Community Media Association

Ofcom has now licensed 214 stations over two rounds of licensing. 159 of these are broadcasting, 12 have either decided not to launch or have handed their licence back and the remainder are preparing to start broadcasting. The second round of licensing is ongoing – Ofcom is currently considering 13 applications from groups based in the southeast of England (excluding London and other areas within the M25) and a further 31 applications from groups based in London or other areas within the M25 motorway.

The average station’s income in 2008/09 was around £79,000, although the median figure (the mid-point in the distribution of stations’ incomes) is significantly lower at £50,000, suggesting a small number of stations earn significantly more than the majority. (The reported income of the four highest income stations is as large as the 50 lowest income stations combined, at around £1.4 million. If we exclude these four stations the average income drops to around £67,000, with no significant change in the median.) Stations serving particular communities reported a higher income then the sector average – those serving general audiences in urban areas (an average income of £92,000) and those serving minority ethnic communities (an average income of £106,000).

The average income is down by around 20% on the previous year’s reported figures (the average for 2007-2008 was £101,000) and similarly, the median income is also down by around 20%. The relative contribution of different types of income does not appear to have changed substantially in comparison with the previous year. Although we cannot be certain as to the reason for the drop in reported average incomes, the indications are that the recession has had an impact and community radio stations themselves often reported that they believed the recession was a major factor impacting not just on advertising but also grant income.

The most significant type of income for the sector is grant funding, which accounts for around 41% of the total. Income from on-air advertising or sponsorship is the next most important, accounting for around 23% of the total (23% of stations in this year’s report did not seek income from advertising or sponsorship at all either because (1) they choose not to (16 stations) or (2) because they were prohibited under their licence from doing so (seven stations)).

Public sources of funding – usually in the form of grants – account for around 43% of the sector’s total income. Local authorities are a major source of public funding, accounting for around 17% of the sector’s total income whilst the Community Radio Fund, administered by Ofcom on behalf of the Department for Media, Culture and Sport, accounts for around 4% of the sector’s total income. The Community Radio Fund remains the individual largest single source of income for the sector although we are aware of a number of other grants in excess of £100,000 that have been paid to individual stations.

Community radio stations are, on average, spending a little more than their income – on average stations cost £81,000 to run. The major item of expenditure is staff at around 52%; premises and technical costs are the next most significant items at around 10% each. The sector average is a deficit of just under £3,000, but this disguises a wide range from surpluses of £83,000 down to a deficit of £133,000. 40% of all community stations which have returned annual reports were in deficit and 23% of stations had deficits in excess of £10,000. In general, large deficits are being funded by parent organisations whilst any surpluses are invested in the operation of the service.

The average station has around 75 volunteers – although again there is a wide variation, from 1 to 287 – who together give around 222 hours a week of their time in total. There are now some 159 stations broadcasting and Ofcom therefore estimates that volunteers contribute nearly 150,000 hours a month to community radio.

Source: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radio/ifi/rbl/commun_radio/cr_annualrpt0809/