[cma-l] FW: Community Radio 50% Rules

[Office - ccr-fm]

  _____  

From: Office - ccr-fm [mailto:office at ccr-fm.co.uk] 
Sent: 11 October 2010 12:45
To: 'Julian Mellor'
Subject: RE: [cma-l] Community Radio 50% Rules

 

Re:-

 

Re :- Julians e-mail

 

Excellent point made by Julian ....... looks like we're splashing about in
the same boat . ??!                taking in water and the pump can't cope !
round and round and round we go with this argument .... over and over and
over.

 

As I have said, the discussion is quite simple. We are aware of lack of
frequencies and we are aware that some of us are lucky to have a frequency
at all ......... however, this part of the debate is a red herring and has
nothing to do with the point being made.

 

In a democracy if someone wishes to listen to Canalside Radio within our MCA
or our TSA (2 miles outside the zone that we keep having drilled into us)
then they should have the right to, and be able to ..... what shouldn't be
happening is that the commercial station          2 digits away, is bleeding
over the top !      we are losing potential listeners, simply because they
can't tune in .... this is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE !

 

We do not want more height .... we have no desire to start ''chucking our
signal'' all over the north west ...... what we need is a little more power
in order that we can prevent ourselves being BULLIED AROUND on our own
patch.

 

I would argue that places like South Macclesfield, North Poynton and East
Wilmslow have more in common with Canalside Radio than they ever do with the
likes of bloody Key 103 which at the end of the day is a Manchester station
....... Country bumpkins in North East Cheshire have absolutely nothing in
common with Mancs whatsoever !

 

In fact ...... we have been doing some research of our own over the past 4
months and according to our survey there ain't ONE person in Bollington who
listens to Key 103 ......... so ... WHAT THE HELL'S THAT ALL ABOUT THEN ?

 

We are on 102.8 ---------- the same as Chorley and Ram in Derby
------------------------------- there are odd little spots (behind hills)
where we have a little bit of a 'hand bags at ten paces' with the Chorley
boys .... I liaise with them from time to time. Our signal drifts quite a
bit to the North West, but going south (due to the hills) it is dreadful
...... It is reasonable to accept that there are going to be little issues
........

 

I travelled to Lincoln on Saturday to watch my football team Macclesfield
Town ....... Goodness knows what signal strength Ram are on ?? but it is
bordering on the ridiculous !       they are all over Nottingham, Mansfield,
Chesterfield, Worksop etc etc ......... and, ..... furthermore, when we
drive over the small hill in Bollington towards Saltersford, which as the
crow flies is LESS than our 5km allowance .... We get BLOWN AWAY by Ram fm
in Derby !

 

The moral of the story is that I am 100% certain that those community
stations who are being bullied off the airwaves by commercial radio need
another 10 - 15 watts to protect themselves in their own area ....... they
do not need height, which I believe could open up some more cans of worms.

Then again, I am but a mere insect in these matters ?!                but
possibly correct nonetheless ....... If we don't try it, we'll never find
out.

 

Why is everything Black and White ..... can we not invent the odd grey area
?      the bill is crying out for it !

 

Regards

 

Nick

 

Forward this on if you wish ....

 

 

  _____  

From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Julian Mellor
Sent: 11 October 2010 09:18
To: CMA-L
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Community Radio 50% Rules

 

Stroud's situation is absolutely mirrored here in Somerset - pesky hills and
valleys.

 

Soo at Ofcom tells us that increasing the height of our transmitter (which
they'd allow) would have a greater impact on reception than increasing
output power, but the landlords aren't happy with the idea and I suspect the
planners might have a wobbler as well.

 

Equally we are aware that some households are amazingly inept when it comes
to tuning a radio and don't realise that trying a different room, changing
position in the room, or just turning the radio round can make a big
difference.  

 

That aside though, we can do nothing when people complain to us about poor
reception, apart from suggest they try the web stream.

 

Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that a commercial station in Wales
(about two hour's drive from here) that transmits on the waveband next to
ours has a stronger and overpowering signal when one is listening just a few
minutes away from our studio.

 

Julian

10Radio

Somerset

 

 

On 11 Oct 2010, at 01:42, claire penketh wrote:

 


 Absolutely!!!!! Here in Stroud we have a nightmare topography of valleys
and hills, reception has been traditionally been really tricky here, even
for the mainstream media.  Despite the fact that there is no commercial
station in Stroud itself, as Star FM handed back their licence, and only the
ubiquitous Heart  blasts from Gloucester, we had to trim our  transmitters
output to just over 20 watts in order to comply with OFCOMS regs 

The feedback we get from people is that they love us, but can't pick us up
easily. Tricky to reach the whole community really...

 

Claire Penketh

Station Manager

Stroud FMl

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/pipermail/cma-l/attachments/20101011/2c1c6a4b/attachment.html>