COMMUNITY participation is the watchword of the 11 community radio stations on air under a pilot scheme set up by the IRTC in 1995. One of the stations, Connemara Community Radio, has come up with an ambitious plan to extend such participation with the help of a £15,000 grant from the Ireland Fund.
The pilot scheme ended on New Year's Eve, and the IRTC is currently engaged in a three stranded evaluation process which will run until mid year. In the meantime the stations - in north Connemara, Castlebar, Youghal, Cork Limerick, Galway and Dublin - will be allowed to continue broadcasting.
The word from the IRTC is that the experience has been largely a positive one. This contrasts with the despondency in community radio circles two years ago at the commission's delay in getting the sector off the ground.
"I would say that overall the pilot project has moved the debate about community broadcasting on," says the commission's community radio officer, Mr Ciaran Kissane. "A lot of valuable lessons have been learned, and people are optimistic about the future."
A key lesson is that goodwill alone is not sufficient to sustain such stations on a long term basis. The stations would close tomorrow without the help of hundreds of volunteers, and while such voluntary participation is part of the sector's raison d'etre, hard cash is also needed.
This is particularly true in the case of Connemara Community Radio. It is one of the smallest radio stations in Europe in terms of audience size (fewer than 9,000 people), but it covers almost 800 square kilometres west of the Twelve Bens, stretching from Round stone and Cashel in the south to Leenane and Killary in the north and including Inishbofin Island, Recess and Maam Cross.
It is based in a studio in Letterfrack and broadcasts a mix of current affairs, music and discussion programmes five hours a day. Two of those hours go out in the early afternoon and are a repeat of the previous evening's broadcasts.
Because of the distances involved in travelling to the studio from other parts, most of its presenters at the moment come from the Letterfrack area, according to the station's co ordinator, Ms Mary Ruddy.
The presenters try their best to overcome this inevitable centrism by conducting telephone interviews with contacts throughout the franchise area. But it would be much better to originate programming about Inishbofin, for example, on the island.
"Rather than us contacting Inishbofin and deciding what to cover, we want to give them the control, so that they are in a position to decide," she says.
"We have tried, insofar as possible given limited resources, to ensure that all of north Connemara has an ownership in the community radio. We have done this by doing a large number of broadcasts from community centres and events, for example the arts festival in Clifden when each morning's broadcast came from the community school.
"We have done live broadcasts of pony shows, regattas, fleadhanna, public meetings, ecumenical services, and football matches. This is in addition to a host of pre recording sessions, interviews, meetings, etc.
"However, having volunteers from a community who are regular contributors, who are very aware and familiar with what is happening in each locality, is the best and most desirable way of ensuring that Connemara Community Radio is in tune with our audience and programmers."
This is where the grant from the Ireland Fund comes in. The money will be used to hold a series of workshops in areas like Ballyconneely, Roundstone, Cashel, Recess and Inishbofin to try to identify people interested in becoming involved and establish a local radio group.
Basic equipment - a broadcast quality tape recorder and microphone - will be given to some groups. It is hoped to establish outside broadcasting units on Inishbofin and in Roundstone.
The plan is to produce at least one half hour programme a week from each focusing on local developments, issues and individuals.