OFCOM Community Radio Fund

Overview

Community radio stations serve a range of local communities across the UK. Fuelled by the hard work and enthusiasm of volunteers, they reflect a diverse mix of cultures and interests and provide a rich mix of mostly locally produced content.

What is the Fund for?

The Fund has been established to give grants to help fund the core costs of running Ofcom licensed 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 can only be made to Ofcom-licensed community radio stations in the UK, broadcasting on AM, FM, or via a Community Digital Sound Programme licence on a digital radio multiplex.

How much can you 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 their website under the heading ‘recent award of grants’. 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.

Who can apply?

1. 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 funding).
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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, they expect the services to continue to broadcast for the full length of the grant tenure if an application is successful. Please see the Grant Agreement, which is published on the Ofcom website and will be sent to successful applicants.
5. 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.
6. 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 their website.
7. 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).

Licensees that hold two or more community radio licences

1. Some licensees may hold an analogue community radio licence and one or more C-DSP licences, or multiple C-DSP licences. These licensees should only make one application to the Fund but be clear in their application which licence(s) the funding applies to.
2. In their application, licensees should be very clear about how a prospective grant would be used across the licences they hold. For example, should a grant be applied for to support a fundraiser role across both an analogue community radio licence and a C-DSP licence, the applicant should make clear in the application the benefits that would be afforded across both licensed services and how the role would support both services effectively.
3. Similarly, because licensees that receive a grant will be required to report on how it has been spent halfway through the grant tenure and after the tenure has finished, these reports would need to evidence how much of a grant has been split across the licences held by an applicant, where relevant, in line with the information provided at the point of application. A grant can only be used for the purpose of meeting costs for which that grant has been awarded, as set out in the Grant Agreement, and cannot be used for any other purposes including costs associated with services launched during the grant tenure.
4. It is, however, important to reiterate in this section that funding cannot be used to support the launch of a new C-DSP service. This is still the case even where only part of the funding would be used for this purpose and the rest of the funding used in line with the purposes listed above.
5. A licensee that simulcasts their community radio service using a DSP licence is only eligible to apply for the Fund where the grant relates to their analogue or digital community radio licence. Applications relating to DSP licences that are not C-DSP licences will not be eligible.
6. If you have specific questions about the restrictions that apply to licensees that hold two or more community radio licences, it is important that you seek clarification from the Community Radio Fund team before you submit your application, ahead of the closing date, via the contact details.