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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-GB link=blue vlink=blue><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Clearly a grant to Community Radio is not in any way a handout to a ‘begging bowl’. The whole justification for there being CR licences available is that such stations are expected to provide ‘social gain’ – so the government has already accepted that there is a value to society in having these stations. In which case it seems to me that in principle it would be perfectly proper for public funds to contribute to delivering that social purpose. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>As has already been mentioned, that was indeed proposed to the tune of £30k per station in the original 2003 recommendations for CR licensing. That didn’t happen, presumably because of a lack of political will/lobbying from the commercial companies.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>There is another potential practical route to value this social purpose – one that has worked well for us in Scotland for the stations that were licensed prior to CR licences and their restrictions on commercial income.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>That is to persuade the Government of the need and value to run ‘public service’ and ‘social message’ advertising on community-based stations. This avoids any need to think about or discuss ‘begging bowls’ since we are selling them a product of value in return for the income, not asking for ‘something for nothing’.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>In Scotland the Scottish Government instructs the advertising agencies to place a small share of the overall public service advertising budget with the community-based non-profit stations such as ours, and it has been a very important income stream.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Of course there is a problem in this scheme in that as things stand it couldn’t be applied to stations with CR licences that limit or bar commercial airtime income, but maybe it would be easier to persuade Ofcom/DCMS that this requirement should be eased/removed in the case of official social/public service messages from Government – ie that such advertising would not count as commercial income for Ofcom purposes, or that licence conditions would be amended to permit such income.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Just an idea. While it’s provides nowhere near as much as the originally proposed core CR funding from Government, It has been a substantial help for us for over 10 years in Scotland.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><br>Alex<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> cma-l-bounces@mailman.commedia.org.uk [mailto:cma-l-bounces@mailman.commedia.org.uk] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Canalside's The Thread<br><b>Sent:</b> 17 May 2016 12:36<br><b>To:</b> 'The Community Media Association Discussion List' <cma-l@mailman.commedia.org.uk><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [cma-l] Community Radio Fund & the CMA<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:navy'>Let’s not get into the debate re:- value of the product our product is viewed differently by possibly every Tom, Dick and Harry on this Island. It is irrelevant owing to the very reason why Community Radio was set up</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'>….</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><br />
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