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This article, within the context of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Community Media Association (CMA) in 2023, and its role within the context of British radio history, will draw on grey literature from the CMA digital archives, including policy statements, policy briefings and background material for the lobbying actions during the period 1997–2007. First-hand material to be discussed will draw on interviews with key actors involved in policy-making until the introduction of Community Radio into legislation, as well as on press releases, statements and policy documents of the regulators Radio Authority and the Office of Communications, policy statements and documents published by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, statements from the BBC and commercial radio representatives and parliamentary records of the debates on community radio legislation. The analysis and discussion of this material will help to establish the role of the main players in policy-making and regulation and how events unfolded between the outcome of 2 May 1997 general election, when the Labour Party took power, and 20 July 2004, when the Community Radio Order (CRO) was approved. It will also trace the development of the lobbying action of the CMA, the discussions and the tensions preceding the government's approval to go ahead with a new sector. It will argue that, despite having the merit of introducing a new sector in licensed radio broadcasting, after three decades of community media activists campaigning, the Labour Party fell short on its promises of funding the sector in its initial phase, denying it a solid and sustainable start. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'community' of community media has long been a contentious question in the field. Given the wide range of interpretations of community and the ongoing fragmentation of media audiences, it has never been more important for community media to define and delineate their audiences. One approach to this is developing and maintaining a sense of mediatized community identity through content production. Community identity represents an under-researched area in community media studies. While community media audiences and broadcasters have themselves been the subject of research, how a sense of community identity is created through content production is less understood. This article details a critical discourse analysis of programming from ten different community radio stations within the same geographic location. The findings of this research reveal the very different approaches that stations take to developing a mediatized community identity. Several stations approach identity expression by engaging in overt performances of 'localness', while the growing influence of commercialization was also observed among many stations. What this research highlights is that the performance of community identity on community radio is integral in shaping the listening communities, as well as delineating community radio from its commercial and state-run counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community radio in India operates within a clear framework of development. This calls into question the fundamental purpose of community radio: communication rights, activism, voice, community participation or development? Drawing on ethnographic research conducted at two rural stations in South India, this research explores the influence of a pervasive development discourse on the grassroots activities and functions of community radio. The starkest example of this was observed through the far-reaching influence of the Government of India's highly publicised sanitation programme, the Swachh Bharat Mission. This programme represents a pervasive example of the modernisation paradigm in development communication, yet it was found to proliferate throughout community radio, a medium more often associated with participatory communication. This development discourse was found to profoundly impact the way both broadcasters and audience members engage with and experience community radio. The findings highlight a disconnect between the theoretical and ideological frameworks of community radio and the ways in which a development discourse operates through the stations at the grassroots level. As such, this article argues that community radio in India represents a liminal space where multiple development communication paradigms interact and compete with the theoretical underpinnings of the movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Connectivity made possible by the diffusion of digital technologies has offered new possibilities for the public to interact with media, including radio. However, interactions are often framed by globally managed platforms, owned by companies with values based on maximizing profit, rather than prioritising Illich's forms of conviviality. In this article, we draw on experiences from the Grassroot Wavelengths project that introduces an innovative peer-to-peer platform to support the creation and management of community radio stations. We offer insight into the practices of participation in community media, where the users influence decisions concerning the technology, the content, the actors and the organization policy of the radio station, through a participatory design approach. These collaborations between researchers and users, together with a focus on the development of relational assets in local contexts, are fundamental in an attempt to design a platform that fosters conviviality and offers an alternative way to consider participation in community media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the role that community media play in the translocal negotiation of local culture in Latin America. Translocal is a concept that captures the way that local cultural producers engage with national and transnational forces in shaping everyday cultural practices. This study focuses on community radio station Ecos de Manantlán in Zapotitlán de Vadillo, Mexico (Radio Zapotitlán), during the years 2006–2012. Radio Zapotitlán is officially categorized as a campesino or agricultural laborer/peasant station and presents its campesino identity through radio and Internet content. Analyses of that content, along with interviews with station associates and listeners, reveal the complex cultural mediations between local media producers, national regulators, and transnational donors. This study investigates the local production of a transnationally funded radionovela, or radio soap opera, as a window onto the station’s role as a cultural mediator. This article argues that station participants used the radionovela to express local values and meanings and to marginalize the educational goals of the transnational agency funding the project. Radio Zapotitlán offers a concrete case of cultural negotiation in which local interests engage with – and transform – donor-funded content aimed at the local community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Argentinian Law 26.522 on Audiovisual Communication Services (currently under reform) aimed at democratizing the media arena by recognizing multiple actors such as community broadcasters, school and indigenous media, among others. According to the legal classification, community broadcasters were regulated as private non-profit media, despite having specific objectives, programming, organizational logic and economic conditions. Conversely, school and indigenous media merged into the public sector, even if they may act as community media. The article compares results arising from two research projects carried out in Northern Argentina through in-depth interviews with key informants from two indigenous radio stations and two school radio stations. The theoretical framework mainly draws on literature about community, alternative and popular communication. Results show that communities participate in such media foundation or management and that media content deals with cultural and political issues related to their interests or needs. Indeed, emerging features allow considering such broadcasters as community media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature about community radio in Kenya has focused on sustainability challenges, but not much on existent production practices and audience evaluations of the station. Koch FM is a community radio station located in Korogocho, a slum in Nairobi, Kenya. The station aims to provide alternative information, education and entertainment content. Producers at the station and community members who make up the station's audience have different perceptions of Koch FM's role. While the producers envision Koch FM as the provider of information and a space for community voice, the community evaluates the station's performance based on parameters drawn from commercial broadcasters. Consequently, the station acts as a space where sometimes-contradictory ideals play out. In exploring these contrasting viewpoints, this article highlights contextual production practices and the shifting audience expectations facing community radio in Kenya's vibrant radio broadcast environment. The data are the outcome of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2014 and 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community radio in Australia is now well established and considered an important part of the radio sector, however, in today's economically driven world it is at the bottom of the media money pile. In order to argue for its continuing existence, funding and development in an ever-changing media landscape, some means of capturing its value is essential. This article describes the development of a theoretical framework of value for community radio. The content of the framework was achieved by, first, examining, community media/radio literature through five relevant lenses of analysis. Secondly, a subsequent meta-analysis was applied to consolidate the framework. In order to test the utility of the draft theoretical framework of value, three case studies were conducted with different types of community radio stations in Perth, Western Australia. Two primary research methods were used: interviews with staff and audience focus groups. The testing exercise provided a multimodal insight into the values of community radio as reflected in real life practice. The analysis revealed how value was perceived by participants across three stations as personal motivations, and second, that value at individual stations was contingent upon the characteristics of the individual community radio stations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community multimedia centers (CMCs) are considered by initiating agencies as instruments able to inform, entertain and educate the population, as well as to offer them a voice into knowledge society and to public initiatives. This article presents a quali-quantitative content analysis of 230 interviews held with staff members, users of the venues, people of the community who listen to their radio component but do not use their telecenters, and community members not using CMCs. The sample includes 10 CMCs around Mozambique. The purpose of the study is to investigate the perception of local communities of inbound, outbound, and shared information and communication flows connected to CMCs. Results highlight how CMCs are perceived as inbound information enablers, mostly by means of their community radio component, and as means to share information and communication within the communities' boundaries. Yet, CMCs still do not appear to be widely recognized as participation means to a reality that transcends the communities' physical borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Attabad lake disaster took place on 4th January, 2010 in Northern Areas of Pakistan near China border when a massive landslide slid the Attabad village into the river Hunza. The debris blocked the water flow in the river and created a large barrier lake. The level of the water in the lake continued to increase at an alarming speed thus causing a great threat to the people of areas. There was a great need to establish communication links with the people of the area for rescue activities. To cope with the situation, Radio Pakistan set-up FM-93 Baltit Fort Hunza radio station on emergency basis. The study was carried out to evaluate the role of the community radio station that it played during the crisis situation. Survey method was used to collect the data. The population consisted of all the sixty-five thousand people affected by the crisis while sample size was two hundred subjects. The results showed that 85% subjects agreed with the supportive role of the radio station while 15% did not agree. Therefore, it was concluded that the community radio FM-93 Hunza played an effective role in addressing the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melbourne is Australia's second most populated city, and in many ways a microcosm of broader Australian society. As a city, Melbourne is the proverbial 'melting pot' of cultures. This diversity is evident in the breadth of community radio stations that service the Melbourne community. From 'generalist' stations serving a plethora of marginalized audiences to ethnic stations, youth stations, stations for seniors and Indigenous stations, Melbourne community radio is a vibrant and active mix of much that represents Australia - and the contemporary global condition. This article draws on data collected during two national studies of Australia's community media sector (Forde, Meadows and Foxwell 2002; Meadows et al. 2007) that focused on stations and subsequently their audiences. The research used a mixed methodology of surveys, focus groups and interviews to build a picture of the role these stations perform for individual participants, local community groups, businesses and other organizations and audience members. The article engages with Melbourne fieldwork from these national studies, offering an analysis of community radio in an Australian metropolitan centre. While not without their problems, Melbourne's community radio stations and their audiences have created and developed a space and place for diverse groups to connect in ways that foster the sense of belonging so central to the well-being of individuals and their communities. In this way, these stations perform a particular role in metropolitan Melbourne by combating the sense of isolation and anonymity that so often characterizes the urban experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has neglected to address the question of whether practitioners and the community groups served by community radio see it as a conduit of community empowerment and social change. This article explores this question through in-depth analysis of four community radio stations in Ireland. The central finding is that, while community stations subscribe to most of the ideals of community radio, practitioners do not generally see the stations as sites of social and political empowerment. Moreover, this outcome is not recognized as a benefit by the communities served by the stations. This is the case because of the policy framework, cultural traditions and training programmes central to community radio in Ireland, the weakness of linkages between stations and community groups and the failure of the latter to understand the unique remit of community radio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth in interest and research in community radio worldwide over the last few decades is a welcome development. While, as noted by Jankowski (2003), a first generation of research has been largely empirical in nature, describing and analysing the organisation and operation of stations in different contexts, more recently a second generation of work has begun to emerge which aims at grounding empirical studies within broader theoretical frameworks, most notably those relating to democracy and the public sphere. The specific components of the public sphere remain somewhat underdeveloped in these studies however. This article aims to contribute to this literature through an examination of community radio in Ireland within a framework drawn from evolving work of Habermas and associated deliberative, social and media theorists. The article, drawing on a detailed study of four community stations in Ireland, identifies elements of community radio which contribute towards a "defeudalisation" of the public sphere as well as highlighting challenges in this regard. Although situated within a specific context, with Irish community radio operating within a comparable regulatory environment to both that in Australia and the United Kingdom, the article draws lessons of specific interest to researchers and activists in these domains, as well as offering a framework of use to community radio researchers interested in examining the sector's contribution to the re-animation of the public sphere more globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community radio began in Uruguay in the post-dictatorship years of the 1980s. Until December 2007 however, these stations were pirate broadcasters that had been excluded from the country's broadcasting system. Today, not only have these stations gained legal status, they have become active partners in the regulation of Uruguay's broadcasting system. This article documents the development of community broadcasting, the role of civil society in bringing about regulatory change, and innovative approaches to policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an effort to promote localism in U.S. broadcasting, the Federal Communications Commission began licensing Low-Power FM (LPFM) radio in January 2000. FCC rules require that LPFM stations are noncommercial, locally owned and operated, and broadcast at power of 100 watts or less, with signals that travel three to five miles. This article focuses on LPFM programmers’ statements of uncertainty about audience constitution and presence. Given that the establishment of LPFM service rides on the argument that, due to consolidation, there is a need for local stations to produce locally originated programming, serving unique community interests, it is striking to hear programmers reveal they are unsure if any community members are tuning in. In addition to raising questions about prevailing expectations for a form of radio imagined to be the essence of American broadcasting, their comments support claims made by scholars of media policy about the need to reconceptualize localism dur ing a period of media convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Access to the radio spectrum most often has become tightly controlled by nation-states and military bodies around the world, available to citizens only under stringent licensing and leasing frameworks. This article examines one aspect of the growing global community radio movement which makes an alternative ownership claim on this resource. Taking place at a small-scale grass-roots level, this movement is nevertheless worthy of attention from media scholars. By considering the example of community radio development in Thailand, we can see this movement represents a new communications paradigm in formation, one that fundamentally alters the manner in which the broadcast frequency spectrum is monopolized by state and commercial interests and, consequently, the manner in which people will allow themselves to be governed, as radio becomes a vehicle for marginalized communities to stake a claim in territory heretofore unquestionably ruled by the centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This experimental study tested localism's influence on listener first impressions of radio programs and stations. Subjects heard program excerpts manipulated to test ownership and locality of origination. Dependent variables were affective response and medium credibility. Respondents in a Southeastern U.S. city (n = 331) heard excerpts manipulated to sound either locally originated or national, on stations ranging from low-power FMs to national groups such as Clear Channel Worldwide. Results showed slight preferences for local origination and a marginal preference for local ownership. Combining the independent variables in a 2 × 2 test strengthened differences, but the interaction term was not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is about the role played by Brazilian community radio stations as public spaces, including different action rationales and places where there are political, social and cultural discourses from various genres such as informative and opinionative, especially the latter. Such spaces are embedded by communicative and instrumental actions as Habermas notes, manifest in the tensions and approximations between public and common spaces. Based upon a cross-case study from these media, the action rationales and the dynamics of the spaces are analysed. Stemming from the way such radio stations work, it is possible to assess whether they are a ‘locus’ for public debates, involving the community and favouring communication which addresses the common interest, or, to a large extent, social arenas for welfare appeals and criticisms and fulfilling immediate needs from members of a particular locality. Data collection included unstructured and episodic interviews, radio programmes and analysis of documents from fifteen community radio stations in the Federal District and surroundings. After that, for more in-depth information, five case studies were carried out in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the legacy of struggle by community radio in the West is analysed from a comparative perspective. More specifically, the focus of this article is on Western media policies towards community radio. It is argued that while many community radio discourses, theories and policies are oriented towards developing countries and emerging democracies, community radio stations in the West are often forced to operate in the margins. Case studies on the US, the UK and Belgium are presented. Some influence of distinct regulatory paradigms can be observed, but overall in each of these countries community radio stations have a legacy of struggle for their existence and survival. This exposes the need to account for the distinct nature of community radio in (Western) regulatory regimes. A common thread in the cases being presented is the difficulty involved in (local) community radio legitimating its existence on the FM-band alongside commercial and public broadcasters. Unlike these, community radio movements have little lobbying power and are usually positioned as rogue and unprofessional actors within the broadcasting community. From a democratic perspective emphasizing the importance of participation and civic culture, Western media policies urgently need to create an enabling environment for participatory community radio initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the ways in which efforts aimed at democratising the media system and empowering communities in Indonesia in three discursive periods (the 1998 "Revolution Movement," the "Reform Era" follow-up, and the 2002 Broadcasting Act up till the present time) have ebbed and flowed. The main result of the changing winds so far has been the liberalisation of the market, in line with global media trends. The Government has tried to frustrate the prospects of community media. Hence, the current development of community radio in the country remains stagnant, the main challenge being to create a more visible position in the media landscape, which in turn may bring about a more supportive stance in the government's policies. Our tour d'horizon of the state of affairs of community radio, its complementary status to the mainstream national media scene, and the assessment of current needs are based upon empirical evidence gathered in the Manado and Jogyakarta areas. Departing from the different dynamics of these two cases, weaknesses and critical success factors will be assessed, taking into account the different backgrounds of the regions, radio practitioners as well as their audiences in terms of religion, ethnicity, and life styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars tend to agree that the weak implementation of affirmative localism in US media is primarily due to either the failure of regulators to enforce the principle, or the unworkability of the concept of localism itself. By ‘affirmative localism’ I refer to efforts to foster geographically based local identities and local public spheres through a licensee's program service. This study revisits the history of localism to demonstrate that early regulators were not primarily concerned with fostering affirmative localism, but instead used discourses and structures of localism as part of a class-based project of cultural and economic modernisation of local communities through radio. In this view, regulatory concepts such as local program service and local trusteeship were used to reduce local distinctiveness, limit program diversity, and retain content control with nationally minded regulators in Washington. These regulators' corporate and cosmopolitan vision of modernity is problematic in many ways, but their relative success in using localism to advance that vision calls into question the Federal Radio Commission's reputation for weakness and incompetence. It also suggests that affirmative localism, since it was actively suppressed by regulators in the formative years of US radio, cannot be considered a failed or unworkable concept for broadcasting policy in itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impact assessment is one of a variety of monitoring tools available to ensure that a community radio effectively works towards set objectives and aspirations. In Mozambique a 'bare-foot' impact assessment methodology has been designed, tested, revised and implemented with eight community-owned stations between 2000 and 2005. The present article 1 explores the three separate areas of attention focused upon in this methodology: (1) an internal assessment of the radio's way of functioning as an organism; (2) an assessment of the capacity of the community producers through their programmes to meet the needs and desires of the community; and (3) the overall objective of it all: assessing the extent to which impact can be registered vis-à-vis a positive development change within the community, empowerment, mending of the social tissue, etc. resulting from the work of the community radio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]