‘Why I keep banging on about diversity, and you should too’

Whilst many are claiming glory over the renaming of the Colston Hall, the sudden change of personality within the mainstream media or even the shift in the political power base across our city, BCfm Radio has been quietly laying the foundations, and creating pressure and accountability for these things to happen.

Quietly championing initiatives, training producers, presenters and making programmes that have challenged and disrupted the way in which our city operates.

I believe BCfm, the community radio station that I’ve run over the last seven years, has quietly helped to change the face of Bristol for the better.

The One Love Breakfast show was the brainchild of BCfm that was initially met with a negative response from our cousins at Ujima Radio and even some at BCfm. It offered to unite community media and provide an alternative, independent news agenda that mainstream media had no choice but to follow, and politicians and business had no choice but to be accountable to.

Three months after we launched the One Love programme, Ujima Radio did join us and even the BBC Training Academy came to make a short documentary about the groundbreaking idea that almost immediately challenged the status quo.

Imagine, born and bred white Bristolians sitting with Somali men and women who in turn were talking with members of the LGBT+ communities and those with various disabilities. Christians, Muslims, Sikhs and Rastafarians discussing the latest news. The ages ranging from children to those in their eighties, the epitome of diversity and inclusion.

More than 190 volunteers currently work in some way on more than 70 weekly programmes that reflect and represent nearly every aspect of Bristol life. We even make shows and programmes for a host of other community stations and provide content for the BBC and independent radio and TV networks too.

Harriet Robinson and Pat Hart in the BCfm studio

So what’s so special about what we do at BCfm?

Well, if you think of the hundreds if not thousands of activists, great organisations, individuals, businesses and charities across the city and all the amazing work that they do and then put them into a massive amplifier and graphic equalizer, they reach thousands more people in a focussed and directed way that in turn improves the effectiveness and reach of their projects.

BCfm is that amplifier and equalizer as well as being one of the driving forces behind the strategies that have proved to be so beneficial to our city.

Diversity and inclusion are at the centre of everything we do and as both the station manager and CEO of the charity, it’s my duty to keep the momentum going and constantly challenge those organisations who think that a few ticked boxes are the answer.

My organisation recently refused to broadcast from the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, and I personally refused to either attend or be involved in the Harbour Festival.

For years, BCfm has spent thousands of pounds promoting all that Bristol has to offer with no contribution from these event organisers despite hundreds of thousands of pounds coming in from corporate sponsors. Not even a meal, transport costs or a drink offered to our volunteers who often work 12 hour shifts promoting these people to thousands of listeners.

If Bristol City Council really cared about community radio and the job we do for them then they would insist that organisers fund us properly to be able to broadcast instead of offering us scraps at the eleventh hour then giving mainstream media top billing and prime space at these events.

BCfm now broadcast from Easton Community Centre on Kilburn Street

For too long we have been the forgotten media who are useful at election time but otherwise invisible all year round. We provide the Bristolian accents, the black and Asian voices, the women, the LGBT+ perspectives and the opportunities for our elders and those with disabilities to be heard.

Yet the funds for diversity and inclusion appear to have run dry. It seems okay to pay an accountancy firm big bucks to do a feasibility study but not okay to pay even expenses to the new Commission for Race Equality.

I know that the only way to get true equality is to embrace the principles of diversity and inclusion. We must do this without fear and also call out both those that pretend to embrace those principles and those who shut the gates on others trying to move up.

As our experience tells us and indeed nearly all statistics do too, despite black and Asian people sitting on panels and committees over the past 25 years, what has actually changed to make health, education, housing and equality of opportunity better for those groups? The answer appears to be nothing.

In fact much has got decidedly worse for people of BAME backgrounds as well as others from diverse communities. The disabled, the elderly, women, those suffering from mental health problems, our young people. The list goes on.

False prophets, gatekeepers and those that fear the real wind of change should also fear the power of independent, not-for-profit media. Plenty of those reading this will have done very well out of their “trade in diversity” – full bank balances, seats on boards and more than a few free lunches.

Though they still say the right things, we’re beginning to realise that they don’t do the right things: they don’t share, they don’t develop, they cling to power and they’re scared and quite rightly so.

Thank goodness for unions like Acorn, cooperatives like The Bristol Cable and shows like One Love Breakfast who exhibit no fear in speaking out for the under-represented.

None of us are perfect; indeed we all still have so much to learn from each other. But one thing I am certain of is the need to continue to bang on and on and on about diversity and inclusion, and you should too. It really is the only way forward.

Pat Hart is the chief executive and station manager of BCfm