Q. What is Community Radio?
A. Community radio can either be a geographical service, that is, located in a rural village or in the heart of a large city.  It can also be campus radio, serving the various universities around the country, or it can be a community of interest, such as an Irish language station, an educational station or jazz or classical music station. So, we can have;
• Communities of place, or;
• Communities of interest.

Q. How is community radio different from commercial or public service radio?
A. Community radio is defined as having three aspects: 1) not-for-profit ethos,
2) democratic community ownership and control through strong community participation, and, 3) a commitment to use the medium for community building.

Q. Is community radio an Irish phenomenon?
A. No, there are thousands of community radio stations on every continent. All are based on the same principles of not-for-profit, democratic ownership, community building and personal empowerment.

Q. Is there a definition of Community Radio?
A. The Broadcast Commission of Ireland, (BCI) has adopted this definition; ‘A community radio station is characterised by by its ownership and programming and the community it is authorised to serve. It is owned and controlled by a not-for-profit organisation whose structure provides for membership, management, operation and programming primarily by members of the community at large. Its programming should be based on community access and should reflect the special needs of of the listenership it is licensed to serve.’  
There is further important set of definitions, which may help you in understanding how and why community radio is different from the other two sectors. This is the AMARC Europe Community Radio Charter, which is appended by the BCI to each community radio license. We provide this in full at the back of the Manual, but here are some of the main components;
• Promote the ‘right to communicate’and the free flow of information.
• Contribute to the democratic process and a pluralist society.
• Have their ownership communally representative and editorially independent
• To honestly inform and provide right of access, particularly to minorities, and
• To foster exchange between community media activists.

Q. Is there any evidence that community radio benefits communities?
A. According to a recent independent survey, 99% of community and voluntary groups felt that community radio was of benefit to them in their work. It was particularly noted that it was of benefit to disadvantaged groups.

Q. In what way does community radio assist these community groups?
A. The research showed that its most valuable contribution is as a new dimension to the work of community building. It provides a new avenue or approach to this work of social change.

Q. So, what should be the main aims of community radio?
A. Community radio should serve two principal functions:
• Access: being an outlet for community, cultural, political, voices and opinions, which are excluded elsewhere;
• Development: creating social, cultural and educational gain for the community as a whole and for its individual members. If a station is not offering access to voices which are under-represented elsewhere, and if a station is not of practical benefit to its community, it is not a community radio station.

Q. What types of stations are NOT  community Radio Station?  
A. If a station is being run for profit, that is, if an individual or a small group offer to establish a privately owned radio service termed ‘community radio’ this is not the genuine article. Or if it is being imposed upon a community from outside, even by well intentions organisations, then it is not a community radio station. The dynamic of democratic community ownership and control, is an essential feature of community radio and cannot be ignored.   

Q. What type of community radio  service should we be setting up?
A. This is entirely up to you. We can offer some experiences and some established views, but you must collectively decide on the form of community radio that best suits your locality. The BCI/BAI policy document states that ‘The Irish experience indicates that the development of a viable community broadcasting service depends on a station providing a new and unique forum for communication between individuals and groups within the community served.’  So, you have an indication there about a service, which is not talking at people, but are enabling people to talk to each other. A different type of radio and a different type of challenge.

Q. What diversity can community radio bring to the scene?
A. Despite the global spread of information and communication technologies (ICT’s) and the ideal of an Information Society, there is still a significant imbalance in the access to information worldwide as evidenced by the control and concentration of media ownership in the hands of a small number of commercial companies. The global spread of community media is an effort to redress this imbalance.
Community radio can make a difference by supporting the notion of participation by a growing number of local citizens in their radio service. Just remember, that participation for sake of participation is not the goal of community radio, or of community development.  It should be participation with a purpose. Community development practitioners have developed methodologies that provide a means for citizens to be heard directly as in town meetings, community radio need to create a safe space for citizens to be able to voice their concerns and aspirations with a good chance of being heard by the surrounding citizenry. Essentially, community radio is about development and social gain.

Q. We don’t know anything about ‘Radio’, how do we proceed?
A. The first step is to realise is that ‘community radio’ is more about ‘Community’ and less about ‘radio.’ Community radio stations that have proven successful, have seen themselves primarily as community development resources, which happen to use radio as their tool. If your group has people with various community development experiences, this is more important than having radio DJ experience. Radio skills can be learned and the Craol network will assist with this, but to be a successful community radio service, you need to be based on the idea of community building and cultural and social development.

The second step is to join CRAOL.