Save 209 Radio Campaign

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209radio, ’s Community Radio Station broadcasting on 105 FM, is facing closure after just one year of broadcasting on FM to the city.

This 5 year old project, which has been providing radio training and broadcasting opportunities to many of Cambridge’s most vulnerable groups, has been unable to attract core funding and has survived on a succession of project funding plus what little our membership has been able to donate or raise.

Additionally, the community radio licence for currently contains a clause which was designed to protect the income of a small local commercial station by preventing us from raising any kind of on-air advertising or sponsorship revenue.

209radio provides training and broadcast opportunities to a very wide range of people; the following are examples of our work:

• Making Mental Notes, a magazine programme by and for mental health service users,
• Homeless Truths, a unique programme by and for homeless and vulnerably housed people,
• Surprise Yourself!, a programme by and for Girlguides,
• We provide many work experience opportunities for college and university students and many young people with physical and/or learning difficulties,
• We carry programmes in Mandarin, Turkish, Kurdish and Polish which serve those communities in the city,
• We provide a platform for musicians, poets, writers and actors through many music, spoken work and drama programmes.

This week we experienced a rapid decline in our cashflow which now means that unless we raise an amount between £25,000 by the end of September, this valuable resource for will have to close.

The criteria on which our advertising restrictions are based changed recently and our regulator Ofcom reviewed the situation on 15 September, allowing us to raise this revenue for ourselves following this ruling. This ruling can help the station be sustained long-term but has come too late for short term survival.

The amount we seek will allow us to honour our commitments and to build the capacity required to start selling the advert and sponsorship opportunities that will make a great deal of difference to our financial freedom and hence our sustainability.

We are obviously seeking cash donations to our Registered Charity from the local community to bridge this difficult time and I ask if you or anyone known to you is able to help in this regard.

I do hope that you feel moved enough by this letter to contribute to the urgent matter of continuing this valuable and much loved community resource.

Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor me: 209radio Ltd gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

Thank you for your support!