<div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px">Hi</span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-size:12.8px">Just in case people didn't see this email buried in the long thread entitled 'Community Radio Fund & the CMA' I'm reposting this in a new thread to give it higher profile.</span></div><div style=""><span style="font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px">The CMA informed DCMS in its 2014 Community Radio Consultation that we had held a consultation meeting in Sheffield in April 2014 at which members attending the meeting "unanimously put forward the view that the Community Radio Fund should be distributed equally to all eligible stations rather than on a contested basis as is now". However it was apparent at the time that not all members supported that view.</span><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px">The original question put forward by DCMS in its 2014 Consultation was as follows:</div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><blockquote style="font-size:12.8px;margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div>Question 7 – How can Community Radio Fund grant funding be better used. </div><div><i>There are no plans to alter how decisions are taken to distribute the grant however we welcome views on other ways in which the grant could be better targeted and how might this be done. </i></div></blockquote><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px">Interestingly there is no acknowledgement of Question 7 in the Government Response to the Consultation on Community Radio here: <a href="http://bit.ly/1XmMLaA" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/1XmMLaA</a></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px">The advice I have received on this so far is that a change to how the Community Radio Fund is distributed would not be impossible. However to distribute the Fund equally between all licensed stations <span style="font-size:12.8px">would require a substantial change on which DCMS "would probably need to consult".</span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px">The agreement between DCMS and Ofcom is written by DCMS - the Fund belongs to DCMS and is merely administered by Ofcom. The </span><span style="font-size:12.8px">Funding Agreement for the next four years now requires updating. For the current year (2016/17), substantial change is not envisaged - the <a href="http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/radio/community-radio-fund/" target="_blank">first round of the Fund</a> is already open for applications and <b>closes next week on Thursday 26th May</b>.</span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px">Going forward, DCMS will look more broadly at the CRF to reflect the secured funding of £400,000 for community radio for 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20. Other options for distributing the Fund will be considered.</span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px">This week, the CMA has again indicated to DCMS that a proposal to distribute the CRF equally amongst licensed stations remains popular and the CMA will collate the views expressed on this mailing list and submit them to DCMS and to Ofcom. There is also an online form here for members to submit their feedback:</span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px"><a href="http://bit.ly/2016CRF" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2016CRF</a></span><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><span style="font-size:12.8px">We will keep this 'mini-survey' open until <b>30th June</b>.</span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div></div><div style="font-size:12.8px">Best regards for now</div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px">Bill Best</div><div style="font-size:12.8px">-- </div><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><span><div><div><div><div><div>Operations Manager<br></div>Community Media Association<br></div><a href="http://www.commedia.org.uk" target="_blank">http://www.commedia.org.uk</a><br></div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/community_media" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/community_media</a><br></div><div><a href="https://facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation" target="_blank">https://facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation</a><br><br></div><div></div>Canstream Internet Radio<br></div><a href="http://www.canstream.co.uk" target="_blank">http://www.canstream.co.uk</a><br></div><a href="https://twitter.com/canstream" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/canstream</a></span></div></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div><b><font size="4" color="#0000ff">Book your tickets now for the Community Media Conference 2016: <a href="http://bit.ly/2016CMAConf" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2016CMAConf</a></font></b></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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