The Best Record a Radio Station could play (Part 1

The Best record a radio station could play

(Part One) by Lee Quinn

These are challenging times for a lot of voluntary organisations, charities, clubs, societies and local groups as we continue our route through the COVID journey.

Finances have been stretched for many local organisations due to being closed whilst some overheads still exist, but funds have been greatly reduced or gone. As Penrith and Eden Valley’s only independent Community Radio station, Eden FM cannot be a charity due to its licencing conditions set by Ofcom, which include that it cannot be a commercial station, and should it sell more than £12,500 worth of on air advertising in its Ofcom accounting year from 1st January to 31st December, it has to match every £1 of on air advertising like for like with £1 of ‘off air’ revenue. To summarise, whilst it has to run as a business with custom built and specialist technical equipment that you tend not to find in a supermarket, much of this equipment is used 24 hours per day and on 365 days of the year and switching it off can actually damage it. As another condition of its Ofcom licence, which it has to renew and re-apply for every five years, it has to be a Not for Profit Ltd by guarantee company. Your community station will be 10 years old this November, since it set off as a part time station in 2011, and through another application process, it then became a full-time station in June 2014. It’s had to raise a lot of funding, and coming through COVID, many of its costs with regards its facility cost, licensing/royalty costs, insurance, IT and comms costs have had to be paid regardless. As Chairman and Director, but also founder of Eden FM, it’s been my task to secure funding, whilst steering the fundraising strategies and also presenting up to four radio shows a week, along with helping out in a lot of other areas. All of my radio functions are as a volunteer.

More recently since the first Lockdown, I have introduced new revenue streams as well as savings. With a background in Commercial Sport as well as radio for almost 20 years, I always looked at how kit, shirt, tracksuit or pitch-side board advertisers can be seen more, not just to the match visitors but in the community around it. Some of these ideas have been applied to Eden FM and a whole load of new ideas are now launching to help us through 2021, whilst making sure our future is secure for 2022 and onwards.

Next year should be a busier time for Eden FM and a lot of organisations. The trouble is we can’t wait and just live in the hope that things will come right so we can all get by. Linking more with organisations around, we hope to move forward, so that when we reach 2022 it is a bonus.

How radical can we be? In order to complete the projects we have, we do need the support of local businesses, which also links to raising funds for other groups and charities supporting us. Easier said than done? Eden FM have already started planning this in July 2021 and made a big start before the August bank holiday weekend.

Continued on pages 16 – 17

Lee, Martin & Kathy