The Digital Hub of Erik Anderson
Posts tagged Community Radio
Survival of The Fittest
Apr 27th
Justin already spoke about this panel, and I don’t have too much more to add except for a few minor comments.
This panel focused on community radio in foreign countries, mostly England and New Zealand. From what I gathered, in England, the BBC has a good lock on radio. They are the government agency that owns radio stations in England. They really don’t want little community radio stations being setup in England. They are like the Clear Channel of England except they are government controlled.
There seems to be a listener demand for community radio in England. Those stations even cross-promote what the BBC is doing on their stations. The BBC contends that community takes away from their audience and fights tooth and nail to try and prevent more stations from being setup.
Overall an interesting panel.
Day 5: Community vs. Big Radio
Apr 27th
This panel focused on the differences between commercial (”Big”) radio and its non-profit and community oriented alternatives. Big radio offers “cheap and exploitative” content but is financially profitable. On the filp end of the spectrum is community radio, which WXOU might fall under, tries to focus on local issues and providing content that is relevant to listeners lives, however, they are often not financially stable. Indeed, if WXOU were not a part of Oakland University, it likely would not exist.
There are 2 levels of sustainability:
1) Social – being relevant to the community
2) Commercial – Gettin’ Paid
As one can imagine, small radio stations often have more social sustainability than financial and vice versa. Community Radio is cited as having distinct features from big radio:
1) Small scale, non-profit
2) Social gain, and community benefit
3) Defined by location of niche interest
This was in interesting panel, however many of the ideas presented would likely not work in America as many of the presenters were from the UK and New Zealand, places where broadcasting laws are vastly different – it was interesting to see those countries focusing on community though and it would be interesting to see a focus on that in America.