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Community Radio Fund: award of grants for 2006/07 Round 2

Ofcom's Community Radio Fund Panel met on Thursday 18 January to consider applications for the second round of grant awards for 2006/07. In summary, at the time of the meeting:

£619,807 was available.
58 applications were considered along with 3 applications deferred from the first round.
Funding applications totalled £2,214,569
33 applicants were awarded grants which totalled £618,582.
28 applicants were not awarded a grant.

The total Fund for the year 2006/07 was £830,000. (Initially there was £450,000 in this year’s Fund, from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). However, funding not distributed in previous years was added to the Fund for this year.)

In the first grant round for 2006/07 the Panel awarded grants totalling £229,063. However, subsequently one group advised Ofcom that it would be unable to launch before the end of the financial year (31 March 2007). Therefore the award was withdrawn and the funding reallocated by the Panel. The group will be able to apply to the Fund in the next round, if it wishes.

Second round of applications for funding in 2006/07

The Panel reviewed each application and awarded funding based on the information provided, and with reference to the Community Radio Fund guidance notes. The Panel’s decisions were for:

a full award, or
a partial award, or
not to award any funding.

A table setting out the awards is at the end of this statement.

Issues of note arising from the Panel meeting

The Panel wishes to draw attention to a number of issues that arose during their deliberations. The Panel has fixed no upper limit for grant applications but would expect applicants to take note of the history of applications and awards which is in the public domain when considering making future applications.

Date of station launch

Grants can be paid only to stations that hold a community radio licence (i.e. are actually broadcasting) in the same financial year that the funding award is made. If the Panel makes a grant to a station that then fails to start broadcasting in the same financial year, the money is potentially lost to community radio. A large number of applicants in this round were not on air at the time of the Panel meeting, and the Panel was concerned that they might fail to get on air in time.

Funding rules

A number of applicants did not take account of the requirement contained in the legislation and community radio licences that no more than 50% of funding is permitted to come from one source. In several cases, an award from the Community Radio Fund for the sum requested would have breached this rule.

Priorities

The Panel wishes to continue to make grants for core activities, particularly to newly- licensed stations, in line with guidance from DCMS. The Panel considers promoting long-term sustainability a critical, core activity, and will take special note of innovative proposals that have this aim,such as those focussing on business development and fund-raising. The Panel also believes there is scope for more collaborative working or joint applications from stations.

Applications for funding in 2007/08

Applications will be invited on Thursday 19 April 2007
The closing-date for applications will be four weeks later, i.e. Wednesday 16 May
The Panel will meet to make decisions on these applications on 20 June 2007.

A further round of applications will be invited in October 2007, with a closing date in November, and decisions in January 2008 (dates to be confirmed).

Applicants are usually eligible to receive funding from only one Community Radio Fund grant round in each financial year, and the Panel will give priority to those applicants who have not received funding in previous years.

Summary of grants awarded in the second round for 2006/07

Station	Location	Purpose	Amount
103.7FM TGR Sound	Bexley	Development Manager	£15,000
ALL FM	Manchester	Community Participation Manager Technician	£10,372.44 £8,205
Angel Radio	Isle of Wight	Station Manager	£12,500
Awaz FM	Glasgow	Project Manager * National Community Radio project	£20,000 £6,980
BCB 106.6FM	Bradford	Director * National Community Radio project	£17,070 £6,980
Bristol Community FM	Bristol	Station Manager	£29,675
Castledown Radio	Tidworth, Wiltshire	Business Development Manager	£15,610
Chelmsford Calling	Chelmsford , Essex	Accountancy fees Fundraising Officer	£1,500 £4,500
Cheshire FM	Mid-Cheshire	Station Manager	£28,500
Chorley FM	Chorley, Lancashire	Community/Diversity Officer	£14,970
Crescent Community Radio	Rochdale	Station Manager	£21,549
Diverse FM	Luton	Business Development Manager	£18,000
Down FM	Downpatrick , Northern Ireland	Community & Content Co-ordinator	£9,250
Forest of Dean Community Radio	Gloucestershire	Station Manager * National Community Radio project	£22,400 £6,300
HFM	Market Harborough, Leicestershire	Head of News & Community Liaison Officer	£24,000
Leith FM	Leith	Business Development Manager	£7,500
Lionheart Radio	Alnwick, Northumberland	Programme Co-ordinator	£23,625
NuSound Radio	London	Station Manager	£18,048
Phoenix FM	Brentwood	Station Manager	£20,304
Radio Ikhlas	Derby	Station Manager	£10,298
Radio Reverb	Brighton	Station Co-ordinator	£24,762
Skyline Community Radio	Eastleigh , Hampshire	Station Manager	£19,600
Sound Radio	Hackney, London	Fundraiser/Management development * National Community Radio project	£20,000 £6,980
Sunny Govan Community Radio	Glasgow	Broadcast Assistant	£5,000
Takeover Radio	Leicester	Trust Manager	£17,000
Tempo 107.4FM	Wetherby, West Yorkshire	Project Organiser	£26,000
Unity FM	Birmingham	Studio Manager/Development Worker	£18,900
VIP ON AIR	Glasgow	Senior Broadcast Producer	£22,765
Voice of Africa	London	Station Manager	£30,000
WCR FM	Wolverhampton	Manager	£18,500
WHCR FM	Hull	Project Director	£15,000
Wythenshawe FM	Wythenshawe, Manchester	Station Manager * National Community Radio project	£13,959 £ 6,980

January 2007

*The Panel awarded funding to five stations for a joint project to support community radio stations at a regional level. This project will operate in five areas - Yorkshire, London, the west of England, the north-west of England and Scotland - and will be run by the regional partners. It will encourage regional collaboration and facilitate networking, training and information sharing. Participation will be open to all stations in the region concerned. The regional working groups will then feed into a national working group for community radio broadcasters. This collaborative project will also aim to raise the profile of community radio amongst the general public.