Community radio is a type of radio
service that caters to the interests of a certain area, broadcasting
material that is popular to a local audience but is overlooked by more
powerful broadcast groups. The term has somewhat different meanings in
the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Australia. In the UK,
it originated in the many illegal pirate radio stations that came about
from the influx of Afro-Caribbean migrants in cities such as London,
Birmingham, Bristol, and Manchester in the 1970s. Therefore, "community
radio" remains synonymous with "pirate radio" for many people there. In
America, community radio is more commonly non-profit and non-commercial,
often using licenced class D FM band transmitters, although pirate radio
outlets have been operated in many places. Canadian and Australian
community stations operate somewhat similarly to their American
counterparts.
Community radio service
Modern-day community radio stations often serve their listeners by
offering a variety of music selections that are not necessarily catered
for by larger corporate radio stations. Community radio outlets may also
carry news and information programming geared toward the local area,
particularly immigrant or minority groups that are underserved by other
media outlets. Unfortunately, when these broadcasters are illegal pirate
radio outlets, they sometimes refuse to respect other legal radio
stations and other entities, such as emergency services, and interfere
with their transmissions. This can give community stations and
conscientious pirate stations an unwarranted disreputable image. Pirate
radio stations can apply for a broadcasting licence but they will
usually need to go off air for a time to present a legal case. Community
stations and pirate stations (where they are tolerated) can be valuable
assets for a region. Community radio stations are aligned with
communities rather than corporations.
The international umbrella organization of Community Radios is AMARC
(Association Mondiale Des Radiodiffuseurs Communautaires).
United Kingdom
"Community radio" has recently been taken up by the radio industry
regulator Ofcom as the name for its proposed 'third tier' of the UK
radio industry. The idea for this new level of radio broadcasting was
piloted by the Radio Authority (now Ofcom) in 2002 with the licensing of
15 "Access radio" stations (now superseded by "community radio"). The
one-year licenses were extended in 2003 for a further year, and in 2004
a consultation was issued by Ofcom on the creation of community radio.
A good example of a modern day community radio station that evolved from
a Pirate radio station from the early 80's can be found at P.C.R.L. or a
direct link here: Reggae Pirate Radio Station
Alternative methods of broadcasting include short-period licences, known
as Restricted Service Licences, allowing community groups and speciai
events to run local area low power stations for up to 28 days, and
webcasting.
The Access Radio Pilot
The Access Radio Pilot, initiated by the UK Radio Authority, was
designed to test the demand for community radio and to see whether such
small-scale radio broadcasting projects were feasible. Some of the
projects targeted a particular community of interest, ranging from
religious and minority groups to children and older people, others such
as Manchester's ALLFM and WythenshaweFM targeted geographical
communities.
Access Stations include:
* Resonance FM - in London, run by the London Musicians Collective.
* Sound Radio - serving a range of groups in Hackney in London.
* BCB 96.7 - serving Bradford's diverse communities, with a mix of
ethnic programming, specialist music and sport.
* Desi Radio - in London, serving the Punjabi community.
* ALLFM96.9 - serving the communities of Ardwick, Longsight &
Levenshulme in Manchester.
* WythenshaweFM - serving the large housing estate of that name in
Manchester.
* Cross Rhythms City Radio - Stoke-on-Trent
See http://ofcom.org.uk for downloads of the two New Voices evaluation
reports of the scheme
The Ofcom Community Radio Consultation
The Ofcom community radio consultation was issued on 17 February 2004.
The consultation gave a brief outline of the Access radio projects, and
made some proposals as to how the new sector would be managed. Included
in the consultation were a series of questions which interested parties
were invited to suggest comments on. These included whether community
radio stations should have a cap of 50% of their income coming from
advertising, and the order and method by which licenses should be
applied for.
The closing date for contributions was 20 April 2004, and since this
date all of the contributions have been published on the Ofcom website.
Ofcom will shortly publish a summary of the responses, and will then
make some decisions on how community radio will progress in the UK.
United States
American community radio stations are often staffed by volunteers and
air a wide variety of programming. They are generally smaller than
public radio outlets. Community radio stations are distinct from public
radio in that their offerings are usually not syndicated programming but
are rather locally produced shows. Community stations often try to
reduce their dependence on financial contributions from corporations in
comparison with other public broadcasters. Some examples of community
stations are WAIF in Cincinnati, Ohio, KGNU [7] in Boulder, Colorado,
WERU in Blue Hill, Maine and WMNF in Tampa, Florida. These stations are
licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, frequently under
low-power broadcasting rules.
While the National Federation of Community Broadcasters [8] is the
umbrella organization for community-oriented, non-commercial radio
stations in general, the Grassroots Radio Coalition[9] is the umbrella
organization just for stations that meet the above definition of
"Community Radio".
Australia
In Australia, community radio is the same to that of the United States,
where stations operate as non-profit organisations, generally funded
through sponsorship and listener subscriptions. One of the most
successful Australian community radio stations is Melbourne's 3RRR. Like
commercial radio stations, community stations need to apply to
Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) for a license to broadcast.
Existing to support and represent community stations nationally is the
Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA), which provides
advice, assistance and also a statelite network so that stations can
share content. A comprehensive list of Australian community broadcasters
is available from CBOnline
