The Radio Academy Benevolent Fund

David Lloyd, former MD of Virgin Radio and LBC, writes:

By the time your breakfast show begins tomorrow, your life may have changed. Today, you can be enjoying a happy and fulfilled career, enjoying the challenges and the laughter the medium affords us all; tomorrow your smile fades as your principal concern moves from making great radio to staying alive and making ends meet.

Radio is a small business and we’re all affected when a tragedy occurs to one of our colleagues or extended family of friends in radio. Whilst their health and recovery will be their principal concern, paying their bills can be another. Many of those we care about may be freelancers or between jobs, unprotected by the usual insurance policies, with little chance of income once their ability to work is diminished. We can do little to speed their recovery, but we can do something to ease their sudden financial hardship.

The Radio Academy has established a modest fund to aid professional members of the radio industry who have fallen on hard times, principally though illness or injury. The Radio Academy Benevolent Fund seeks to offer an injection of funds to help them and their families through a critical period.

Each Sony Awards night, as the industry recognises excellence, a voluntary contribution from the ticket price goes to the Fund. Additional contributions are being made by many of the UK’s radio companies. If you’d like to make a donation, details will be posted here shortly.

If you know of someone who has fallen on hard times, whom the fund should consider, email the Director or write to The Radio Academy, 5 Market Place London, W1W 8AE. Decisions on awards will be made by The Radio Academy’s Trustees. We appreciate these can be sensitive matters, and you can rely on our discretion.

You may also wish to consider recognising this fund in your will. A small bequest could change a life and be a fitting tribute to your contribution to the industry we love. Your solicitor will advise on the best way to honour your wishes but the following wording may help:

Residuary bequest (a proportion)

I give (%) of the residue of my real and personal estate which I can dispose of by Will in any manner I think proper to The Radio Academy Benevolent Fund (Registered Charity No. 293825) of 5 Market Place, London, W1W 8AE

Pecuniary bequest (a set sum)

I give the sum of ...... pounds to The Radio Academy Benevolent Fund (Registered Charity No. 293825) of 5 Market Place, London, W1W 8AE

If at my death any charity named as a beneficiary in this Will or any Codicil hereto has changed its name or amalgamated with or transferred its assets to another body then my Executors shall give effect to any gift made to such charity as if it had been made (in the first case) to the body in its changed name or (in the second place) to the body which results from such amalgamation or to which such transfer has been made.