CMFE member: Near FM (Ireland)

Near Media Co-op is a not-for-profit community media project made up by Near TV and NearFM operating across the Northside of Dublin City and beyond. Near encourages groups to use community media as a tool in their development work and aims to support the issues, events and stories important in the local area.

One of the main challenges in 2018 was staying on the airwaves- Every ten years community radio stations need to re-apply at the Broadcast Authority Ireland for their broadcast licence which takes a lot of work and time. It’s all good, we are still here- ever so strong  Near Media Co-op employs 10 staff, runs Community Employment Schemes, a training scheme for long term unemployed people for over 20 positions and counts over 100 volunteers.

Our most import success over the years is the continuous commitment, passion and creativity of our programme makers- our volunteers and staff- producing the diverse programmes we put out on TV and FM / podcast.

We target our training and outreach particularly at those in society under-represented in mainstream media such as young people, migrants, senior citizens, LGBTI+, people with disabilities and women. We operate an open access policy and run regular induction courses in radio skills to new volunteers and community groups.

Near TV operates as a community TV production facility, TV Programmes are made available on our website, www.near.ie and on DCTV, Dublin Community Television. Near FM is a not- for-profit, democratic, community radio station, broadcasting 24 hours a day.

Programming involves radio drama, multilingual programmes, assisting unsigned musicians, intercultural programming, educational programming, outside broadcasts, documentaries to name a few.

In September 2015 Near FM has become a lecturing partner in association with University of Wolverhampton for Coláiste Dhúlaigh, College of Further Education in Dublin to lecture parts of the BA Honours Degree in Broadcasting and Journalism.

Near FM and Near TV have been part of several EU funded partnerships (ECEA, Communicating Europe, Erasmus +) developing training and programmes. With CMFE, they are currently involved in SMART Trainers.

Near Media Co-op | Northside Civic Centre | Bunratty Road | Coolock | Dublin 17 | +353 1 8671190 Facebook | Twitter | Website: www.nearfm.ie and www.near.ie

The overall coordinator is Ciaran Murray, former president and board member of CMFE, ciaran@near.ie, general queries reception@near.ie.