Page 31 - Winter 2025

Institution of Electronics News

personality and their stories come to the fore. They and by the end of 2024 over 300 locations and
can add their intrinsic musical and literary abilities. organisations have been licensed. Most multiplexes
Some people also develop creative skills in producing have 10 to 30 channels and usually include at least
programmes, in various styles, on a wide variety of one licensed local community radio station. Digital
topics. radio gives crystal clear sound but in urban situations
there are deep shadows.
Once located in Rock Ferry, Flame CCR started
OBSERVATIONS FROM 25 YEARS OF broadcasting on the internet. Initially via Radioplayer Flame CCR has operated on the Liverpool DAB
as well as via our own website wwww.flameradio.org. multiplex since its 2023 switch-on. Broadcasting
COMMUNITY RADIO OPERATION Publicity helped create a UK-wide (and a world-wide from St John’s Beacon in central Liverpool and
audience) and this was helped by the 2021 advent from Woolton, Liverpool gives a coverage area of
2000 TO 2025 - FLAME CCR (CHRISTIAN AND COMMUNITY RADIO) of https as a secure version of http internet protocol. Merseyside, including most of Wirral, our studio
Ironically it was also helped by a severe storm in 2021 location. This is a large increase in our original
which took our MW service out of action for 8 months. coverage.
Internet broadcasting became an alternative option
A fundamental piece of “kit” is the broadcasting
for the reception of Flame CCR locally so to make it
desk. Our personal experience is for audio quality
easier for listeners an APP was made available, and
and long-term reliability, the good old (analogue)
this has had a large take up since 2022. Hence Flame
desks are the best. Hence, we have used for the past
CCR became “on-line”.
15 years a broadcasting desk that was first used in
Only short term radio broadcasting licences a month, at Easter and in September, until Easter 2007
Computers offer faster transfer rates, and storage a commercial radio station in the 1980s. Our other
were available in the 1990s for special events building up experience and capability.
becomes bigger (in a smaller space). Playout desk was first used by BBC Manchester in the 1990s.
(Telecommunications Act 1984). The onset of
Ofcom were very slow (resource limited) in advertising software enables long playlists to be set up with However, the time has now come to go digital with
digital communications, computer based, in the
full time licences but by the end of 2009 over 250 selection and control of broadcasting around the a very flexible, small profile desk that will give more
late 1990s enabled small independent groups of
community groups had started broadcasting full- clock. Communications via internet now enables space for people in the studio.
people to undertake short term broadcasting and
time (including Flame CCR). Licensed groups had to remote control of equipment plus remote (home)
hence gain experience in broadcasting outside Funding of Community Radio is also difficult because
be a registered charity/company. To be fair, Ofcom studio operation. Quoting some numbers, 500
of the conventional BBC base. Hence there was grant opportunities die away with time, and although
also had frequency planning responsibilities, and the Gigabyte enables Flame CCR to store 56,000 music
much pressure from the general public for the advertising revenue is allowable, proof of listenership
BBC retained hold of over half of the FM frequency tracks and 9,000 hours of programmes.
opening of full-time broadcasting to community is not easy. But community operation engenders
spectrum (some frequencies being in reserve) and
organisations. This was recognised by Tessa Jowell Recognition in 2010 that people miss our broadcast favour, and we have been able to operate full-time
this made frequency allocation by Ofcom very
in the 1997 Labour Government and included in the programmes, even though we have a detailed and at less than £5 per hour broadcast, all staff and
difficult.
2000 Telecommunications Bill which became the well-maintained schedule on our website, led to a managers being unpaid volunteers.
Telecommunications Act of 2002. Ofcom (Office of Flame CCR moved to Rock Ferry (Birkenhead) and search for ways of storing programmes so that they We believe in the future of radio broadcasting. As
Communications) was formally established as the built custom designed studios in a local church. could be accessed at a later date. A number of LISTEN outlined above, there have been huge changes
independent communications regulator in 2003 Because of FM frequency limitations, a medium wave AGAIN channels (using www.buzzsprout.com) are in the past 25 years. The trend has been to place
and, amongst many other responsibilities, was licence was granted and a temporary MW antenna accessible on our website. These channels are also broadcasting in the hands of individuals, supported
charged with offering independent community consisting of wires in trees was put together on a local accessible via other directories (Spotify, Amazon by modern technology, and this will continue. Radio
groups full-time broadcasting licences. farm (planning permission not being available for Music, etc). This PODCASTING is an alternative way for
any formal structure). Internet links joined the studio listeners to access Flame CCR programmes. remains popular with people.
Flame CCR first broadcast, at the millennium (May
to the antenna. Full-time continuous broadcasting Norman Polden, station manager, Flame CCR - February 2025
2000) for a month, from a basement in Birkenhead Volunteering tends to be casual and maintaining a
commenced at the end of 2009. Maintenance of the
linked by UHF radio link to a local church on a high full-time schedule is a challenge - especially with
MW antenna was not easy in stormy weather but the
ridge. An antenna was fixed to a flagpole on the the Ofcom licensing requirement that over half of
coverage was good, albeit with limited music quality.
church, with our FM transmitter in the belfry. the broadcasting programmes should be by the
Further applications to Ofcom from Flame CCR for a
local Community Radio team. Ofcom sees this as
As well as permissions, equipment is needed. The FM frequency failed because of frequency limitations
preventing syndication and ownership by larger
digital technology of the 1970s led to domestic - the BBC hogging FM frequencies in Merseyside and
organisations, but it does make long term operation
computers in the 1990s and 2000s. The onset of digital North West.
difficult. However, Community Radio provides training
communications, computer based, in the late 1990s
But full-time broadcasting is very different from opportunities, and this is recognised by Ofcom’s
enabled small independent groups of people to gain
the short term bursts. Long term commitment licensing requirement of bringing new voices to air
experience in broadcasting. Audio programmes
from volunteers is difficult. The modern computer every year.
could be created, easily edited and stored - with
based audio processing, storage and broadcasting
software being cheap, or even free. Music became Whilst the analogue to digital change of TV was
requires a limited technical expertise in the team
storable on PCs as mp3 compressed format and created in a short timescale by the government, the
and experienced local technical consultancy is
hence easily selectable and playable. CDs replaced changeover of radio was left to evolve slowly. Regional
readily available. The internet provides visibility of
discs and cassette tapes as the source of music, and DAB is far too expensive for community groups. In 2014
other broadcasters, and publicises our broadcasting
nowadays most music is downloadable from various Ofcom invented SSDAB and in 2016 launched 12 trial
activities and schedules. Social media also increases
websites including YouTube. locations across the UK. Flame CCR operated for a
involvement of people in the team. Websites are
year on the Manchester trial (2017/18). In 2021 Ofcom
Flame CCR built a studio in the basement of an old updateable by non-technical people. Taking the
gained government approval to rollout SSDAB through
night club in Bebington, Wirral, with a UHF radio link to technical worries away from people enables them to
the UK. The long-awaited onset of digital radio began
the Storeton broadcasting tower. Broadcasts were for express themselves behind a microphone and their
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