archive 2004

The UK has come a step closer to having a new tier of radio stations run by and for local communities, with the laying of legislation in Parliament.

 

If agreed by both Houses, the Community Radio Order, which follows public consultation, will pave the way for the media regulator, Ofcom, to advertise community radio licences.

 

Once awarded a licence, budding radio broadcasters throughout the UK will be able to bid to Ofcom for cash from a half a million pound fund to set up and run their own radio stations.

 

Community radio will complement existing independent local radio stations.  It gives the local community the opportunity to train and gain experience as broadcasters and learn other transferable skills.  It can help tackle social exclusion and encourage community development. It can act as a conduit for getting messages across to otherwise hard to reach audiences about important community services. 

 

Announcing the Order, Media Secretary Tessa Jowell, said:

 

"Community radio is an exciting new tier of not-for-profit radio broadcasting for the UK, which will complement the existing independent local radio stations.  It offers a whole range of potential benefits including training, volunteering, regeneration, and social inclusion.

 

"As Professor Anthony Everitt said in his evaluation of community radio, "New Voices", community radio 'promises to be the most important new cultural development in the United Kingdom for many years."

 

 

 

1.   The Order can be accessed at http://www.culture.gov.uk/broadcasting/community_radio.htm

2.   Community radio is a new tier of not-for-profit radio, which will be different from, and complementary to, existing independent local radio.  It offers potential benefits in terms of social inclusion, local education, training and experience and wider access for communities to broadcasting opportunities. Community radio stations can be part funded from advertising. However, the Order includes restrictions about where community radio stations can be set up and the amount of advertising and sponsorship they can take, in order to "not prejudice unduly the economic viability" of the commercial radio sector throughout the UK. 

 

3.   Since 2001, the Radio Authority has been administering a pilot of 16 community radio stations (then known as access radio stations) across the UK.  The independent evaluation undertaken by Professor Anthony Everitt, Visiting Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at Nottingham Trent University, on behalf of the Radio Authority, was published in March 2003 and showed that the pilot stations were generally performing very well and producing social gain. Professor Everitt concluded that community radio 'promises to be the most important new cultural development in the United Kingdom for many years'.  Professor Everitt's report, 'New Voices', can be found on the Ofcom website http://www.ofcom.org.uk.

 

4.   The Communications Act 2003 allows for the creation of a new tier of radio, by Order, and grants to be paid by Ofcom. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport consulted on a draft of the Community Radio Order.  Responses are available on the Department's website http://www.culture.gov.uk/radio/radio_consultation_response.html

 

5.   On 5 March 2004, the Secretary of State announced that £0.5 million had been made available to community radio stations.

 

6.   Ofcom will shortly be publishing revised guidance on licensing community radio which will be available on their website www.ofcom.org.uk

 

7.   Community radio stations will be bound by the Ofcom News and Current Affairs Code and Programme Code, which includes rules on impartiality and accuracy of news, and its Advertising and Sponsorship Code.