Martin Steers | Saturday 10th February 2024 1:12pm
The UK Community Radio Network is the national organisation that represents, supports, and develops Ofcom licenced Community Radio stations across the UK.
We want to try and do monthly updates on the work that we have done so raise awareness of our activity and so we are transparent about our activity and Station Managers / Management can engage with us.
Across January 2024 here is some of our activity:
Submitted a joint response with the CMA to the DCMS consultation on the future of analogue licencing of Community Radio - read the details here https://ukcrn.radio/community-media-association-amp-uk-community-radio-network-release-their-joint-submission-to-the-dcms-consultation-on-analogue-community-radio-licensing
Submitted a formal response to HM Treasury’s call for submissions for the budget (full submission below)
Met with the DCMS, discussed a small uplift (eg slight increase) in this year's Community Radio Fund of around £50k, discussed governance of community radio stations, and discussed the consultation.
Met with the DCMS, CMA and Trevor Dann on the Radio Symposium, agreed and announced the date - 27th of March - read full details here https://ukcrn.radio/community-radio-symposium-at-the-dcms-organised-with-the-support-of-the-ukcrn-and-cma
Worked with Switch Radio to submit a joint bid to the Community Radio fund for a national funding & grants officer, this has been supported by around 25 stations who we thank for their support.
Represented Community Radio with the national journalism strategy meeting & regular communications with the Public Interest News Foundation
We have also continued to support Community Radio stations and their managers/management with enquiries, including Ofcom complaints, Key Commitment change requests, getting back on air, and governance/management support.
HM Treasury submission - January 2024
The UK Community Radio Network is the national organisation that represents, supports, and develops Ofcom-licenced Community Radio.
We are asking for a significant and permanent increase into the Community Radio Fund (CRF) that is held by DCMS but administered by Ofcom.
There are currently over 300 Ofcom licensed and broadcasting Community Radio stations, serving a variety of communities across the UK, from communities of location to communities of interest or identity.
They play a vital role in supporting their local communities, providing local information, news and whats on, offering a platform for local organisations, charities and individuals to come on and talk about what they are doing for their community, they help support the development of the local economy by providing opportunities of skill development, as well as the promotion of local businesses and entrepreneurial activities.
These stations are more vital for their local communities than ever before, in the past 20 years we’ve seen the decline in ‘local’ commercial radio, with hundreds of studios closing across the country and a homogenisation of local brands into 3 or 4 national brands, and now local BBC has shifted to provide less local radio than it ever has, and this has caused an increase in demand from audiences for local content and local provision of radio.
The fund was launched in 2005 to help support the core costs of running an Ofcom licenced community radio station, and back then there were only a dozen or so stations, with an expectation that there was around £25k per station to help support them. Since the funds launch it has had no substantial permanent uplift or increase, it has received uplifts the last few years due to Covid support and some limited reallocation of funding from DCMS.
If the fund had kept up with inflation it should be worth more than £1m now, had it kept up with the number of stations on-air it should be worth around £8m now.
In 2021 DCMS commissioned an evaluation of the Community Radio Fund, amongst it’s findings was how the CRF can help develop the long term income and sustainability of Community Radio, seeing an average increase of around 37% on their income, and over half of stations reporting an increase in their unrestricted reserves to help them develop and sustain if there is any downturn in other income streams.
This shows that the CRF can be a catalist for growth for individual stations and for the sector more widely, helping it become more sustainable. A substantial and permanent increase has the possability for significant impact on the Community Radio sector, especially as we continue to see the sector grow with more stations launching all the time, especially as more routes to broadcast (via Small Scale DAB) are opened up, this enables more communities to be supported.
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If you want to find out more or discuss our work please do contact us
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The UK Community Radio Network is a registered Community Interest Company | Company Number: 13700623
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