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Ofcom's Community Radio Fund Panel met on Thursday 18 January to consider applications for the second round of grant awards for 2006/07. A statement from the Panel following this meeting is available at www.ofcom.org.uk/radio/ifi/rbl/commun_radio/Communityfund/grants0607_2/.

Following this meeting, two stations that had been awarded grants informed Ofcom that they would be unable to receive their award. Chelmsford Calling, which had been awarded a grant of £6,000, told Ofcom that the station was going to close. Voice of Africa, which had been awarded a grant of £30,000, told Ofcom that the station would not be able to get on air within the required timeframe (by the end of March 2007). ( It should be noted that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which provides the fund, cannot guarantee that funding can be carried-over to the following financial year if the Panel under-spends.)

This meant that an additional £36,000 was available to the Panel. The Panel therefore decided to award two further grants to stations that had applied during the second round of funding for 2006/07. The applications were considered by the Panel at its meeting of 18 January 2007, and were put on a ‘standby list’ in the event of unpaid grants being returned to the Fund. The two stations selected were Radio Asian Fever and Revival Radio.

An updated summary of the outcome of the 18 January meeting follows:

• £619,807 was available.
• 58 applications were considered along with 3 applications deferred from the first round.
• Funding applications totalled £2,214,569
• 32 applicants were awarded grants which totalled £619,782 (a further two applicants were awarded grants but were subsequently unable to receive their award).
• 27 applicants were not awarded a grant (as referred to above, a further two applicants were awarded a grant but were subsequently unable to receive their award).

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.)

The Panel would like to remind potential applicants for the next round of funding that, in accordance with its previously stated position, 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 for the delivery of activity such as training or marketing.

An updated summary of grants awarded in the second round is listed below.

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
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 Asian Fever	Leeds	Fundraising Officer	£18,600
Radio Ikhlas	Derby	Station Manager	£10,298
Radio Reverb	Brighton	Station Co-ordinator	£24,762
Revival Radio	Cumbernauld	Production Manager	£18,600
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
Insight Radio (formerly VIP ON AIR)	Glasgow	Senior Broadcast Producer	£22,765
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

May 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.

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