Lee Gibling

[taken from www.eveningnews24.co.uk]

A community radio station in Norwich is urging people to sign a petition calling for the government to increase funding for small radio stations across the country.

Future Radio wants people to sign the online petition, which follows a letter sent to the Prime Minister by community radio leaders and media scholars and experts, including 60 community radio stations.

The letter called for an increase in the Community Radio Fund, which currently stands at just £500,000 per year and is designed to support more than 150 stations across the UK.

The petition, which will be sent in 10 days’ time, has already reached the top 1pc of all open petitions on the Number 10 petition site, and is at number 42 in the chart, with more than 2500 signatories.

Terry Lee, who presents The Breakfast Show on Future Radio, said that although some of the station’s funding comes from advertising, community radio stations are limited in how much advertising they are allowed to broadcast, and so they rely on money from the Community Radio Fund and grants from other bodied to keep going.

He said: “When community radio was first started, the fund was £500,000 per year for the 14 community stations across the country, but now there are almost 200, and the fund is still the same amount, which doesn’t make sense – we are getting less than one tenth of what they were getting originally.

“We want to increase our funding for the security of the station, and to help us improve our programming and facilities.

“Hopefully the petition will be successful – we know we are doing all we can to promote it, and if other stations around the UK are doing the same then they will have to pay attention.”

Although the Future Project, of which Future Radio is part, was recently given £436,000 by the Big Lottery Fund’s Young People’s Fund, that money has to be spent on a five-year project to create new practical activities to consult with “hard to reach” young people, rather than go towards the general running of the station for the benefit of the community.

To listen to Future Radio, tune in to 96.9FM or visit www.futureradio.co.uk

The petition can be found at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/allthevoices,

and updates on the campaign are available at www.twitter.com/allthevoices