Seven of new stations can’t sell ads

02/05/2012 - 13:40 | 14 Replies More

Seven of the twelve community radio stations awarded licences last month for Wales and South West England will not be be allowed to sell advertising or take commercial sponsors.

Ofcom has published the reasons for its decisions to award the 12 new licences, and the restrictions placed on just over half of them are because they’re in areas where there is a commercial radio station with a TSA under 150,000.

The following licences were awarded during April:

Access FM, Bridgwater, Somerset
Air, Weymouth, Dorset
Apple FM, Taunton, Somerset
Bay FM Radio, Exmouth, Devon
Glan Clwyd AM, Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire
Harlech FM, Harlech, Gwynedd
MônFM, Isle of Anglesey
Pulse Radio, Cheddar Valley, Somerset
Q-mmunity Radio, Crediton, Devon
Radio Beca, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and north Pembrokeshire
Tone FM, Taunton, Somerset
The Voice, Barnstaple, Bideford & Ilfracombe, North Devon

Access FM, Apple FM, Pulse Radio, Q-mmunity Radio and Tone FM will be allowed to take advertising and sponsorship revenue as long as it doesn’t account for more than 50% of its annual income, as per the regulations for most community radio stations in the UK.

However, Air, Bay FM Radio, Glan Clwyd AM, Harlech FM, MônFM, Radio Beca and The Voice will each have a condition in their licence prohibiting income from the sale of advertising or programme or station sponsorship. This is because the expected coverage of each service falls within the coverage area of a local commercial radio service which has fewer than 150,000 adults living in its measured coverage area. In the case of Air it is Wessex FM; for Bay FM Radio it is Radio Exe; for Glan Clwyd AM it is Heart (North Wales Coast); for both Harlech FM and MônFM it is Heart FM (Anglesey & Gwynedd), for Radio Beca it is both Radio Pembrokeshire and Radio Ceredigion and for The Voice it is Heart (Devon).

Under current legislation, community radio services in such areas are prevented from seeking advertising and programme or station sponsorship revenue if the coverage of the two stations overlaps by 50% or more in terms of adult (15+) population.

You can read more about what each of the 12 licences are expected to deliver as part of their formats on the Ofcom website.


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Category: Community Radio News

  • Joewillis

    Fuck ofcom and fuck this system!

  • Tracey Wallis

    I have to say I don’t understand a lot of what goes on in these things but surely the entire area that Heart Devon covers is more that 150,000 adults (although many of us don’t listen to it because it is not relevent to us and boring!) This sounds rubbish to me. WE LOVE THE VOICE!!!!!

  • Radio Geordie

    Totally agree with Tracey Wallis.  How can OFCOM justify a nationally broadcast service as a local service when its local in licence terms only.  Heart currently broadcasts across the whole of Devon and as from Monday (May 7th) will expand into a regional service when it absorbs Atlantic with the little local programming from next week being referred to as Heart Devon & Cornwall.
    In fact, the only ultra-local outout these days comes in the form of the ad breaks, but even 90% of them are block booked nationally and advertise national companies, muscleing out the little independant local businesses.
    National is the new local if the Radio Corporations are to be believed which is total bullshit.
    If anyone can remember a short-lived Satellite rock service from nearly 20 years back called EKR, they launched but rubbishing radio stations who listen to the men in suits instead of the listeners.  They (the so called Programme Controllers) said, they didn’t have to ask the listeners how they felt about changing the way the station sounded.  They said they didn’t need to.  That’s why nearly 20 years on, we have radio stations churning out shit 24/7 to keep the shareholders happy and why we have a regulator who, when the big radio companies want something, basically bend over, drop their pants and brace themselves for a good shafting.
    By the way Tracey, the last Rajars list BBC Devon’s audience (which is almost idential to Heart Devon’s at present) as a TSA of 975,000 adults.  As from next week, you can add another 454,000 to that total.

    • Shane1994

      I agree with your comment in so many ways, although Id say that actually local radio is now community radio, honestly I can’t remember the last time I went to a town that had a local commercial station, used to be loads but theyve all networked, Heart, Capital, KMFM, all networked across counties or across the country even.

      It benifits local businesses to get airplay on truely local stations local to a specific town, as for countywide or countrywide stations? nah I doubt the guy who runs that little store on the corner and has a low income could match the price the national companies are offering for advertising.

      For whatever reason (most likely costcutting) local commercial stations are a thing on the past, the only way to get local radio nowadays is through community radio programming, with this in mind more should be done to enable community stations to stay afloat.

  • Northernoik

    radio in the UK is a joke. i live on lanzarote which has a population of roughly 120,000. we have 35 commercial stations who seem to do ok on small revenues. there are 4 english language stations who broadcast to about 8000 english speaking listeners and do ok on the limited budget they have. to be honest they are far better than the crap that counts as local radio in the UK.  why has the UK never had such diversity ?

  • Dan Dean

    Lets be honest, Community Radio is the “new” Hospitol Radio, in some cases a training ground for would be radio people, ok if the trainers are experienced and know what they are doing, in some cases this does happen, and some “local” services do sound ok and provide a service that SOME mainly elderly people want as it makes them feel that they are in touch.
    Problem is…the 85-90% of these stations which are total crap…some with no listeners at all…run by people who are not good enough to get a job at a “Real”radio station…who want to play “their” type of music which they feel has an audiance , to their friends and family…IE Rock, Northern Soul…..because outside their circle no ine else gives a toss about…….and worst still they get Goverment handouts to keep going ,
    They should be like any other business,live and die on the quality of what they provide.

    • Little-hobbit

      Sadly for the most part this entirely true (there of course are some expections).

      Commercial radio is there to make money, that is the sole purpose, it’s a business and it will do everything it feels will make a maximum return. For example, Stagecoch run buses which they intend to be as full as possible, they are not in the business for fun or even for some deep down desire to serve people. It’s just those passengers help them generate revenue!

      If you require a service which deliveries public qualities, you need a public service broadcaster. So lobby the government to ensure the BBC says in public hands and does it’s job in an effective manor while serving public demand. Simples!

    • dstrachan

      in which case they should be allowed to attempt to sell advertising – these 85-90% of stations would surely have great difficulty attracting advertising revenue and sponsorship – those who could gain financial support from commercial sources would have less call for any ‘handouts’

    • Howie B

      Dan, if you don’t like them, don’t listen. Who’s  tell anyone they can’t broadcast just because they want to play a genre of music that doesn’t fit in with what the suits who run commercial radio today dish out to us. If you are a hot shot jock on one of these commercial stations well done you. I don’t like classical but I wouldn’t shut R3 or Classic FM down. I don’t much care for talk radio but I defend the right of talk sport to be on the air. The FCC in America have a very refreshing approach to community radio. Over there it’s all about maintaining standards and preventing interference, not propping up vested interests. 

  • David

    It,s just a matter of time before all community radio is prohibiting from takeing advertising & sponsorship .It,s time community radio was properly funded ?

  • Paul France

    The TSAs of Community Radio Stations are very small, couple this with small, or non existent community radio sales teams compared to larger Commercial Radio Stations, the revenue from advertising is not that high.

    It is possible for Community Radio Stations to survive from funding and donations alone, this model though means they will survive only on a shoe string. To run a station properly you need approximately 2 to 3 full time staff to look after product, sales, admin and general management, governance of the station (recent breaches highlight the importance of this).

    Questions that need answering are:

    Does the present government, really, support Community Radio?
    How does the government see Community Radio’s role and in its present model is it sustainable, taking into account present and predicted economic circumstance?
    Do listeners see Community Radio Stations as hubs to enhance communities, offering training and opportunities not present elsewhere, or as another choice of radio station that they wecome because it feels more local than some of the larger commercial stations?
    What should the focus be, broadcasting vs training and consultancy, or feeding revenue into local charities and projects?
    Do you need a broadcast licence to offer training and consultancy?
    What quality standards do listners expect, taking into account presenters in training?

    One last point: whether people like it or not, Community Radio Stations have to be seen as businesses (not for profit). Put simply if radio stations don’t make as much money as they are spending they go out of business.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Butcher/503166108 John Butcher

    Another bad result for community radio by ‘head in the sand band’ of cowboys they call Ofcom. They allow the big boys to do what they want whilst screwing the minnows as tightly as possible because they know they can! As for Dan Dean he must have his head in the same sand as Ofcom and he obviously hasn’t listened to many community stations. In most cases they are doing the job that commercial radio was originally set up for in the seventies. If they were given a bit more slack by Ofcom to cover slightly larger areas with the ability to raise money solely by advertising improvement would come, however they have to be given the chance which Ofcom seem frightened to give them.
    Mr Dean would do well to remember that a lot of top radio jocks started life in hospital radio in the 60′s & 70′s and they brought a lot of pleasure to patients they broadcast to.   

    • Dan Dean

      I am sorry Mr Butcher but i have listened to a number of these stations and stand by what i say…if they are that good why do they not have any listeners?..why are they always going to the wall…. its foolish to compere these tiny stations with 70s / 80s ILR as the ball game is diffrent and so they cant be of the same quality though that is not their fault as the two concepts cannot be compared.., and that 70s / 80s style is not relevent to the market place today, in know because i spent 30 years both in ILR and BBC  in senior positions and started in Hospital Radio,    The reason i compere H.R. an Community Radio is that its fine within the Hospital walls, and long may it continue, but is not good enough to be  broadcast outside on a transmitter,…..we dont live in a world of corner shops anymore..it’s Tesco ….In sport people only follow winners….the audiance figures prove that today people dont care where their radio comes from,sorry but it is a corporate world and radio has to reflect that….and  even if some of these stations were given slack by Ofcom , who would buy the product, who would want to spend money with them , that is the question…..there are to many of them for one thing

  • Rob Wheeler

    This just another saga in a long history of the corporate tail wagging the regulator dog. It’s so easy to cry conspiracy, but what other possible explanation can there be for such blatant restrictions being imposed on the one thing that could allow a well organised compliant local community, that of being able to advertise.

    Very valid point raised by Tracy Wallis. Heart in Devon is London produced and fed for the majority of each 24 hour period. How is that local and how can Ofcom / the government continue to ignore the unfairness of the current legislation between community and commercial licenses?

    It is well recognized that current corporate-lead commercial radio is virtually national commercial radio through the back door in many areas. So how is that really serving any truly local commitment to the listeners?

    It’s outrageous that after the amount of hard work, planning and investment that these new community stations have no doubt undertaken, they are now not allowed to seek funding for their service through truly local advertising.

    It should never have been down to an elitist decision in the first place.

    There needs to be an urgent and meaningful review of this whole situation sooner than later.

    Lord help us if Ofcom get their claws into online services.

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