Community Radio Fund

What is the Fund for?

The Fund has been established to give grants to help fund the core costs of running Ofcomlicensed community radio stations. These core functions include:

• management
• fundraising to support the station (e.g. grants, commercial funding)
• administration
• financial management & reporting
• community outreach
• volunteer organisation and support

Grants will be made as a single lump sum and must be spent within the Relevant Expenditure Period as defined in the Grant Agreement, which is usually 14 months. Grants are for community radio services that are currently broadcasting.

Grants awarded under the Fund cannot be given for the following:

• Capital expenditure/equipment (for the office, studio, transmission etc.)
• Vehicle costs
• Volunteer expenses
• Cost of building repairs, construction or maintenance
• Programming or marketing costs
• Utility bills
• Rent and/or mortgage payments
• Licence fees or copyright fees (such as PPL/PRS or software fees)
• Fees payable to Ofcom (including but not limited to application and licence fees)
• Retrospective grants i.e. to cover expenditure already incurred
• Costs associated with launching a radio station
• Costs relating to another licence type held by the licensee i.e. a small-scale digital radio multiplex
• Funding for the repayment of loans
• Company directors’ fees
• Costs reimbursed or to be reimbursed by funding from other public authorities or from the private sector
• Interest payments (including service charge payments for finance leases)
• Stautory fines, criminal fines or penalties

How much can we apply for?

There is no limit to how much can be applied for. However, applicants should also take account of the Community Radio Fund Panel’s statements on previous rounds. These include a list of previous grants, the average given in the particular round, and ‘issues of note arising from the Panel meeting’. The latter includes advice for applicants on what the Community Radio Fund Panel (the “Panel”) is looking for as well as common problems with applications.

The statements are on the Community Radio Fund page of our website under the heading ‘recent award of grants’. Applicants should pay particular attention to statements from 2019-20 or before. Please note that the statements provided for the three rounds of emergency funding in 2020-21 are not relevant given the purpose of the funding during this period was particular to the circumstances of that period.

Applicants will need to justify why they require the grant amount that they have applied for and explain what they would do if they do not receive the total amount of funding requested

Application eligibility criteria:

Grants can only be made to community radio stations licensed by Ofcom (stations licensed under the Community Radio (Guernsey) Order 2013 are not eligible for this funding).

C-DSP stations, licensed under the Small-scale Radio Multiplex and Community Digital Radio Order 2019, are now eligible for the Fund in addition to stations licensed to broadcast on AM and FM.

Applicant stations must be on air as at the date of their application for their application to be considered by the Panel. Payment can only be made to stations that have launched.

For analogue community radio stations, there should be a minimum of fifteen months remaining on the licence from the closing date for applications. If there are less than fifteen months remaining on the licence, the licensee must have submitted an extension application to Ofcom by the closing date. C-DSP licences do not have an end date. In either case, we expect the services to continue to broadcast for the full length of the grant tenure Header if an application is successful. Please see the Grant Agreement, which is published on the Ofcom website and will be sent to successful applicants.

Applications can only be submitted by, and awarded to, the licence holding company. The grant must be paid to the bank account of the licence holding company.

There will normally be two rounds of grant awards in each financial year. Normally, if a licensee has received a grant for a particular station in one funding round, that station will not be considered for a further grant under another round in the same financial year. The licensee for such a station can apply in the next year and subsequent years. Licensees which have been awarded a grant in a previous funding round must report on the spending of that grant before submitting a new application. The grant report form is on the Community Radio Fund page of our website.

Joint applications may be submitted by two or more licensees, for example to co-fund a shared post. However, one licensee should be nominated to manage the grant and it will be paid to that company (and not split between two or more).