[Community Radio] A historic day in the long journey of Community Radio

[Alan Fransman]

A historic day in the long journey of Community Radio

Today we had the pleasure of watching a truly exhilarating debate on 
Community Media in the House of Lords.

The debate started at 11:57 and was concluded at approximately 12:40. 
The general feeling in the House was that the introduction of Community 
Radio would bring enormous benefit to communities and that it is a long 
awaited addition to the UK broadcasting environment.  A number of Lords 
expressed concern at the restrictions on Community Radio in the Order 
and requested that these be reviewed.  There was discussion about the 
Community Media Fund and a very strategic intervention from Lord McNally 
on Community Television.

In their statements Lords also made reference to a number of Community 
Radio projects and the Community Media Association!

Lord McIntosh of Haringey, Minister for Media & Heritage presented the 
draft Order on behalf of Government and requested that it be approved. 
He also made a firm commitment to a review of the Community Radio sector 
by Ofcom after two years. He said that there would be an opportunity to 
remove the restrictions with a further Order if the review concluded 
that the restrictions were unnecessary or too onerous.  Further 
statements were made by Baroness Buscombe, Lord McNally, Lord Evans and 
Lord Desai.

In his introductory comments on the Order, Lord McIntosh referred to 
Desi Radio in Southall, Resonance FM in London and Bradford Community 
Broadcasting in Bradford.  He said that they made valuable contributions 
to the communities that they served.

The Minister concluded his opening remarks by saying:

"This is a historic day in the long journey of Community Radio and I'd 
like to pay tribute to work of the Community Media Association and in 
particular to Steve Buckley who've been instrumental in getting us to 
this point.  I hope that Community Radio will be an exciting and 
important development not just within UK radio but also within UK 
society more generally."

Baroness Buscombe welcomed the Order and raised questions about how 
Community Radio would be funded.

Lord McNally welcomed the Order but said that "Government has bought too 
much of their (the Commercial Radio Companies) case".  He said that 
there were too many restrictions in the Community Radio Order that aimed 
to protect the Commercial Radio sector.  He called on Government to put 
real money into the development of Community Radio in to balance the 
restrictions that would hinder the viability of new Community Radio 
services.  Lord McNally also urged Ofcom to give serious consideration 
to the restrictions in the Order when conducting its review.  McNally 
concluded his statement by asking Government to start working on 
Community Television now that we have Community Radio.

Lord Evans spoke directly from the CMA briefing (CMA letterhead noted in 
the camera shot) and also made reference to the need for a substantial 
Community Media Fund and the importance of the review.

Lord Desai made a short and insightful statement about the restrictions 
in the Order by saying that restrictions cannot be placed on Community 
Radio "if we believe in a free market".  He said that there was a need 
for an even playing field and that "the big beast of Commercial Radio 
should not support a distortion in the market"

In response to the representations in the House Lord McIntosh said that 
"what we have is a deal" between the  Commercial Radio sector and the 
Community Media sector. He closed by saying "let's get it right and 
let's get it started"

In response to Lord McNally's question about Community Television, the 
Minister said that Government is engaged in spectrum planning for 
Digital Switchover and that it hoped to have frequencies available for 
Community Television in the Digital environment.  He said that it was a 
legitimate debate but one for another date.

The Community Radio Order was approved by members of the House at the 
end of the session.

This is indeed a good day for Community Media.  It is a tribute to over 
twenty years of hard work and the achievements of scores of Community 
Media organisations across the UK. The Community Media Association would 
like to congratulate all those determined activists and supporters on a 
job well done.