Congratulations to the latest community radio licencees

Ofcom today announces the award of five new community radio licences, to: SFM (Sittingbourne, Kent), Gateway FM (Basildon, Essex), Insanity (Egham, Surrey), Kane FM (Guildford, Surrey), The Vibe (Watford). Details of the new community radio licensees can be found here: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2010/01/nr_20100224

Managing Radio - a new publication

Three authors (Brian Lister, Caroline Mitchell and Tony O'Shea), have come together to write 'Managing Radio' which is available to order from this website. The book is a practical guide to the management of a radio station and is the first to include the community sector.

We feel this goes some way to augment the information on the toolkit and are pleased to see the community sector being written about both theoretically and practically. You can download this Word document which has further information about the book.

Community radio licence extensions

Information has now been published about the process for extending your community radio licence. You can read about it at the Ofcom website. Presently, this will only effect stations which have been running since 2005 and are at the end of their five year period. If you are one of these stations, you should have received correspondence from Ofcom alerting you about renewal. For all other stations, you will receive a letter in good time allowing you to re-apply within the timeframe. You may want to read up about the process in advance so you're prepared.

Ofcom Community Radio Fund - round two results announced

The panel recently met to consider applications for the second round of grants. You can read more about the awards made and thoughts about those which were rejected along with the highest grant made on this page.

Funding page available - updated page

There are quite a few funding opportunities with imminent closing dates. Instead of listing them separately, we've created this page for you to see grants which may be appropriate for your project.

If you see any grants which aren't listed on this page, please email toolkit@radioregen.org and it will be added.

Sony Radio Academy Nations and Regions Awards

The final list of winners for stations with a TSA of less than 300,000 has now been released. These winners will go forward for the 'Station of the Year' award to be announced at the Academy Awards later this Spring (see the events boxed text). Three community stations have been awarded around the regions; Radio Teesdale, Resonance FM and WHCR FM. Congratulations. We reported that Radio Teesdale were selected as the North East Station of the Year (under 300,000) in the Radio Academy Nations & Regions Awards 2009 in December. You can read their press release and see them picking up their award here.

DEC Haiti Appeal

If you would like to broadcast the DEC Haiti appeal, raising money for the relief effort following the recent earthquake, this audio can be downloaded [WAV 2Mb] by right clicking the link and selecting 'save link as'. To listen to it online, refer to this streaming version.(MP3 audio)

Many thanks to Siren FM and ALL FM for finding it and making it available. Deborah at Siren FM has produced some scripts for your use should you wish to make your own advert. All three scripts are contained in this Word document. Radio Centre cleared material is now available in this zip folder. Thanks to Alex from 2 Lochs Radio in Gairloch. The folder also contains a transcript, sent by Gina at ALL FM, from a Key 103 interview with Pete Stevenson, part of the UKISARteam in Haiti. This is available for use by contacting Corporate Communications, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service on 0161 608 4092.

Make Media Survey

Below is a survey on your thoughts about the proposed Make Media Centre in Salford. Please, if you have not already, complete this for us, even if you are nowhere near the North West, as it will both assist the development of this particular project and also give us ammo to give to you in other parts of the UK to persuade funders to set up similar projects in your area. NB none of the project activity proposed for the Make Media Centre will displace current activity in the community media sector - additionality not displacement is crucial to its success.

The survey takes only 5 minutes to complete: http://tinyurl.com/MMC-CM-organisations. We also invite you to a Stakeholder event on 27 November in Salford, for more info please see the Make Media flyer. To book a place: http://www.makemediacentre.eventbrite.com/

With thanks, Jaqui Devereux & Phil Korbel

Ed Richards Goes North

On Wednesday November 4th, Ed Richards, the Chief Executive of Ofcom, visited WythehshaweFM97.2 in Manchester. It was very much an informal 'look-see' and Ed plainly enjoyed seeing the station and meeting members of the team there. He also selected a request played on the Breakfast Show - Florence And the Machine as it happens.

Staff from nearby Pure FM, Tameside Radio and Gaydio also joined in a discussion of community radio policy with Ed, who showed a genuine enthusiasm for the sector. He said it was one of Ofcom's great successes and that when he was helping draft the Communications Act (when he worked at No.10) he couldn't have dreamed how popular an initiative it would prove to be. At the end of the visit Ed was interviewed by one of the Toolkit authors, Phil Korbel, and he talked about his own enthusiasm for the sector, its strengths, weaknesses and regulatory future.

Download the recording(MP3 audio) [6.97Mb] or stream it [recording duration 07:37].