Community Radio Fund: award of grants for 2007/08 Round 1

Published 05|07|07

Ofcom's Community Radio Fund Panel met on Wednesday 20 June to consider applications for the first round of grant awards for 2007/08. In summary, at the time of the meeting:

• £500,000 was available for the financial year 2007/08 (since the Panel met Ofcom has been informed by DCMS that some of the Fund may be used for alternative community media projects)
• 58 applications were considered
• Funding applications totalled £1,796,103.62
• 22 applicants were awarded grants which totalled £304,625
• 31 applicants were not awarded a grant
• Decisions were deferred on the remaining 5 applications

First round of applications for funding in 2007/08

The Panel reviewed each application and awarded funding based on the information provided, and with reference to the Community Radio Fund guidance notes. The Panel’s decisions were for:

• a partial award, or
• deferment of a decision until later in the year, or
• not to award any funding.

The average grant in this round was £13,846, with a maximum of £15,000. Due to the shortage of funding, and the large amount of grants sought, no applicant was awarded the full amount of funding for which they applied.

Some decisions were deferred to the next funding round to be considered later in the year. This is because the applicants were not due to commence broadcasting until early in 2008 (or late in 2007); grants cannot be paid until applicants have commenced broadcasting and must be paid in the same financial year that the award was made, the Panel considered it prudent to consider these applications when there was greater certainty over launch dates.

A table setting out the awards is at the end of this statement.

Issues of note arising from the Panel meeting

The Panel wishes to draw attention to a number of issues that arose during their deliberations. The Panel has fixed no upper limit for grant applications but would expect applicants to take note of the history of applications and awards, which is in the public domain, when considering making future applications. Due to the large number of applications the Panel gave priority to those stations which had not previously received an award. The Panel also took into account the level of need of individual stations.

The Panel was concerned that some applicants appeared to be unaware of the Fund Panel’s priorities as set out in the Panel’s previous statements and the Fund notes of guidance (for example, in the Fund notes of guidance section 1.2 ‘What is the Fund for?’ and Annex A ‘Exclusions List’). The Panel also noted that a number of applications suffered from a lack of clarity in answering some of the questions and that several failed to provide job descriptions.

Priorities

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 focusing on business development and fund-raising. The Panel also believes there is scope for more collaborative working or joint applications from stations.

Applications for the second round of funding in 2007/08

• Applications will be invited on 24 October 2007.
• The closing-date for applications will be four weeks later, i.e. 20 November 2007.
• The Panel will meet to make decisions on these applications on 20 January 2008.
• At the time of publication, Ofcom cannot confirm how much money will be available to the Fund for the second round as Ofcom understands that DCMS may use some of the Fund for alternative community media projects. (At present there is £195,375 remaining in the Fund for 2007/08.)

Applicants are usually eligible to receive funding from only one Community Radio Fund grant round in each financial year, and the Panel will give priority to those applicants who have not received funding in previous years.

Summary of grants awarded in the first round for 2007/08