Why can't we all just get along?

Hi music journos. You can say community radio is good without also saying commercial is shit. We know it's a particular sound but it does well at reaching a lot of people + everyone behind the scenes are all working really hard + doing our best in the confines of the format ✨

— Coco Cole (@cococole) June 1, 2022

Extending this to some (not most, but some) in the community sector themselves who sneer at the wider industry. Sometimes publicly and it can get personal which is obviously unacceptable.

This saddens me. Above all, listeners are still choosing radio in their droves - let’s just celebrate that fact together?

I’d add that, ironically, their stations require some commercial thinking in order to grow, but I’ve probably already blogged more on that point than any other!

Commercial radio fought tirelessly for the freedom to compete efficiently with the BBC for audience and other less regulated sectors for revenues.

Radio is in good health today from understanding consumers better, embracing new platforms and having strong competition (from each other and now digital media).

Just as commercial radio benefits from BBC standards and vice versa, community stations benefit from both - by acknowledging what makes others successful and applying some of that thinking while offering a distinctive product, plus of course we owe it to the big players that FM and DAB are able to exist.