[cr-india] Community radio - a rare success story, Media Guardian(9 March 2009)

Wed Mar 11 17:26:15 IST 2009

While on the face of it we appear to have enough people who could devote time slices to creating content for local radio, I rather think that factors such as poverty do inhibit spontaneous volunteering. Not that people will not help once, it is just that helping regularly involves a different dynamic, and for people living on the edge, that isn't very viable. How many of those 74 average volunteers would turn up selflessly week after week, if they didn't know where the next square meal was coming from?

Also, to a limited extent, years (decades, centuries) of rigidly hierarchical living (which is more or less standard in one form or the other in practically every corner of the country) have made it hard to volunteer for activities that get the forbidding stamp of Someone Else's (with some of the conditions imposed on the newbie stations just to qualify for the precious license, exclusivity comes almost guaranteed as an unwelcome attachment). 

Note that Ofcom also recognises other forms of community radio, such as the one-off three day license that allows radio to be used to locally (in-stadia) broadcast a football or cricket match, or hold a radio art event. These things go a long way in demystifying radio and bringing it into common usage. 

I was going to end it here, but the previous sentence makes me muse that with the continuing and crass lack of radio awareness pulsating within the Corridors of Power, the target for demsystification lies in more cloistered environs than our villages (and educational institutions, who have actually hogged most of those precious 41 - isn't it 42, though? - boons). 

 Vickram
http://communicall.wordpress.com
http://vvcrishna.wordpress.com

________________________________
From: Salvatore Scifo <salvatore.scifo at communitymedia.eu>
To: CR India <cr-india at sarai.net>
Sent: Tuesday, 10 March, 2009 22:11:30
Subject: Re: [cr-india] Community radio - a rare success story, Media Guardian(9 March 2009)

Dear Naimur,
to answer your question (from the UK stations) about average number of 
volunteers, you can find on page 20 of the Ofcom CR report
(link: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radio/ifi/rbl/commun_radio/cr_annualrpt/ 
or 
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radio/ifi/rbl/commun_radio/cr_annualrpt/cr_annualrpt.pdf 
for the reprort)

The Executive summary says
> 1.11 On average each community radio station has 74 volunteers who 
> give a combined total of around 214 hours volunteer time a week per 
> station (just under 3 hours for each volunteer a week). Speech forms 
> around 33% of daytime output, and each station broadcasts around 81 
> hours of original output a week, most of this output is live and the 
> vast majority is locally produced.
Probably your question was about the average no. volunteers in India, 
but thought this might be of help :)

Best Wishes,
Salvo

Naimur Rahman wrote:
>
> Sajan,
>
> We do excel in finding another shoulder to carry our cross! We must 
> remember that almost half of these 124 years, we are a free 
> independent nation – but did not find time to reform an archaic 
> colonial legislation. And we still are not ready to give real ‘voice’ 
> to community. I have failed to understand why most of the ‘functional’ 
> CR stations still struggle for content – and we the civil society 
> interlocutor spend precious time discussing (arguing?) who should 
> source/vet content for CR stations. Would be interesting to know the 
> average no. of volunteers in a CR stations, and how stiff is the 
> difference with our British counterpart.
>
> Naimur
>
> ----
>
> Naimur Rahman
>
> Director, OneWorld South Asia &
>
> GKP Regional Coordinator for South Asia
>
> _New Delhi__ - 110016 INDIA_
>
> Tel: 91 11 41689009
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:* cr-india-bounces at sarai.net [mailto:cr-india-bounces at sarai.net] 
> *On Behalf Of *sajan venniyoor
> *Sent:* 10 March 2009 19:22
> *To:* CR India
> *Subject:* [cr-india] Community radio - a rare success story,Media 
> Guardian (9 March 2009)
>
> The United Kingdom got its CR policy (the Community Radio Order 2004) 
> two years /after /India got its first CR policy in 2002. They now have 
> 130 CR stations, with 50 waiting to launch. This, in a country smaller 
> than Andhra Pradesh, smaller than Maharashtra, smaller than Madhya 
> Pradesh, smaller than Rajasthan; on an island where there's scarcely a 
> frequency left on their crowded FM dial.
>
> Seven years and two CR policies later, we have 41 CR stations, with 
> 170 waiting without much hope for something to happen.
>
> Maybe India isn't ready for 'Gaydio' (!) or Christian hip-hop yet, but 
> our CR stations should also note that their British counterparts 
> deliver on average 81 hours of "original and distinctive output" every 
> week, have 74 volunteers per station and are generally meeting their 
> costs.
>
> And to think it's the same perfidious Albion which gave us the Indian 
> Telegraph Act 1885 and sc**wed us over for 124 years...
>
> Sajan
>
> --------
>
> [From creative-radio: thanks to Salvatore Scifo for the link]
>
> COMMUNITY RADIO - A Rare Success Story
>
> John Plunkett, Guardian.co.uk <http://Guardian.co.uk> (blog), 9 Mar 2009
>
> Community radio was today hailed as a triumph by the media regulator, 
> Ofcom, but is the new breed of volunteer-run stations filling the void 
> in local programming that commercial radio has left?
>
> There are now more than 130 community radio stations across the UK, 
> with another 50 preparing to launch. Although, given current economic 
> conditions, it remains to be seen how many of those will actually take 
> to the air.
>
> But with commercial radio in the doldrums, any radio success story 
> outside the BBC is to be celebrated.
>
> The not-for-profit stations are required by Ofcom to deliver "social 
> gain to one or more communities" in their local area, with stations 
> catering for urban music fans (New Style in Birmingham), experimental 
> music aficionados (London's Resonance FM), the armed forces (Garrison 
> FM in Edinburgh) and religious communities (Cross Rhythms in Stoke on 
> Trent).
>
> Ofcom says the community stations are "generally meeting their costs", 
> with the average station costing £101,000 to run, with average station 
> income also at £101,000. Well, they are supposed to be not for profit.
>
> But it is worth noting, as Ofcom does, that the figures for the median 
> station are somewhat lower, with operating costs of £64,500 and income 
> of £65,500, suggesting that a small number of stations earn - and cost 
> - significantly more than the majority.
>
> Community radio relies on a huge band of volunteers - an average of 74 
> a station, according to Ofcom - delivering a total of more than 
> 100,000 volunteer hours a month. In return, some of them get training 
> and qualifications that they would not receive elsewhere in the sector.
>
> But how much can community radio provide the "local factor" that will 
> inevitably go missing from the big commercial radio stations as they 
> turn their back on locally produced content and heritage station names 
> in favour of syndicated programming and national brands?
>
> Announcing Ofcom's first annual report of community radio today, Peter 
> Davies, Ofcom's director of radio policy, said community radio was a 
> "real success story".
>
> "It delivers rich and varied content to listeners and provides 
> additional benefits through community involvement and training.
>
> "In just over three years, 130 stations have sprung up across the 
> length and breadth of the UK ... We are delighted that interest from 
> those wishing to run such stations for their own communities remains 
> high."
>
> Each community radio station provides 81 hours of "original and 
> distinctive output", according to Ofcom, with most of it locally produced.
>
> To protect the revenue of existing commercial stations, community 
> broadcasters are barred from raising more than 50% of their income 
> from on-air advertising and sponsorship - it currently stands at 18% - 
> with the majority of their backing coming from public sources such as 
> local authorities.
>
> Less than 15% of the UK population - around 6.5 million adults - are 
> able to receive a community radio station aimed broadly at them, says 
> Ofcom. The shortage of FM frequency availability hasn't helped this, 
> although the process of "digital migration" - you probably shouldn't 
> hold your breath - may one day free up extra spectrum.
>
> My earliest experience of community radio was more than a decade ago, 
> when I covered the launch of the Rochester-based Medway FM in north 
> Kent. One of the joys was hearing about local news and events, which 
> were never covered by BBC Radio Kent, even though it was based just 
> down the road.
>
> But it didn't have the newsgathering resources of the local newspaper 
> - I admit it, I was working for it - and the amateurish presentation 
> quickly moved on from endearing to irritating.
>
> Still, Medway FM has moved on since then - its office is now a wine 
> bar and the newsroom a ladies' loo - and so has community radio, with 
> the current band first licensed in 2004.
>
> Do you work in community radio? Do you listen to it? Is it in danger 
> of being left behind by digital radio - or are the current stresses 
> and strains of the commercial sector community radio's biggest 
> opportunity yet?
>
> Source: 
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/mar/09/community-radio-ofcom-plunkett-blog 
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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