Salvatore Scifo

40 years of the CMA

This presentation, within the context of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Community Media Association (CMA), 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 in the period 1997-2007. First-hand material to be discussed will draw on
interviews with key actors involved in policymaking until the introduction of Community Radio into legislation, as well as on press releases, statements and policy documents of the regulator Radio Authority and Ofcom, 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 policymaking and regulation and how events unfolded between 2 May 1997, when New Labour took power, and 20 July 2004, when the Community Radio Order 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, New Labour fell short on its promises of funding the sector in its initial phase, denying it a solid and sustainable start.

Salvatore Scifo is the Associate Dean for Student Experience at the Faculty of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University. He has published on British Community Radio and European Community Media. He is the current vice chair of the ECREA Radio and Sound Section, and a former chair (2012–13) and steering group member (2016–19) of the MeCCSA Radio Studies Network and an International Editorial Board member of the Journal of Radio and Audio Media . Among his most recent work, as a co- author, is the 2022 report for the Council of Europe, Community Media: contributions to citizens’ participation.