        perhaps a first payment to help towards D A B equipment    (Mr Vaizey talks of this also)

Gaining a little bit of extra revenue from a service like this would be good, but if the rules don’t allow it because you are on your limit that’s not helpful either.

There are other issues. Ofcom allowing Stations to re-visit their original applications (if) the application was skewed by the original rules ……… to constantly keep saying ‘’no’’ is likewise unacceptable. Many Stations are struggling / failing    whichever way you wish to dress it up because half of the problems are through no fault of their own ….. this isn’t right.

I think some clear vision and description on what we actually are after 15 Years is maybe worth a look at. Are we a drop in centre, are we a Youth Club, are we a rehabilitation centre, are we a School       remember, we can do all of this regardless whether we have Radio or not, so I would like to just nudge and remind everyone that we are a Radio Station primarily, a Community one at that …. Get that right and then look at the key commitments and deliver the other stuff …….. another issue that some of our team seem to be running back to front.

Onwards and Upwards

I await our vision for the future from our team sometime early in 2018

All the best

Regards

Nick HD

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