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ISSN 2029-865X
doi://10.7220/2029-865X.10.05
LOCAL RADIO – AN ENDANGERED
SPECIES? THE POLISH CASE
Stanisław JĘDRZEJEWSKI
sjedrzejewski@kozminski.edu.pl
Professor
Leon Koźmiński University
Warsaw, Poland
Urszula DOLIWA
urszula.doliwa@uwm.edu.pl
Assistant Professor
University of Warmia and Mazury
Olsztyn, Poland
ABSTRACT: A great majority of broadcasters in Poland have local licences. However, it does not mean they play roles typical of local radio. Similarly to other countries the networking process has its negative impact on this sector. Networking leads
to uniication of the programme and a signiicant reduction of the local content.
What is more, there is no fully recognized third sector which could be a supplement
to commercial local broadcasting. In this paper special attention is paid to public
and community stations as providers of localness disappearing from the airwaves.
he authors, taking into account global trends concerning these two sectors, try to
analyse what the chances and the limitations of the development of local radio in
Poland within these two sectors are. his analysis is based on oicial documents,
results of public consultations regarding the third sector of broadcasting as well as
observations of the functioning of local public radio made by one of the authors
working as the Chairman of the Board of the Polish Radio. However, the authors
would also like to characterize the current situation of independent local broadcasting in Poland as a whole, specify what the main obstacles in local broadcasting
development are, speculate what can be done to improve the situation of this sector.
KEYWORDS: radio, local radio, community radio, and media in Poland
Local radio - an endangered species? The polish case
Media Transformations
INTRODUCTION
here is a growing tendency around the world of networking local
radios and then having them overtaken by big media groups. Such
an activity is more proitable than running a single, small local station. However, such a process has a negative impact on the ‘locality’
of broadcasters. Taking advantage of the fact of having a network,
such local radios oten reduce the local content and broadcast several universal programmes for all members of the network. Also, the
local content itself is oten standardized and very similar in every
station. What is more, such networks are oten run by foreign concerns, which are far from the local problems and needs of local communities. It is worth stressing that when we are talking about local
radio we should think about locality in the broader context. In many
authors’ opinions, it is not only the ‘local content’ that is a factor
of locality in the station. What seems to be especially important is
also the way this local content is produced. As Hugh Chignell underlined, “Radio localism refers to the degree to which a station is
locally sourced and relects the needs, interests and culture of the
local community” (Chignell, 2009: 132). his idea is also supported
by Michelle Ndiaye Ntab, who stated that “Local content is material conceptualized, produced and packaged by people using their
own instruments (languages, values, beliefs)” (Ndiaye Ntab, 2004).
Should we be surprised that the commercial sector is interested in
maximizing beneits from its activity? Of course not. his is one of
the key features which constitutes a commercial sector - such media
are run for proit.
However, local media also have other, non-economic goals to fulil. As Michelle Ndiaye Ntab underlines, local content is a source of
identity and development, and it enables cultures to lourish. More
importantly, it “provides the communities with the relevant information necessary for their development” (Ndiaye Ntab, 2004). he
relation between the condition of local media and the local democracy was well described by Jerzy Jurecki, the chief editor of one of
the bestsellers in the local press market in Poland entitled ‘Tygodnik
Podhalański’:
Local press is a foundation of local democracy. he control of local government and public money – these are our
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priorities. It is easy to recognize places where a good local
press is present. here is better control, the local authorities
spend public money in a better way and, in general, function
better. hey feel we are breathing down their necks (…). In
Zakopane, everyone from Warsaw would like to have a plot
of land and there is always an oicial ready to take a bribe.
But there is a fear of our weekly and it is easy to feel when
you are talking to them (Jerzy Jurecki cited by Igor Janke,
2012).
Local media relect, to some extent, the condition of democracy. In
the societies really active in their communities, local media have a
better environment for development; more people are interested in
creating such media and there are more consumers interested in local issues. But it also works the other way around. Because of having
local media, the community at the local level works better. hese are
some of the reasons why locally originated and locally sourced media
should be protected. What is worth stressing, such media may exist
not only within the commercial sector but also the public and community ones which are not so much commercially driven.
THE HISTORY OF LOCAL BROADCASTING
he beginnings of radio are closely related to local broadcasting.
KDKA from Pittsburgh in 1920 – oten reported as the irst radio
station in the world - was deinitely a local station. It had a 100-watt
transmitter and a range of less than 40 miles (Chignell, 2009: 131).
he growth of radio networks in the USA and a centralized model
of broadcasting in Europe caused a decrease in localness in radio.
European broadcasting in the late 70s and early 80s was marked by
two contradictory dimensions: on the one hand, the planned development at the European level of cross-border broadcasting using
new technologies, and on the other hand, the explosion, sometimes
anarchic, sometimes controlled, at the local and regional level of an
‘alternative’ approach to programming (Vittet-Philippe and Crookes, 1986: 1). here were diferent groups involved in the local radio
movement: local communities, minorities, students, volunteers,
trade unions, but irst of all were the young people who did not accept the state monopoly system. (Vittet-Philippe and Crookes, 1986:
14). hey were ighting for a radio close to its audience, dealing with
Local radio - an endangered species? The polish case
Media Transformations
important problems of the community. Local radio in Europe had to
struggle to emerge.
he situation looked completely diferent in the USA, where local
radio had been present from the very beginning. In the USA, the
community radio movement started in the late 60s and found its
identity in radical opposition to the values of commercialism and the
wasteland of market-dominated radio (Vittet-Philippe and Crookes, 1986: 14). In Europe, ‘free radio’ and local radio in the mid-70s
and early 80s sought to establish themselves mainly against politically-controlled or establishment-dominated public service monopolies
or commercial/public service duopolies (Vittet-Philippe and Crookes, 1986: 14).
In the late 70s and early 80s, several non-public radio stations were
founded. From this time, radio in Europe stopped being a national,
centralized, public service or government controlled monopoly. For
example, the beginnings of local radio in Britain date back to 1967,
when local public radio stations were established, but the true change
in the broadcasting landscape of Great Britain was connected with
the introduction of commercial local radio in 1973 (Chignell, 2009:
132).
he appearance of radio in Europe had far-reaching consequences.
Radio started to be an active element in regional development as a
‘region-building’ tool in traditional cultural terms (regional awareness, cultural and linguistic identity) but also in terms of economy
(provision of jobs, sensitization of the public to communication technologies, dynamization of local markets, etc.). Local radio strived to
introduce a degree of ‘horizontality’. It strived to multiply opportunities of access (Vittet-Philippe and Crookes, 1986: 11). Vittet-Philippe
and Crookes call local radio a ‘prime mover’ of the communication
system in the late 70s and early 80s (Vittet-Philippe and Crookes,
1986: 3).
But paradoxically local radio in Europe soon became endangered
mainly because of the rapid development of commercial radio and
the process of networking. In many countries, no more than 10 years
ater starting such initiatives, local radio was downgraded to a supporting role or even became endangered by extinction. Local stations
started to undergo such processes as professionalization, network-
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ing and globalization (Vittet-Philippe and Crookes, 1986: 14). he
growing audience of such radio stations endangered functioning of
local, bottom up initiatives. Peter Lewis and Jerry Booth, in their
book he Invisible Medium: Public, Commercial and Community Radio published in 1989, warned that the economies of scale and the
distance-shrinking reach of new technologies work against localism
in communication (1989).
In Chignell’s opinion, he Broadcasting Act 1990 (UK) and the Telecommunications Act 1996 (USA) had devastating efects on the localism of the radio stations, allowing them to remain ‘local’ in name
only (Chignell, 2009: 133). his phenomenon is well described by
David Hendy in his book Radio in the Global Age:
Each station, or brand station, will present itself as unique,
through its particular arrangements of records, jingles,
speech, weather reports and news bulletins, in a set running
order that difers from rival stations. But the basic ingredients will remain the same: the same records, the same presenter idioms, the same sources of news, arranged slightly
diferently but with broadly the same concern for pace and
low and the rhythms of daily life – news on the hour, traic
updates every 20 minutes, and so on. Even the jingles, which
inevitably use a diferent melodic hook and catchphrase,
will probably adopt the same production ‘feel’ (…) In this
view, interactivity and personal choice in the radio stations
we select become rather meaningless concepts, since there is
little that is fundamentally diferent (2000: 65).
he process of disappearance of local content from the airwaves
continues and is raised not only by media experts but also journalists from the popular press. In February, 2005, in Die Zeit, the
study about the condition of radio in Germany, Rettet das Radio was
published. Its author, Ulrich Stock, reported that depending on the
region, in Germany it is possible to ind on a radio set about 30 various radio stations, but they mostly broadcast a programme he called
Dudelsupe (Stock, 2005). It is also a scheme well-known on Polish
air: weather forecast, news about traic jams and information about
awards in radio contests. Beside this, music prevails. Krystyna Lubelska, in her article published in Polityka in 2005 entitled Usta milczą,
Local radio - an endangered species? The polish case
Media Transformations
gra muzyka, underlined that spoken word programmes are disappearing from Polish air (Lubelska, 2005). As a rule, commercial radio
stations dedicate at most 3-4 minutes per hour to ‘the spoken word’.
Facing a global tendency of local commercial radio becoming less
and less local (in terms of ownership, content, mission etc.) local
public media and the still growing community media sector remain
the mainstay of localness.
LOCAL PUBLIC RADIO AROUND THE WORLD
According to analysts of McKinsey (PSB around the world, 1999), in
spite of many unfavourable, or even alarmist, predictions formulated
a few years ago, many public broadcasters have adapted quite well to
the new market situation. One of the most important factors of their
success was the reinforcement of the meaning of the public ofer of
the program of own local stations (regional) – this applies to the largest extent to Great Britain, Germany and Sweden.
In Sweden, the development of public regional radio was connected
with the programme of decentralization of the country. Only in 1987,
however, the public provider of three nationwide channels, Sveriges Radio (SR), decided to start local broadcasting stations, working
under the common name of SR4 (Nordstrom, 2010: 89). 24 regions
of broadcasting were sectioned in the whole country, and the whole
venture, although it was very expensive, turned out to be meeting the
audience’s needs connected to the locality of media. During the week,
SR4 broadcasts local programmes, while at the weekends – common
programmes spread from Stockholm. In Germany, the structure of
radio and public television corresponds to the federalist structure of
the country. In Great Britain, where there are 44 local public stations,
the structure of a local public radio was determined by the cultural and linguistic diversiication of Great Britain, as well as the process of decentralization of the BBC itself. Local stations emerged in
Great Britain in 1967, 5 years ater the Pilkington Committee Report
(Husband, Chouhan, 1985: 282). Regardless, there are still regional
stations present in Great Britain: Radio Scotland, Radio Wales, Radio Cymru, Radio Ulster, and local stations rendering services of the
opt-out type in Scotland, Wales and Ulster.
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he rule of maintaining pluralism in the media is the guarantee of
the basic rights of a democratic country – freedom of speech and
information access. In the accomplishment of this goal, the role of
the media is not to be underestimated. In the European grounds, this
dependency is underlined by the statements of the European Court
of Human Rights, interpreting the art. Ten of the European Convention of Human and Citizens Rights, as well as the series of union documents, among them the recommendation no. R(99)1 of the
Committee of Ministers of the European Council, deine the term
of pluralism in media and pay attention to the resources promoting
pluralism in media (Council of Europe Publishing, 2007). Essential,
especially here, would be the cultural aspect of pluralism and emphasizing the necessity to present in the media the cultural variety
of society, especially on the regional and local level, where it is much
easier to break the rules of pluralism.
With the phenomenon of pluralism there are connected two other
items, constituting a peculiar opposition. On one side the concentration of the media and on the other, as its opposite – diversity of the
media and its contents.
Apart from the proper number of subjects on the market, diversity
is most important in order to maintain pluralism. To reach this goal,
the role of public and social broadcasters, or environmental ones, is
essential. What is crucial for maintaining pluralism on the regional
and local markets is the concession politics which supports the protection of regional and local media. hese politics also includes the
rules concerning the access of national and ethnical minorities to the
media and the protection of regional languages.
Hence in France, which does not run any active politics towards minorities, pointing to the rules lying at the basis of the republic, Radio
France is obliged to promote regional languages (Kuhn, 1995: 153).
In Germany, where the federal constitution guarantees the freedom
of speech and protection of the minorities’ rights, in most lands
minorities may broadcast their own programmes in the so-called
open channels. Representatives of the minorities are members of the
Boards of Trustees of public and private broadcasters. In Great Britain, language minorities (Welsh, Irish, Gaelic, Cornish, Asian) have
wide access to the electronic media, e.g., the Welsh language in the
Local radio - an endangered species? The polish case
Media Transformations
public Radio Cymru has 100 hours a week, in Gaelic there are 45
hours a week available on the BBC radio. he Asian Network’s programming is prepared primarily in English, however it also broadcasts in a range of South Asian languages (BBC, 2013).
In Italy, according to the law enacted in 1999 regarding minority languages, there are 12 protected languages and the task of RAI in the
contract with the Ministry of Communication is to broadcast programmes in these languages in particular regions of Italy.
In the Czech Republic, a country relatively homogenous in national
terms, the Czech Radio has a responsibility to broadcast programmes
for minorities and it broadcasts many of them with the participation
of minority representatives, most of all in regional broadcasting stations (EU Accession Monitoring Program, 2002: 180).
In Hungary, there exists a developed system of protection of national, ethnical and language minorities. he law about RTV imposes on
the public TV a duty to present the culture and language of minorities and a regular broadcast of information programmes for them. It
also provides a possibility to sponsor those programs. Magyar Radio
is currently producing the programme for 13 minorities (Magyar Radio, 2013).
THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNITY MEDIA AS AN ANSWER
TO THE DISAPPEARANCE OF LOCALNESS FROM AIRWAVES
To prevent local radio, which is close to local audiences, and local
problems from disappearance there was a third radio sector created, additional to the public and commercial. his sector is usually
called a ‘community radio sector’. However, there are plenty of different names for this kind of radio as well as diferent deinitions of
the term ‘community radio’ itself or, broadly speaking, ‘community
media’. Yet, the permanent feature of this sector consists in diversity and variety of forms, sizes and formulas of functioning. It is well
summarized by Janey Gordon:
Just a little research in the area of community radio shows
that anybody with any kind of interest in radio knows exactly what community radio is. Ironically, almost everybody
disagrees. Very strong views are held about community ra-
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dio. here seems to be a general consensus that a community station is a radio station, run primarily by volunteers on
a not-for-proit basis, but that seems to be where the agreement ends (2006).
However, undoubtedly there are some deinitions which play a primary role, when characterizing what the community media are. In
the European context one should include, in the set of these deinitions, irst of all the one from he Community Radio Charter for Europe adopted on 18 September 1994 in Ljubljana, Slovenia at the irst
AMARC Pan-European Conference of Community Radio Broadcasters. According to this document, community media stations:
1) promote the right to communicate, assist the free low
of information and opinions, encourage creative expression
and contribute to the democratic process and a pluralist society;
2) provide access to training, production and distribution
facilities; encourage local creative talent and foster local traditions; and provide programmes for the beneit, entertainment, education and development of their listeners;
3) seek to have their ownership representative of local geographically recognisable communities or of communities of
common interest;
4) are editorially independent of government, commercial
and religious institutions and political parties in determining their programme policy;
5) provide a right of access to minority and marginalised
groups and promote and protect cultural and linguistic diversity;
6) seek to honestly inform their listeners on the basis of information drawn from a diversity of sources and provide a
right of reply to any person or organisation subject to serious misrepresentation;
7) are established as organisations which are not run with
a view to proit and ensure their independence by being i-
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Media Transformations
nanced from a variety of sources;
8) recognize and respect the contribution of volunteers, recognise the right of paid workers to join trade unions and
provide satisfactory working conditions for both;
9) operate management, programming and employment
practices which oppose discriminations and which are open
and accountable to all supporters, staf and volunteers;
10) foster exchange between community radio broadcasters
using communications to develop greater understanding in
support of peace, tolerance, democracy and development
(AMARC, 1994).
It is worth underlining that the importance and role of community
was noted by the pan-European institutions – irst of all the European Parliament, which in 2008 adopted a resolution of the European
“Community Media in Europe” (2008/2011(INI)), preceded by the
report prepared by Peter Lewis Promoting Social Cohesion (2008). In
the resolution, the community media were deined as:
1) non-proit making and independent, not only from national, but also from local power, engaging primarily in
activities of public and civil society interest, serving clearly deined objectives which always include social value and
contribute to intercultural dialogue;
2) accountable to the community which they seek to serve,
which means that they are to inform the community about
their actions and decisions, to justify them, and to be penalised in the event of any misconduct, so that the service
remains controlled by the interests of the community and
the creation of ‘top-down’ networks is prevented;
3) open to participation in the creation of content by members of the community, who may participate in all aspects
of operation and management, although those in charge of
editorial content must have professional status (European
Parliament, 2008).
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he Community Media Forum Europe – an organization founded
to strengthen the participation of the “hird Media Sector” in European discussion – estimates on a global scale that community radio
outnumbers radio stations in the public and the commercial sectors
put together (CMFE, 2012). In plenty of European countries, this
sector can be characterized as very vivid, with such leaders as France
with as many as 600 community broadcasters and Great Britain with
more than 200 such stations. But still in some European countries –
mostly in Eastern Europe (and this is also partly the case in Poland),
the community based media, if it exists at all, are still regarded as part
of the private commercial media sector.
Community radios are mainly small scale, oten extremely local, stations. As Donald Browne underlines there is a strong preference for
locally produced and oriented materials among community radio
stations because they believe that it reinforces a ‘sense of community’.
hey understand it is important from the listeners’ point of view and
make them reliable (Browne, 2012: 161).
he Australian McNair Ingenuity survey showed that local news announcers who sound like ordinary people/like one of us, local news,
and local artists as a local voice on the airwaves are very important
reasons why people are listening to community radio (2011: 28).
hey provide local content not necessarily in the form of a local news
bulletin. News and information are provided within diferent programmes, as well as through announcements and local music.
he close relation with the audience is also possible because an
open, participatory character and the relatively small scale of such
media. Members of the community have a chance to participate in
the functioning of the stations in diferent ields: in programming,
management, ownership and funding (Fröhlich, Däschle, Geerts and
Jannusch, 2012: 1). hanks to such a model of operation, the station feels accountable to the community it serves and the other way
around - the community oten feels responsible for the sustainability of such stations without which the life of the community may be
poorer or more complicated.
However, as Guy Starkey suggests, localness in the framework of a
community media sector has its obvious limitations. he irst one is
the small scale of such radios, which are oten dedicated to and acLocal radio - an endangered species? The polish case
Media Transformations
cessible by niche audiences. he other feature of this kind of broadcasting is the fact that such stations mostly depend on voluntary
work, which may cause the quality of local content broadcast by such
stations to be far from a ‘professional standard’ and lead to a lack of
credibility and the outlow of listeners (Starkey, 2011: 170).
A HISTORY OF LOCAL RADIO IN POLAND
Local broadcasting in Poland dates back to the interwar period
when several regional public radio stations were born. In this period,
also, the Catholic priest Maksymilian Kolbe had attempted to start
a non-public radio station in the monastery in Niepokalanów but
WWII broke the work on this project as well as stopping the functioning of the whole network of local public broadcasting. he state
controlled Polish Radio Network was quickly rebuilt ater WWII. In
1957, there was also only one legal radio station founded which was
functioning outside the Public Radio structure – it was Rozgłośnia
Harcerska. his station belonged to the state controlled scouting organization. But in general, similar to other countries from the region,
Poland had a state monopoly on broadcasting. Except for some pirate radio broadcasts, prepared by the opposition to the government
Radio Solidarity, Polish society had to wait till the breakthrough year
1989 for non-public radio stations on the airways in diferent parts
of Poland. Ater 1989, not only nationwide private broadcasters but
also plenty of independent local radio stations were created. Because
there was no legal framework for such broadcasting, they broadcast
illegally, oten jamming each other. hey were created mostly as bottom up initiatives by local enthusiasts and activists. he situation
changed in 1992, when the Broadcasting Act was passed by the Polish Parliament. his Act oicially abolished the state monopoly on
broadcasting. Many local radios were given a chance to legalize their
activity.
he great majority of broadcasters have local licences in Poland. According to the National Broadcasting Council, there are more than
284 licensed local radio broadcasters and this number is still growing. However, it does not mean they all play roles typical of local radio. Similarly to other countries, the networking process has its negative impact on this sector. According to the National Broadcasting
Council (Krajowa Rada Radiofonii i Telewizji), in 1997 there were
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140 independent local commercial radio stations on the air while in
2010 - only 53 such broadcasters.
A great majority of local radio stations are members of one of the
big radio networks like RMF MAXX, Złote Przeboje, Plus, or Eska.
hey play a dominant role in the radio market, not only when we are
talking about the number of stations but also their incomes. However, when it comes to local independent radio stations, the situation
is becoming more and more stable. he number of independent radio stations in Poland has not decreased in the last few years. Ater
several years when these stations reported a loss, most of them have
become proitable (National Broadcasting Council Annual Report
2011).
he existing local independent broadcasters are a mainstay of creativity and local content on the Polish airwaves. As the report prepared by the National Broadcasting Council 2012 entitled he Percentage Of Local Content In Licensed Local Radio Stations On he
Basis Of Research Conducted In Years 2009-2011 showed, the programmes broadcast by independent local radio stations in Poland are
signiicantly more diverse, with local content broadcast during the
whole day with almost no repetitions. Local networked broadcasters,
controlled by big media groups, provide localness in a very tricky
way: almost half of the local content is repeated and broadcast outside prime time when very few people listen to those stations (such
as very early in the morning or at weekends).
he number of independent broadcasters is small and it is close to
impossible for a group of local enthusiasts to start a new local radio station, mostly because of signiicant inancial barriers and lack
of free frequencies. he answer to the question how to increase the
sum of localness and prevent the localness from disappearing may, to
some extent, be found in the development of the community broadcaster sector and the protection of local public broadcasters.
LOCAL PUBLIC BROADCASTING IN POLAND
One can ask the question: If, in Polish conditions, the regional public
radio broadcasting is currently, and can be in the future, an efective
means of maintaining pluralism and cultural diversity of the society, then how should it be organized for these goals to be achieved.
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Media Transformations
he situation of Regional Broadcasting Stations of the Polish Radio
should be considered in the context of the general situation of the
whole system of public radio broadcasting.
he new legal situation in which public radio broadcasting found itself ater the enactment of the Law about RTV of 29 December 1992,
meaning obtaining the full inancial, organisational and program independence by the Polish Radio and Regional Broadcasting Stations,
made maintaining the integrity of the public radio broadcasting a
foreground issue. In Poland, there are 17 regional broadcasting stations, creating the companies of the State Treasury, which broadcast
17 round-the-clock programmes in the areas of their operation,
while 5 companies broadcast urban programmes in Wroclaw, Zielona Gora and Gorzow, in Koszalin and Poznan.
Regional public radio stations broadcast a lot of ‘spoken word’ programmes - an average of 41% of the annual programme. More than
half of the ‘spoken word’ comprises local content. 11 of 17 regional
stations broadcast special programmes for national and ethnic minorities as well as people using regional languages (National Broadcasting Council, 2013).
Currently, although in a form far from a desired condition, Polish
Radio is cooperating with Regional Broadcasting Stations in the
programme sphere; however, the development of this cooperation is
counteracted by local ambitions, institutional and personal interests.
he valid law on radio and television broadcasting does not contain
any duties, consisting of the cooperation of the companies of public
radio or rules creating relations of dependency between particular
companies.
What is more, the law brought about a phenomenon unpredicted by
the legislation: Polish Radio SA and Regional Broadcasting Stations
found themselves in the situation of rivals on the market, if we accept the term of a rival, introduced by the amendment to the Law
on the Counteraction to Monopolist Practices of 24 February 1990
(Parliament of the Republic of Poland, 1990). he rivalry takes place
in three dimensions: on the radio market for the listener, on the radio
commercials and in the eforts for the participation in the licence
incomes.
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Here also the valid Law on Radio and Television Broadcasting (Parliament of the Republic of Poland, 1992) neither contains norms of
rivalry between the companies on the radio market and commercial
market, nor does it speciiy the character of the resolution on the
division of licence fee incomes.
his merely indicates the dysfunctionality of the existing system of
public radio broadcasting. If we add the necessity to maintain the
excessively expanded authority bodies within companies, as well as
creating, in particular, the companies’ investment and disintegrated
technological platforms inadequate to the needs, established by the
“Law on Radio and Television Broadcasting” of 1992, the system of
public radio broadcasting should be evaluated as very expensive, not
using, as it happens in the private sector, possibilities which are created by consolidation, efect of synergy and economy of scale.
Any new locations of the previous Regional Broadcasting Stations
cannot, however, mean the loss of the values which were brought by
the Regional Broadcasting Stations working for 20 years in the new
organisational shape, promoting regionalism and locality as the peculiar type of social capital of regional broadcasting stations.
he fundamental question today, in reference to regional radio, is in
what way the system of regional public broadcasters should be built
in the decentralised country, and how to make them become the real
media for promoting and developing the local and regional identity.
If we move this concept to the area of contemporary media, aspiring to the creation of a technological and program network within one organisation which would be cheaper and more efective in
management, the experiences of the German ARD can be an inspiration. Although it was created in the federalist political system
which favoured diversity of the media, when it was brought to life as
a network, it meant to consist of state-independent self-government
regional stations. Public RTV stations were created by decisions of
lands, because the issues of the media belonged to their competence.
At the same time, ARD, as the Community of Public Radio and Television Institutions, was created based on decisions of the national
broadcasting stations about mutual co-operation, which was to decrease the costs of operation, preparation of programmes and their
broadcast.
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Media Transformations
COMMUNITY BROADCASTING IN POLAND
Unfortunately, in Poland there is no fully recognized non-commercial
sector which could be a real supplement to commercial local broadcasting. Admittedly, in 2001 a new category of broadcast media was
introduced - ‘social broadcaster’. However, this regulation provided
an opportunity of development in the third sector only in theory. In
practice, only religious radio stations happened to be beneiciaries of
these regulations. In 2012, there were only eight social broadcasters
and all of them were related to the Church. Despite a legal opportunity to join this sector no other entity is interested in doing so. he
main reason is the fact that such stations are totally excluded from
the advertising market. here are also no other sources of inancial
support for such initiatives indicated by the law. It occurred that the
exemption from the licence fee is not a suiciently important impulse to make the appearance of more broadcasters within this legal
framework possible. Many broadcasters with a noticeable non-commercial trait decided to exist within the commercial sector. hese are
stations like: student, local government, NGOs and religious radio
stations, without the ‘social broadcaster’ status. However, they fulil
at least some of the community media goals.
he fact that the regulation concerning ‘social broadcasters’ does not
really support development of this sector of the media was noticed
by the regulator which, in 2012, announced public consultations on
broadcasting related issues, including a ‘social broadcaster’ status.
It declared it was interested in changing the situation and creating
a better environment for community broadcasting and illing a gap
between the public and commercial sector. his general idea was also
supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in the
letter which was sent by Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski as a reply to the
public consultations. he National Broadcasting Council suggested
that, to achieve this goal, the necessary changes include: expanding
the number of entities which are allowed to apply for such a status;
reducing fees for such broadcasters; access to advertising with some
limitations; concrete programme restrictions and non-proit nature
of such initiatives. All these issues became a subject of discussion
during public consultations (National Broadcasting Council, 2012a).
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he call for social feedback received a signiicant response – 503 letters were sent by political parties, local broadcasters, social broadcasters, NGOs, individuals and one academic, however 477 responses had the same content. What is interesting is that these public
consultations about the third sector of broadcasting coincided with
a similar discussion in the Czech Republic. he Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting, the Czech regulatory body in the
broadcasting ield, opened a public debate on Community Media by
commissioning a report indicating some pathways for introducing
a non-commercial media sector in the Czech Republic, where now
only two broadcasting sectors are recognized: public and commercial (RRTV, 2012).
he Polish consultations showed how much the general concept of
community broadcasting is misunderstood in the Polish society and
how oten it is confused with only religious broadcasting. 477 identical letters, which were sent to this part of the public consultations,
raised the problem of the presence of Telewizja Trwam – a non-commercial, religious, nationwide TV station on the digital multiplex,
which had little in common with the main subject of the consultations. What is more, the authors of this letter postulated including
not only community, but also religious education content, as a necessary element of this kind of broadcasting. In some responses, a striking opposition between social broadcasters and local broadcasters
was created, for example in the one sent by Polska Izba Komunikacji
Elektronicznej and supported by the participants of the First Forum
of the Local TV Broadcasters, which took place in Jachranka from
21-22 May 2012, and in the letter written by a journalist from the
local TV station Gostynin.
he authors of those letters suggested that many local broadcasters
were small, not proitable, serve local communities and bring them
a social gain. hey suggested that they might ind themselves in a
very bad situation, when more support would be ofered to the ‘social
broadcasting’ sector whereas in the authors’ opinion, such stations
were perfect candidates to join this sector and take advantage of this
fact.
he consultations also showed that for some people in Poland, locality in broadcasting is an important and - in the perception of people
Local radio - an endangered species? The polish case
Media Transformations
taking part in these consultations - endangered issue. Marcin Stelmaszyński, who plans to open a local station, explains in his letter the
reasons why he decided to take part in these consultations:
I would like to support locality. Unfortunately, today in the
existing legal reality it is impossible. I hope that it is possible
to work out such a model of social broadcasting which will
keep the big commercial radio stations away from taking
advantage of this regulation (2012).
However, putting small scale local broadcasting into the framework
of the ‘social broadcaster’ status may prove, in Poland, somehow dificult. It must to be said that some of the existing social broadcasters have strong transmitters and wide coverage. One of them, Radio
Maryja, is a nation-wide broadcaster. It will be diicult to change the
broadcasting rules for present broadcasters. hat is why the postulate to create another category for community broadcasting is worth
taking into consideration. In some letters, one can ind a suggestion
that there is an urgent need to introduce special regulations for ‘local
broadcasting’ itself.
It is also worth mentioning that the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) answered the public consultations
about the ‘social broadcaster’ status in Poland. hey sent very interesting recommendations based on some ‘best practices’ and regulatory models already existing in Europe and recommendations formulated in documents about community media broadcasting prepared
by the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and UNESCO.
he summary of these consultations, prepared by Krajowa Rada Radiofonii i Telewizji, suggested that the most important postulates for
the development of community broadcasting were identiied as: the
need to broaden the catalogue of entities entitled to apply for such a
status, exemptions from fees for the licence and for the frequency, reliefs for copyright fees, special programme requirements, including
those aimed at local community needs, limitations in advertising, as
well as a requirement for participation of the society in the functioning of those stations and the transparent character of their activity
(National Broadcasting Council, 2012b).
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However, one of important elements is missing in this summary.
Apart from some exemptions from fees there is no other public support mentioned. No suggestions included in letters sent by AMARC
and academics and supported by NGOs involved in broadcasting,
like splitting public service broadcasting licence fees, splitting private
broadcasters’ advertising revenue or creating a public fund, were taken into account. It is important, because in most countries with an
established community radio sector such support is provided.
As underlined by Henry Loeser, recognition is the natural irst step
in the ultimate establishment of a vibrant community media sector
(Loeser, 2012). A good example showing how important the legal
framework is for community media development is Great Britain,
where special regulations concerning community broadcasting were
implemented in 2004 by Community Radio Order. In 2009 the British regulator in the broadcasting market Oice of Communications
(OFCOM) reported that the number of community broadcasters exceeded 130 (OFCOM, 2009). In 2011 there were 231 such stations
(OFCOM, 2011). Now, Great Britain is one of the European leaders
when it comes to community broadcasting. It is worth stressing that
public consultations announced by the regulator in Poland concerning the third sector of broadcasting, and some recommendations
prepared as the result of this consultation, may be treated as a step
in the right direction. However, the implementation of even a few
of them is questionable, since the regulator in Poland does not have
legislative initiative.
CONCLUSION
When analysing the situation of local broadcasting in Poland it is
worth highlighting some key factors which characterize the local
radio landscape in Poland. First of all, it must be said that the radio market as a whole is dominated by big media groups. It is also
the case in local broadcasting. Independent local commercial radio
stations have survived mostly in smaller towns, which are not such
attractive markets for big media concerns.
However, there are some positive signals observed in independent
local commercial broadcasting. he situation of this kind of station is
more and more stable. he number of such stations is not falling and
more and more of them are becoming proitable. It may be treated as
Local radio - an endangered species? The polish case
Media Transformations
a part of a more complex phenomenon. Within Polish society there
is a growing interest in local issues. Despite a decrease in the national
press readership, local and sub-local titles are still popular and some
of them even increased the number of issues sold (Janke, 2012).
For public radio the coming years will be critical, as now the very
expensive transition to new technology must be inanced. It involves
incurring costs (in the case of radio, lasting longer than for television), simulcasting (simultaneous broadcasting in analogue and digital technology), and also paying the costs of testing new technologies
of transmissions, costs of promoting new platforms, etc. It is known
that these costs will not be incurred by the commercial sector of radio. All these costs are worth incurring, as it is almost certain that
the public radio will be the main beneiciary of radio digitalization.
In this situation, many public radio broadcasters in Europe are looking for new sources of inancing the costs of digitalization, being created both ‘on the side’ of the programme and ‘on the side’ of transmission. he example of new possibilities of obtaining resources to
inance digitalization may be a paid service of the radio on demand
in reference to using the archive collections, starting online shopping, and paid sub-castings including specialist contents outside the
routine programme, or using the possibilities which are created by
public and legal partnerships.
Of course, in the crisis observed in Poland concerning inancing, it
is necessary to create for the public radio broadcasters more legal
possibilities of inancing other than only the licence fee sources of
inancing. To the greatest extent, this concerns the Regional Broadcasting Stations of Polish Radio, as they are 85-90% supported from
the licence fee. In this sphere, a fundamental question in reference to
the regional public radio is how to provide a proper relation between
the scale and costs of its operations and the inancing possibilities.
Development of the third sector of broadcasting is gaining more
and more recognition. It is proved not only by public consultations
concerning ‘social broadcasting’ status but also by a reference to the
community media as an important element in the fulilment of the
main goals deined in he Strategy of the Development of the Social
Capital in Poland (Ministry of Culture and Social Heritage, 2012).
Some very promising recommendations on how to change the reg-
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ulations concerning the local and community sector were also included in the information about the main problems of radio and
television prepared by the National Broadcasting Council (2013).
However, despite these positive signs, it is worth stressing that there
is a long way to go from including these recommendations in the
documents to implementing them.
It seems that local radio in the commercial, community and public
form may be endangered without support. As Guy Starkey rightly
noted:
While radio’s future may well be bright, preserving and stimulating localness may ultimately depend entirely on the will
of legislators and regulators to keep it alive, wherever in the
world it may be found. Distinctiveness may cost disproportionate amounts of money, and the preservation of heritage
– both cultural and radiophonic – may require efort and
expenditure as well as political will. he big prize remains
the expression and stimulation of cultural diference, yet it
may just slip from our hands. Regulation of both ownership
and content, as well as provision of support funding, may be
essential to stem the tide of local radio going global (2011).
As far as the problem of the local broadcast media preservation is
concerned, there are some documents of note. In 2005 the National
Broadcasting Council drew up a special document he Strategy of
the National Broadcasting Council for the beneit of the local character and the pluralism in the programme ofered. here were some key
suggestions formulated as to how to prevent the local content and
independent local broadcasters themselves from disappearing.
In this document, there were also possible ways of supporting local
broadcasters speciied, like deining features and requirements local
programmes must meet, directing local advertisements mainly to
local broadcasters, deining rules connected with creating and functioning of radio networks, including their programme and advertisement activity, reliefs in licence fees, frequency fees, copyrights,
preferences in the selection of frequencies for local broadcasters.
However, most of these postulates have not been put into practice.
Local radio - an endangered species? The polish case
Media Transformations
As for now, local radio in Poland has to struggle to survive. It is worth
stressing that some needed changes in the legislation of local broadcasting may and should be supported by the society. he more active
and visible local broadcasters and local communities, the brighter future of local radio will be. Without a bottom up movement for locally
routed, small scale radio, the idea of a local, powerful media in Poland, serving the development of democracy, may never be fulilled.
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