We thank the committee for giving us the opportunity to present our case. Twenty-one years ago, Kilkenny Community Communications Co-operative Society was founded. Our first chairman, the late Fr. Gerry Joyce, who was involved in the then pirate station, had gathered together a group of people who were enthusiastic supporters of local radio and the idea of a co-operative was born. All strands of community life in Kilkenny city and county were drawn into the co-operative, and money was collected, much of it through door-to-door collections. The co-op campaigned for enabling legislation for legal local radio, and when the legislation was finally passed, we got our licence for Kilkenny city and county.
We ran a very successful radio station for 14 years, and during that time we achieved extremely good results in the joint national listenership research survey, we were successful on the commercial front and many of our broadcasters won radio awards. We can therefore claim to have been doing a very good and well-appreciated job. We own our own studios, have paid our staff properly and have paid all the other running costs of a successful radio station. We have also contributed in the region of €1 million to charities and the local community. We were complimented a number of occasions by the relevant Minister of the day, and were informed by personnel from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland that we were an example of what local radio is all about. Some of our presenters were also recognised as sufficiently competent and experienced to be invited to lecture on radio courses.
The committee can imagine the shock when we failed to secure a licence for the modified franchise area of Carlow-Kilkenny in 2002. We expected that, as the top station in Leinster and one of the top five stations nationwide, our record would put us ahead of any competitors. We were unhappy with the licensing procedure from the start. First, the BCI's chief executive officer refused to come and talk to us after publishing the document, Regulating for Pluralism and Diversity in Broadcasting - the way forward. A number of matters arose for us in that document and we asked for a meeting, but we were told that we could not have one, as the BCI was going into the next round of licensing and could not talk to any group. We could not understand that point of view because the relicensing round had not actually started at the time.
We were happy with our franchise area of Kilkenny city and county. No entity expressed an interest in the Carlow-Kilkenny modified area but, despite that, the BCI advertised that franchise and we were obliged to make a submission for it. When the BCI rejected our application, we had no avenue open to us other than the extremely expensive judicial review route, which we pursued; we fully support the committee's recommendation that a proper appeals system should be put in place. The entire legal process has cost Radio Kilkenny €350,000. It also cost us €90,000 to put our submission together. We assumed that the two other applicants for the Carlow-Kilkenny franchise had similar submission costs.
The minimum expectation was that the executive and board of the BCI would apply the most exacting standards of due diligence to the submissions, but our contention is that the opposite happened: the BCI appears to have made a mere cursory investigation. It offered us five reasons for turning us down; we have challenged and, in our view, repudiated them all. A copy of those reasons is included as the feedback report in the pack we have given committee members. For example, the principal reason was that the winning consortium had better local knowledge than Radio Kilkenny - clearly a spurious excuse based on a lack of recognition of our successful structures and on inaccurate information in another submission. They also accused us of losing money over a number of years. That was totally inaccurate and withdrawn subsequently in court.
The winning consortium submitted a transmission system and studio arrangement which was a mere illusion. It appears the earliest they can be on air now is April or May. At this time they do not even have planning permission for their proposed studios in Kilkenny. This contrasts with the new Kildare station, which went on air on 1 February even though it was delayed longer than the new Kilkenny-Carlow station by legal action.
We do not believe the BCI adequately examined submissions. Clearly, it made its decision based on incomplete and inaccurate information. Where was the independent verification of claims made on transmission plans, for example? Ours were up and running and delivering a radio service to at least 75% of the modified franchise area. We have 63% of the radio listeners in County Kilkenny and 16% in County Carlow; that is based on an MRBI survey. Sixteen months after the BCI decision the winning consortium in Kilkenny-Carlow has no studios and no transmission system.
We are aware of last minute efforts to assemble a quorum of board members to award radio licences. This certainly happened in the north west case, as the BCI did not have a quorum when it first met to make that lethal decision. In our case, four members of the board of BCI removed our licence to broadcast after 14 successful years. Three voted for us, two abstained and one was absent. We have never been offered any reason one of the members abstained.
It must be noted that the judicial review process is extremely restrictive by its nature. An applicant can only attempt to prove that the awarding body, in this case the BCI, did not observe its own rules. It makes no attempt to adjudicate on the decision per se.
When we came off air it created a huge void in the lives of the people of Kilkenny and surrounding area. Many of the services we had offered were no longer available, and people missed them. For example, one of the items most missed was the death notices. This is an item which has often been rubbished by some of our bigger, more commercial stations but which is an almost vital part of our broadcasting service. People became even more aware of the place Radio Kilkenny played in their lives when it was no longer available to them, and we continue to get offers of all sorts in a desire to get our radio station back on air.
We would submit that neither the BCI nor the politicians realise how the people of Kilkenny feel about their radio station. The people were proud of it and, having put up the money to start it, are conscious that it is their own station. Many of them have contributed in a very real way to its operation by acting as volunteer presenters or working on some of the various committees. Radio Kilkenny was a very real part of the spirit that infiltrates community life in the county and has received plaudits and ongoing support from groups like the ICMSA, the IFA, the GAA, the ICA, local authorities, etc. Among the biggest losers are the older people who have been very well catered for by Radio Kilkenny, in contrast to the emphasis of newer commercial stations who appear to focus almost exclusively on the 15 to 35 years age group.
We, at Radio Kilkenny, were never the ones depriving the people of radio. It is a result of mishandling of the situation by the BCI and a lack of a coherent appreciation of its responsibilities by the relevant Department which appears to have abandoned its responsibilities to an independent body, with no requirement for it to be answerable to the Government or to the people. Surely the Minister should have the last word on decisions made by his or her Department and should not confer responsibility on a totally independent body, answerable to no one, especially when there is no appeals system in place. We believe the democratic deficit, which is blatant, could be addressed by giving this Oireachtas committee a real role in the determination of radio licences.
The whole ethos of local radio appears to have changed. Local radio, like local newspapers, no longer seems to be a desired element in our society. Bigger and better, and from miles away, is what seems to be getting the thumbs up nowadays. We have had columns in the papers extolling the virtues of less and bigger, rather than local and relevant.
When we went into radio back in the 1980s, the ambition was to have local radio for local areas and it was meant to be independent, which was reflected in the name "IRTC". That appears to have gone. We have Scottish Radio Holdings, UTV, Communicor and the newspapers getting in on the act and taking over the smaller stations, which will no doubt hold a local ethos for as long as it suits these companies. After that, as has happened in other countries, we will get radio which emanates from a common studio, with local advertisements input at the advertisement breaks as the only real local element.
One can see what is happening currently on Sky TV, where the programmes are common to all viewers but the advertisements for Ireland are inserted into the broadcast at the relevant time. We would suggest that was not envisaged in the 1988 legislation. The title of the BCI document, Regulating for Pluralism and Diversity in Broadcasting - The Way Forward, does not appear to be relevant to decisions made by BCI as diversity and pluralism appear to have gone out of the whole concept. If one looks at the ownership of many of our local radio stations, Scottish Radio Holdings, UTV, Independent Newspapers and Denis O'Brien's Communicor are very much in evidence. There was a time when the legislation required that no company should achieve dominance in the radio media and newspapers were not encouraged, or indeed allowed, to become major shareholders.
There is another point we believe is worth mentioning. As a result of the decision of the BCI, over 20 members of the staff of Radio Kilkenny were made redundant. This, according to BCI, was not its concern but it cost us in the region of €250,000 in redundancy payments and, in turn, it will cost the Exchequer €75,000 in repayments to our company, together with the ongoing cost of unemployment payments to our staff as long as they remain unemployed. That is an element which does not appear to have entered into the equation at all.
Where now for Radio Kilkenny? We have written to the BCI requesting a community licence for Kilkenny city and county. The BCI says that is not possible for at least 12 months. We do not accept this and we point to the situation in Tipperary mid-west, where a community licence has already been awarded.
I ask the Chairman, Deputies and Senators for their support in achieving this goal. We believe no other agency of the State could close down a viable business, put staff out of work and hand the business to another company free of charge when the going market price for such a business would appear to be in excess of €10 million.
We, at Radio Kilkenny, feel robbed of our enterprise, our assets and the goodwill of our community involvement. The Taoiseach and other Ministers laud voluntarism. It was lauded at the Special Olympics by Denis O' Brien. However, it appears that in our own case a voluntary organisation which makes a financial success of a community enterprise is fair game for big business to come and take it from us.
I thank the committee members for listening to our concerns and experiences. I and my colleagues will answer any questions they might have but I appeal to them once again to support our quest for a community licence. We have the expertise and the infrastructure but, most importantly, we have the resolve and the passion and we will succeed.
