The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has awarded €20,000 to community radio & TV services through the BAI Community Broadcasting Support Scheme.
Liffey Sound 96.4FM, Claremorris Community Radio, Flirt FM, Wired FM, Near FM and Phoenix FM will all benefit from the funding, along with Cork Community Television.
The Scheme is specifically designed to offer funding support to community and community of interest broadcasters to enable them to further advance from an organisational development perspective and is open to all fully licensed community and community of interest TV and radio stations across the country.
Total funding of €20,350 is being offered to the seven stations. The types of initiatives being funded include an internal organisational review; a study to facilitate transition from a completely voluntary service to a service run by a mix of paid staff and volunteers; an external evaluation to inform the development of a five year strategic plan; two projects addressing listenership and stakeholder research; an evaluation of current affairs programming; and, a review of interactions with groups in the community;
Speaking about the announcement, Michael O’Keeffe, Chief Executive of the BAI said: “The Community Broadcasting Support Scheme offers stations a valuable opportunity to take stock and conduct research, reviews and evaluations that can help the stations to ensure that they are addressing both the needs of the communities they serve but also the needs of the hundreds of dedicated volunteers and staff around the country who support the operation of the stations.”
Full details of the stations receiving the awards below:
Liffey Sound 96.4FM
Liffey Sound 96.4FM will commission a research report to explore and learn from other community stations that have made the transition from being exclusively voluntary organisations to ones with a mix of volunteers and paid staff. The research findings will be used to prepare best practice approaches for such transitions and will be shared with other community stations.
Flirt FM
Flirt FM will undertake an internal review of its organisation to evaluate the operations, structures, and capacity of the service and the community it serves. The outcomes of the review will inform the development of a 3-5 year strategic plan for the station.
Claremorris Community Radio Ltd
Claremorris Community Radio proposes to undertake an external evaluation to inform the development of a 5 year plan for the service. The consultation process will seek to elicit views and feedback from a wide variety of community groups.
Wired FM
Wired FM will commission external research and hold meetings with focus groups to engage with listeners and stakeholders across the three Limerick student campuses that the station serves. The outcomes of the research will be used to inform the programming and operational approaches of the station and assist in the development of the stations next three year plan.
Near FM
Near FM will undertake an evaluation of the stations current affairs programming. The evaluation will involve station personnel and the outcomes will assist in the development of a training plan.
Phoenix FM
Phoenix FM will carry out an evaluation of how the station is serving its target audience. The evaluation will comprise of a community survey and consultation meetings. The outcomes of the consultation will inform the stations future programming and operational approaches.
Cork Community Television
Cork Community Television will conduct an external review of its operations with community groups in order to gauge the public perception and awareness of Cork Community TV. The evaluation will also seek to highlight the opportunities for and challenges to community engagement.
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