[cma-l] News sources - what are you doing?

[Tom Buckham]

Hi Jabbar

We've been talking about this recently at Future Radio as it's not 
something we’re entirely keen on either. We've been moving away from IRN 
in recent months though so our reaction following the switchover 
announcement has been to reduce our satellite news bulletins and 
increase the scheduling of our own news output produced at the station 
(a good thing!).

We don't have the resources to produce bulletins every hour, but we've 
taken the view that we’d rather go for a reduced amount of (national) 
news following the switch from IRN to Sky. We're still likely to use the 
feed in the short term I guess, but long term will be looking to move 
away from it – I don't think there is an alternative source in the same 
vein as IRN and my understanding from having spoken to Ofcom is that 
they aren't keen on CR stations looking into BBC news as an alternative…

All in all I think it points towards CR stations developing their own 
news output, as many do. In terms of resources though it's not something 
that every station will be able to do. In my personal opinion Sky news 
and the type of news on most CR stations are polar opposites so it would 
be interesting to see what other people think also.

I started a post on the Community Radio Toolkit which has some response 
also - 
http://www.communityradiotoolkit.net/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=294#p1043

All the best

Tom Buckham
Station Manager, Future Radio

Future (formerly known as NR5 Project)
168b Motum Rd, Norwich, Norfolk, NR5 8EG.

01603 455250

Registered charity number 113200

Future is a community development organisation that uses creativity to 
engage, inspire, educate and train young people and adults in Norfolk. 
Future is home to Future Education, Future Studios, Future Radio and 
Future Projects.

http://www.futureradio.co.uk

http://www.futureprojects.org.uk

http://www.myspace.com/futurestudiosofnorwich

> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: 26 February 2009 13:13
> To: cma-l at commedia.org.uk; comradio-l at commedia.org.uk
> Subject: 
> 
> Hi All
> 
> We've been informed by the IRN news that from 3rd March, Sky news will
> be taking over and we will be receiving 2 rather than 3 minutes of news
> which we received as standard.
> 
> The IRN news has been quite reliable over the past few years but now
> we're faced with a dilemma that we have to go with Sky and we're not
> sure that we want to. 
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas about other news sources we could take on the
> hour? We were paying £117.50 per year though we think Sky will want to
> charge more.
> 
> We'd like to hear if anyone else is facing these issues and what you
> might be doing. 
> 
> Thank you
> 
> Jabbar
> Radio Asian Fever
> 229 Roundhay Road
> Leeds
> LS8 4HS
> 
> Tel. 0113 240 2222
> Jabbar. 0788 170 1133
> Sakina. 0787 212 1544
> http://www.radioasianfever.com