[cma-l] a tale of two stations

[Phil Korbel]

in today's Ofcom Bulletin - two community stations - Voice Of Africa
[London] and Afan [Port Talbot, Wales] are told off for apparently going off
air [or near as].

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/enforcement/broadcast-bulletins/obb175/issue175.pdf

There's an interesting nuance - VOA went off air completely for weeks it
seems and neglected to tell Ofcom at all, and Afan had what sounds like a
terminal IT meltdown and had to put on a loop for a week or three.  Now they
told Ofcom about their IT SNAFU, got permission for a temporary remedial
service [that didnt fulfill their Key Commitments]  but over-ran on the
amount of time they'd been permitted.  Ofcom discovered the VOA boo-boo and
a complainant alerted then to the Afan situation  Both stations have had the
same breach declared but I wonder if the different approaches to Ofcom will
make the seriousness of any sanction vary between the two?

Of course we cant know the full context and detail of the two incidents but
one lesson is clear - if there's something going awry that's likely to make
you breach your licence - 'fess up!  Start a dialogue w the community radio
team - they are reasonable people [whatever you think of the regulations
Nick]...

best wishes

Phil

-- 
Phil Korbel
Director
0161 237 5454

Radio Regen is a community, media and urban regeneration charity
A company limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales No.
3753832
Registered office: 12 Hilton Street, Manchester, M1 1JF
Registered Charity No. 1077763
www.radioregen.org
www.communityradiotoolkit.net
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/pipermail/cma-l/attachments/20110207/3eec6d37/attachment.html>