This weekend I was in Birmingham for the AGM of the CMA (Community Media Association). Hosted at BBC Birmingham, inside the Mailbox building, it is the first CMA event I have been to since pre-Covid.
As well as the AGM itself, there were presentations given by representatives from EAVA FM, a multilingual community radio station in Leicester, which I really enjoyed; also a discussion on the future of local radio, and an update on IRIS-Local Radio Support scheme currently in development.
Afterwards there was a quick studio tour given by one of the BBC staff members who is also involved in community media. BBC Birmingham is now home to teams from BBC Asian Network, Radio 1 & 1Xtra (including the BBC Newsbeat team who recently relocated). We went in to one of the Asian Network studios – but I did ensure to press the button to change the studio branding to Radio 2 before the photo! The studios didn’t do that last time I was here…..
The lunch break was a useful networking opportunity – being able to talk to people from other community radio stations in attendance. People had come from as far away as Lancashire, Cornwall, Devon and Kent.
Looking forward to the next CMA event – the CMA festival in the Autumn.
Happy Monday everyone 🙂
