- SFM (Sittingbourne, Kent)
- Gateway FM (Basildon, Essex)
- Insanity (Egham, Surrey)
- Kane FM (Guildford, Surrey)
- The Vibe (Watford)

Details of the five new community radio stations are as follows:

SFM (Sittingbourne, Kent)
Website: http://www.sfmradio.com
SFM aims to serve the general population of the Sittingbourne area.
The service will promote and encourage local community involvement and
volunteer-led training, and development programmes will provide
opportunities for the target community to connect and become involved
with the station.

Gateway FM (Basildon, Essex)
Website: http://www.gatewayfm.com
Gateway FM is a not for profit social enterprise. Its mission is to
enhance community cohesion through developing a community radio
station to reach, involve and serve the communities of Basildon and
East Thurrock. The station proposes to present a mixture of output
reflecting the range of interests and backgrounds in the target
community.

Insanity (Egham, Surrey)
Website: http://www.rhul.ac.uk
Insanity will broadcast a service for students and other young people
in Egham and the surrounding area. The station will include
education-orientated output as well as providing a public forum for
important student-related issues with particular focus on the local
area. It will also aim to develop the relationship between student and
non-student residents.

Kane FM (Guildford, Surrey)
Website: http://www.kanefm.com
Kane FM will be a radio service to support the local community in
Guildford. Its primary focus is 15-39 year old fans of independent
(mainly urban) music and it will provide an outlet for showcasing
local talented artists and musicians. The station will provide
opportunities for individuals in the community to become involved with
the station and will serve as a way for local events to be promoted to
the wider community.

Vibe FM (Watford)
Website: http://www.vibewatford.com/
Vibe FM will offer a service targeted at the young people of Watford
and its suburbs. It aims to become an integral part of the target
community through providing entertainment and opportunities for
involvement with the service. It will also provide an outlet for
community services to establish a dialogue with young people.

A statement setting out the main determining factors for the award of
the community radio licences referred to above will be published in
the radio licensing section of Ofcom’s February Communications Monthly
Update.

Source: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2010/01/nr_20100224

All images are welcome – whether it’s a picture of the stapler on your desk or a visit to your project by a campaigning politician; a photo of your staff team or the view from your window.  Obviously the more photos we can get from you the better chance we have of this project succeeding.  The CMA will also post the odd picture up so you will get a chance to see some of us at work.

Please send your photos to: photo365@commedia.org.uk

We can handle all digital photo file formats but sending jpegs will mean less work for us to convert them.  We can also scale down pictures so hi-res photos are fine.  When sending photos from a mobile phone try to set the highest resolution possible.  Please ensure that all photos are suitable for publishing on the web in terms of rights clearance and privacy.

We will continue to make calls throughout the year for photos so just keep them coming.  We hope to feature as wide a spread of your projects as possible but the more good photos that you send us the better the chances are of your organisation featuring several times.

So please start immediately and send your photos now to: photo365@commedia.org.uk

• The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) allocated £460,000 towards the Community Radio Fund for 2009/10 (a further £40,000 was allocated by them to other community radio projects).
• In the first round of funding in June 2009, the Panel made grants totalling £233,460. This left £226,540 for this second round.
• 39 applications were considered
• Funding applications totalled £830,330.83
• 14 applicants were awarded grants which totalled £226,532
• 25 applicants were not awarded a grant

The average grant in this round was £16,180. A table setting out the awards may be found here.

The Panel advises that one grant, for £39,667, was for a substantially higher amount than the average. The Panel wishes to record that this was for a joint application which will fund a Regional Account Manager post benefiting 12 individual community radio stations in the Greater Manchester area. Between them the coverage of these stations includes around two million people.

Source: Ofcom

The Community Media Association, the UK body for community media which represents among others over 200 licensed community radio stations, has today written to all MPs and key Peers to urge them to support the radio clauses of the Digital Economy Bill, highlighting the significant benefits that the community radio sector will receive as FM spectrum becomes available following digital radio switchover.

The Digital Economy Bill contains provisions to enable the consumer-led transition from analogue to digital radio for national, regional and larger-local services. A new tier of local radio, consisting of small local commercial stations and community stations, will then occupy the vacated FM spectrum. The creation of space on the FM spectrum will bring a host of benefits to those stations, including allowing those currently on AM to move to FM; room for new services to be licensed and launched; longer licence periods; and access to better signal strength.

The CMA will also work together with the rest of the radio industry to ensure that listeners have a seamless experience when tuning between their favourite stations and will therefore be largely unaware of whether a station is broadcasting on FM or DAB.

Jaqui Devereux, Director, Community Media Association, said:

“Ofcom has described the growth of community radio as a great success story, with over 200
community services licensed since 2004. However, there is still huge potential within the sector and the Digital Economy Bill is an essential and enormously beneficial piece of legislation which will enable community radio to further flourish and fulfil its potential. ”

Ford Ennals, Chief Executive, Digital Radio UK, said:

“Community radio provides an essential service to listeners in every corner of the country and I’m delighted that the Community Media Association has lent its support to the radio clauses of the Digital Economy Bill. The increased availability of analogue spectrum following digital switchover will allow this hugely valued sector of the radio industry to grow and better serve its audience, ensuring that FM will continue to thrive.”

Download press release here.

The House of Lords Select Committee on Communications has announced a short inquiry into the progress of, and prospects for, digital switchover of both television and radio in the United Kingdom.

The Digital Switchover Programme will replace the UK’s existing analogue television network with a fully digital television network, region by region, between 2008 and 2012.  As the programme reaches its half way point, the inquiry will make a brief interim assessment of:

• the strengths and weaknesses of the switchover process as they have emerged in the regions which have already switched over;
• the effectiveness of the Digital Switchover Help Scheme and the public communications campaign.

The Digital Switchover Programme applies only to television.  The arrangements for radio are still being developed. The Government does not yet have a timetable, though it has said that the switchover date will be announced two years in advance.  The inquiry will consider the issues to be resolved, including:

• the current state of the Government’s plans for switchover to digital radio;
• the outstanding technical issues, including the appropriateness of DAB as the digital radio standard;
• the views of UK broadcasters, consumers, and radio interest groups.

The Committee would welcome written evidence on any of these issues.

GUIDANCE FOR THOSE SUBMITTING WRITTEN EVIDENCE

Submissions should be sent to:

Ralph Publicover
Select Committee on Communications
House of Lords
London SW1A 0PW

Tel 020 7219 8662
Fax 020 7219 4931

and preferably also as an email attachment to: holcommunications@parliament.uk

The deadline for submitting written evidence is 1 February 2010.

Please ensure that you include relevant contact details. Evidence should be attributed and dated, with a note of your name and position, and should state whether it is submitted on an individual or corporate basis.

Short submissions of 6 pages or fewer are preferred; longer submissions should include a summary. Evidence sent as hard copy should be clearly printed or typed on single sides of A4 paper, unstapled.  Paragraphs should be numbered.  If drawings or charts are included, we ask that these are black-and-white and of camera-ready quality.

Evidence becomes the property of the Committee, and may be printed or circulated by the Committee. You may publish your evidence yourself, but in doing so you should indicate that it was prepared for the Committee.
The Committee may invite some of those who submit written evidence to give oral evidence, usually in public at Westminster. Transcripts will be published.

You can follow the inquiry via the Committee web pages, accessed from:

http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/communications.cfm

This is a public call for evidence. Please bring it to the attention of other groups and individuals who may not have received a copy direct.

Ofcom has published its revised 2009 Broadcasting Code (“the 2009
Code”) which sets rules for TV and radio broadcasts.

Ofcom has also published its new internal procedures for the
handling of standards and licence-related cases, fairness and privacy
complaints, and statutory sanctions in broadcasting.

The full Code can be found here:

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/ifi/codes/bcode/

And the new internal procedures are here:

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/ifi/guidance/

Ofcom has announced the award of one new community radio licence, in
Oxfordshire, to:

• OX4 FM, Oxford

Web-site: http://www.ox4fm.net

OX4 FM will provide a service tailored to the interests of the diverse
residents of the OX4 area of Oxford. It will provide community
information, discuss issues directly relevant to the area, and promote
local artists and local organisations. It aims to be a unifying force
for the area, increasing community cohesion and inviting
participation.

The licence is awarded for a five-year period.

A statement setting out the main determining factors for the award of
the community radio licence referred to above will be published in the
radio licensing section of Ofcom’s January Communications Monthly
Update.

Source: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2009/12/nr_20091216a

There is growing interest in the subject of volunteer ‘rights’, especially in whether volunteers should have formal legal rights like employees do (volunteers currently don’t have such rights) and/or how could volunteers have better opportunities to seek redress if they think they have been treated unfairly.

Volunteering England has created an independent Volunteer Rights Inquiry which will explore these issues in more detail and look at the pros and cons of possible solutions.

The Inquiry wants to hear from a wide range of people and is especially keen to hear of specific examples & experiences of good and bad practice as well as more general thoughts and opinions. For example, you might want to tell us whether you think legal rights should exist for volunteers, or what the problems with this may be; what you think volunteers should be able to do if they feel they’ve been treated unfairly, or examples of where such situations have been particularly well handled; and how things could be changed or improved to avoid such problems in the first place.

Please complete the inquiry form here.

The local broadcasting ecology in England continues to change rapidly; the new tier of community radio is steadily increasing (more than two hundred stations have been licensed since 2005 and more than one hundred and sixty are on air as at October 2009).  There also opportunities for increased community media presence, including video and multi media content, on the web.

The growth of broadband has revolutionised the accessibility and supply of local information and the debate about local television is ongoing.  A multi media community presence is emerging as a vibrant addition to local democracy.

In parallel with this, increasing numbers of community media organisations are engaging with the BBC on a variety of levels.  Working with CMA members has already helped the BBC to move closer to its diversity targets on and off air, improve its connectivity at a local level with audiences and boosted its creative talent base.

We hope that this updated Memorandum of Understanding will help to support current and future working arrangements between community media groups and the BBC in England to ensure that these happen in the best way with the best outcomes, delivering a richer experience for listeners, viewers and online users.

PDF Download.

Radio Teesdale has been selected as the North East Station of the Year
(under 300,000) in the Radio Academy Nations & Regions Awards 2009.

These awards give an opportunity for stations with a Total Survey Area
(TSA) under 300k to be recognised in their branch and to qualify for
the 2010 Sony Radio Academy Awards Station of the Year. This is open
to all types of radio station – community, BBC and commercial.

Fred Marden, Chairman of the North East Radio Academy said, “The award
judges felt that the entry demonstrated strong commitment to and
understanding of its community, with great potential for growth and
development. Radio Teesdale broadcasts a great array of programme
content in many genres, all of which is highly local to their
broadcast area.”

The aim of the awards is to celebrate programming that caters for the
needs of a local or regional UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man
audience. Each regional branch awards one Nations & Regions Award to
the station that the judges feel demonstrated the most consistently
outstanding output.

Radio Teesdale Station Manager said, “We are delighted to receive this
award. It is a great honour for Radio Teesdale to be selected in this
way and to be representing the North East is the process to pick the
National Station of the Year in the  Sony Awards. Our members were
thrilled to hear the news.  It is a great testiment to the hard work
of our members and shows how community radio is having an impact in
our area.”

You can hear Radio Teesdale across the dial on 102.1 and 105.5FM and
on line at http://www.radioteesdale.co.uk

Many features and interviews produced by the station can be replayed on or
downloaded from the Listen Again section, hosted by Canstream, of the Radio
Teesdale web site.

ends.
Photo caption: Jamezy Harrison (left) holds the award alongside Magz,
two young Radio Teesdale presenters with Peter Dixon, Station Manager,
and Fred Marden (rear) of the Radio Academy.

Broadcasting across Teesdale on 102.1 and 105.5FM and online on
http://www.radioteesdale.co.uk

Radio Teesdale – North East Station of the Year in the Radio Academy
Nations & Regions Awards 2009, qualifying Radio Teesdale for the 2010
Sony Radio Academy Awards Station of the Year.

Email: Peter.Dixon@radioteesdale.co.uk

Web: http://www.radioteesdale.co.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/radioteesdale

Radio Teesdale, Enterprise House, Harmire Enterprise Park, Barnard
Castle, County Durham, DL12 8XT
Telephone: 01833 696 750, Fax: 01833 631 909, Mobile: 07831 650917