[Community Radio] Community Radio Needs You!

[Bill Best]

Indymedia UK (http://www.indymedia.org.uk) has lent its support to the 
CMA's Community Media Campaign by publishing this article on its front page:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/05/292182.html

There is still time to participate in the campaign and to even fax your 
MP (http://www.faxyourmp.com/) the model letter that has been drafted 
and is available here:  http://www.commedia.org.uk/campaign/index.htm

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The community radio movement has grown worldwide over the last 30 years
establishing a new tier of broadcasting that is challenging the
traditional public and commercial sectors.

But just as community radio in the UK is starting to finally get a
foothold, intense lobbying from the commercial sector to restrict
community radio could limit its growth and even possibly kill it at birth.

Community radio is characterised by public access to and public
participation in radio production - the management of a community radio
station is in the hands of its listeners and users.

Community radio's emphasis on participation allows listeners to become
involved in their station to a degree not possible with local public or
commercial stations. Community radio breaks down the traditional divide
between broadcaster and listener. With community radio, the listener can
become the broadcaster and get engaged in the production of media and in
the process of communication.

Community radio can also bridge the communications divide in other ways.
Radio is a cheap, established and effective communications medium and is
able to reach the poorest communities in the most remote of localities -
poor communities in the North as well as the South, from marginalised
populations on the fringes of urban environments to small rural
communities in remote locations.

In Europe, community radio has largely grown out of the pirate radio
movement and many former pirate stations are now completely legal. In
Germany Radio Z (http://radio-z.net/) is one of the oldest free radio
stations (http://www.freie-radios.de/) being founded in 1984 and
starting broadcasting in 1987, and now the community radio stations are
sharing their programmes in an internet archive for non-commercial use.

Whilst the media law in Germany principally supports community radio
with the demand for "diversity of opinions", and "programs have to
contribute to literacy, education, culture and entertainment" and "that
significant political, social and philosophical groups are to be given a
say, too", the main difficulties for community radios lies in
insufficient funding.

Some like Radio Patapoe (http://freeteam.nl/patapoe/) in Amsterdam and
Contrabanda FM (http://www.contrabanda.org/contrabanda/) in Barcelona
remain unlicensed in continued opposition to legal restrictions. In the
UK Radio4@ (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/radio4a/) recently celebrated five
years of broadcasting no-budget community pirate radio in Brighton
despite several attempts by the DTI (http://www.dti.gov.uk/) to take
them off the air over the years.

In North America community radio has developed as a licensed service in
the main, though a few community stations are deemed illegal due to the
restrictive regulatory framework and a lack of available frequencies -
see Free Radio Berkeley (http://www.freeradio.org/) and San Francisco
Liberation Radio (http://www.liberationradio.net/). The Microradio
(http://www.microradio.org/) and Low Power FM (http://www.lpfm.com/)
projects have also played a part in developing community radio in the US.

More links to some community radio stations worldwide:
http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/community/html/stations.html

In Latin America, the community media sector has grown in the last fifty
years to become thousands of radio stations. In the 1980's, there were
only a handful of independent radio stations in Africa - now hundreds of
community broadcasters are on air. Asia is now starting to open up -
Nepal has been a shining example in South Asia where there are now seven
community radio stations on air and fifteen more that are about to
start. Countries in South-East Asia, the Philippines in particular, have
had a strong tradition of community broadcasting that continues to grow.
Community media is all over the world in every continent but not yet in
every country.

In the UK, community radio is under attack just as it is getting
established. The UK Government's Access Radio pilot scheme
(http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/rau/communications-bill/access-radio_main.html) 

has seen 15 community radio stations broadcasting - including Resonance
FM (http://www.resonancefm.com/) in London - successfully for over two
years now. Recently the creation of a £500,000 Community Media Fund has
been announced to help finance the community sector. However, the
Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA - http://www.crca.co.uk/),
a powerful industry-sponsored lobbying agency, is seeking to stifle the
growth of community radio by arguing for a regulatory framework that
would bar certain areas in the UK from having the right to set up a
Community Radio station. In other areas, Community Radio stations would
not be able to carry advertising and sponsorship at all - thus depriving
them of much-needed income.

More information on the campaign to promote community radio in the UK
and oppose the commercial lobby can be found on the Community Media
Association's website here:

http://www.commedia.org.uk/campaign/index.htm