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About 10Radio

History

10Radio started life in 2004 when a small group of local residents with an interest in community development read about community radio in Manchester and thought "wouldn't it be great to do it in rural Somerset as well". In September the following year 10Radio was born with a month of varied broadcasts that took the Ten Parishes by storm. A year later, and the second month of broadcasts attracted 200 presenters and 50 studio volunteers. Inspired by the success it was decided to apply to Ofcom for a community radio licence and two months later we heard that we'd been successful. There then followed a frantic year of finding permanent premises, fundraising, specifying equipment, converting and fitting out our new home, and launching ourselves on the listening public in January 2008.

Who and what is 10Radio

10Radio is formally constituted as a Community Interest Company limited by guarantee. All the company's assets are locked into the community's benefit and no-one makes a private profit.

Anyone living, working, being educated or trained in the Ten Parishes, or sharing their interests, can become a member of the company.

10Radio's stated objects are to carry on activities which benefit the community and in particular (without limitation) to:

• Create, facilitate and advance new information, education, training and entertainment opportunities through a range of activities for the public; making new connections between people of all ages, races and backgrounds; giving rise to personal and social development opportunities, capacity-building and contributing to community regeneration; and consulting with and developing meaningful long-term links between individuals, families, groups and organisations from a wide community of interest and from both urban and rural areas, to share experience and expertise, advancing active involvement in the social and economic development of rural, urban and international communities.
• Broadcast and otherwise provide to the Ten Parishes of Ashbrittle, Bathealton, Brompton Ralph, Chipstable, Clatworthy, Fitzhead, Huish Champflower, Milverton, Stawley and Wiveliscombe in the county of Somerset material of local interest through radio, internet, performance and any other form of communication.

The Directors

10Radio has ten Directors who are elected at the AGM by the members.

• Julian Mellor
  Chair
• Jamie Robertson Company Secretary
• Dean Beale Treasurer
• Mark Blaker Chair of External Affairs Group
• Kate Burrows Chair of Flying Cat Festival group
• Barry Allaway
• Sue Steward Chair of Training Group
• Derek Skeavington Chair of Programming Group
• Pauline Homeshaw
• Eddie Gaines
• Nick Skeavington Youth link
• Nigel Parkin

Other people

Other key people working behind the scenes are:

• Philip Knighton - Technical support
• Kim Cavanagh and Jan Boddington - Youth Group facilitators
• Anton Matthews - Chair of Technical Group
• Jeremy Birchall - Jingles and Idents
• We have grant funding to pay trainers to work with young people in the Ten Parishes.

Staff

Julian Mellor, also our Chair, is the Station Manager for six months from January 2010. He'll be working at 10Radio every Friday sorting out all the things that help the station tick. The post is funded by Taunton Deane Borough Council's Recession Relief Fund.

Meetings and Getting Involved

We hold regular meetings to which any member or interested person is welcome to attend.

• Board meetings - held bi-monthly in Wiveliscombe and dealing with the 'big issues' affecting 10Radio
• Community meetings are also held bi-monthly and provide a chance for listener feedback, discussion about general issues and to meet each other
• There are also a number of sub-groups of the Board dealing with specific issues:
  • Finance and Personnel group - monitoring all finances, grant applications and dealing with personnel and volunteer management issues. Chaired by Dean Beale
  • Training - running youth and community training. Chaired by Sue Steward
  • Technical - specifying any new purchases. Chaired by Anton Matthews.
  • External Affairs - responsible for community links, marketing and sponsorship, merchandising, events, volunteer recruitment etc. Chaired by Mark Blaker.
  • Programming - agreeing the programme schedule and dealing with any issues directly relating to the programmes broadcast. Chaired by Derek Skeavington.
  • Flying Cat Festival - planning and running the community festival. Chaired by Kate Burrows

Funding

It costs about £1500 to cover our monthly running costs. This includes:

• Licence fees for broadcasting and royalties = £250
• Rent, rates and water = £550
• Internet = £100
• Insurance = £100
• Electricity = £50
• Tech support, renewals and repairs = £100
• Office and studio supplies, expenses, accountancy etc = £200
• Marketing = £100

While we get some grant funding, especially from Kingsmead School, to cover these costs, we depend upon donations and sponsorship to cover more than £1000 per month. You can help by becoming a Friend of 10Radio - just download the form, fill it in with your bank details and a monthly amount, return it to us and we'll sort out the rest. Thank you!