Recently, a ‘community’ radio station for Southport spent a week or so broadcasting as a pirate.
Dune FM lost its broadcasting licence, after being dogged by financial difficulties and having various companies relating to its ownership wound-up. Ofcom revoked their broadcasting licence, but they carried on broadcasting instead of closing down, forcing Ofcom to physically come to remove the transmitting equipment.
Further south in Merseyside, KCR FM met a similar fate in 2009.
Both stations had the same problem. They were run by people who loved the idea of ‘radio’, but had no idea how to fund them.
Also, the format they chose was exactly the same as already being provided by many other radio stations with highly financed professional backing and centralised ‘booking’ by a department well-entrenched with those commanding the advertising spending power.
Not having the ability to ‘reach’ the big spenders, the mistake both ‘community’ stations made was to think that they could cover their running costs by having some bloke knock on the doors of local businesses and ask for money in exchange for spot adverts. And in the absence of any local interest, they relied on the deep pockets of radio enthusiastic ‘investors’, contra deals, and not paying bills, in order to survive.
That isn’t a community radio business model for two main reasons.
Firstly, it is wrong to assume that copying the standard commercial radio format of having a ‘dj’ playing standard pop records and then having long advertising breaks is community radio. Let alone that anybody will bother listening when the far more appealing ‘proper’ commercial radio stations are available.
Secondly, there are plenty of other ways to acquire an income and regular funding for a radio station beyond ‘spot advertising’. This is essential to chase as the big boys have mopped-up all the spot advertising budget, but can’t access the community funding that a community radio station can.
Personally, I find it pretty depressing when I see a community radio licence wasted on people who just want to build studios like the big boys have and sit in them having a ‘radio wank’, emulating commercial radio. What a waste.
The only community radio stations that Ofcom should allow are the ones that are either broadcasting for a geographically defined community, or for a ‘community of interest’ such as the lovely Celtic Music Radio up there in Scotland which pretty obviously isn’t copying a standard commercial radio format.
Again, there is no point in a community radio station aimed at a geographically defined ‘community’ imitating a proper commercial radio station.
Programming should be biased toward input from local schools, community centres, activities, artists, and people. Yes, a completely different format from commercial pop radio.
It’s a format that is cheap and dead easy to produce and it’s a format that would attract an audience keen to hear friends, family and neighbours appearing on the radio to expose their talents (talents beyond pretending they are commercial radio djs), their views and their ideas.
It’s a format that would attract alternative funding and would keep a station on the air for longer than is possible when imitating a proper commercial radio station.
It’s about time Ofcom issued licenses for real community radio stations and didn’t bother with stations just wanting to play at being on the radio like the proper stations. In this way, community radio could start to properly serve the community.
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