[cma-l] is there anybody in there?

Thu May 26 17:04:04 BST 2011

All,

Is it just me - or are Ofcom quietly starting to get tougher on Community 
Stations now they've been around for a while?  

I don't for a moment condone stations that breach the rules, after all we all 
know what they are when we sign up, and if we claim to be professional enough to 
take on a licence we ought to be professional enough to understand what that 
entails.

However a CR station is different in a very fundamental way to commercial 
stations or the BBC, the main difference being the involvement of very many 
people who are not professional "radio people"  (in the sense that it not their 
major source of income).  That makes it more difficult to train and monitor 
effectively, and you'd expect there to be occasional lapses.

Whether Ofcom is able to take that into account I doubt, but one would hope that 
listeners would as long as they understand the situation and they see the 
station as being a beneficial part of their community.

In this particular case, and based only on reading the published bulletin I 
think Ofcom have made a reasonable decision, and through my rose-tinted glasses 
I think I detect the lightest of slaps on the wrist from them.  I don't think we 
need to get too fired up over it as long people are sensible over how they 
schedule repeats and what sort of shows are repeated.

Actually I fell victim of this just this week when listening to a show which is 
normally live, but this time was a repeat.  Thinking it was live I entered 
the quiz by email as usual. 

I found out later that if I'd heard the start of the program, had listened to it 
the week before or had looked on the station website or facebook page then I 
would have known it was a repeat.  But I didn't, I just tuned in about five 
minutes after it started and enjoyed listening as usual.

It never occured to me to complain to Ofcom, I just figured there must be a good 
reason for it because I trust the people at the station to do their best.  (and 
I got the answer to the quiz wrong anyway).

Roger

________________________________

From: Office - ccr-fm <office at ccr-fm.co.uk>
To: martin at martinsteers.co.uk; CMA-L <cma-l at commedia.org.uk>; jaqui devereux 
<jaqui.devereux at commedia.org.uk>
Sent: Thursday, 26 May, 2011 11:36:50
Subject: Re: [cma-l] is there anybody in there?

Martin n’ all

I forgot to mention in my rant)       we (CCR) plug all week long that some of 
our programmes are repeated ….. ie:- 60’s / 70’s / 80’s etc     by doing so 
PROVES that we are not wishing to deliberately deceive our listeners.

I was on-air last week and mentioned that ‘’the next programme is a repeat of 
Sundays seventies show’’  (as I do everyweek)           whilst the show was 
playing, three people rang up in the first 20 minutes of the show, all of them 
said ‘’oh nevermind I’ll ring back on Sunday’’ …………..

I fully understand the rules and I fully understand that they are there to 
protect listeners and Joe public …………. It is unfair to encourage listeners to 
text / ring shows knowing that they will get no reaction / no answer and be 
charged …………… certainly if it is being charged at premium competition rate.

We don’t have any charges at our station, that is not what we are about and we 
take every opportunity and care to ensure that listeners are not deceived ………..

So, my conclusion is this ………….. rule 2.2 needs changing 
!                               it either states clearly that repeated shows are 
NOT permitted full stop, as this argument will always rear up it’s ugly head or 
it is left alone and everyone gets fined ………… I don’t think there is a community 
station in the Land that hasn’t dropped a clanger on this one.
Volunteers simply do not have the time or the will to then finish there show and 
go searching and editing out everytime they mention a phone contact.

However, having had my rant I do accept completely that rule 2.2 should exist, 
but not if common sense can’t be applied.

The station in breach …… have they been fined ??               damn shame if 
they have.

Nick

________________________________

From:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk 
[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Martin Steers
Sent: 26 May 2011 10:26
To: Julian Mellor
Cc: CMA-L
Subject: Re: [cma-l] is there anybody in there?

Although I never like to see a station get breached, I must admit in this case 
they did break the rules, if you read the previous cases and the statement ofcom 
made at the time they where trying to clamp down on recorded, non line calls to 
action, and I dont think I disagree with it.

If your doing any listener based show that relies heavily on listener engagement 
be it song requests, thoughts and feelings or any form of voting etc then this 
can not be pre-recorded, and if its repeated I think you need to make that clear 
as often as you can to your listeners.
The case that got breached wasnt a repeat, as far as I can tell it was a 
pre-record.. 

And not to be harsh.. but I am afraid "we don't have the capacity to monitor, 
enforce and edit everything to the level they seem to be requiring." goes 
against what the station signed up for when you applied for your license and 
started broadcasting, as a station you have a responsibility for everything you 
broadcast and it must all be code compliant.

I dont know if I agree with having to use the time and date all the time, do 
your volunteers have an extra 15 minutes to edit their shows? Would a generic 
"Your listening to a repeat of XYZ show from the XYZ date, any requests taken 
wont make it to this show but we will try out best to put them in the next show" 
and get them to stick it at the start of the show, and at regular points during 
the show (maybe over the original calls to action). You might want to double 
check with ofcom, but you might find thats a good step in the right direction 
and maybe all you need to do. Other things you could do is make it clear on 
websites etc that its a repeat, but use this as a positive to encourage people 
to listen to the live shows, maybe also look at either auto replying to any 
incoming messages explaining that its a repeat and you hope to get their request 
next time.. Either automated or by hand..

The rules and code are there to protect the listeners and broadcasters, it has 
to be the same rules for everyone regardless of the amount of listeners, 
demographic or if your charging £1.50 a txt.

Martin

On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 9:27 AM, Julian Mellor <julian at 10radio.org> wrote:
Earlier this week I saw Ofcom's ruling about a breach of the broadcasting code 
by a community station not far from here.

Apparently a request show was repeated, a member of the public called in to 
speak to the presenter, was told that in fact the show was a repeat, and so the 
said member of the public complained to Ofcom that the station was in breach of 
rule 2.2 (not to materially mislead).  Instead of find the complaint malicious 
and trivial, Ofcom found against the station and said that they had breached the 
trust of their listeners.

This raised alarm bells for me as we repeat most of our programmes and most 
invite listeners to email or text in with comments (and sometimes requests). 
However, rarely, if ever, do presenters give a date stamp during their 
programmes so the repeat could be perceived to be live (although there is 
absolutely no intent to deceive or mislead and most listeners know our schedule 
well enough or look at the website to see if its live or not).  Equally some 
presenters, especially newbies, often read out the contact details for want of 
something to say, but then forget to check the emails (which could be construed 
as deception).

I raised the issue with Ofcom of this seemingly draconian interpretation of rule 
2.2 (introduced to stop broadcasters running pseudo competitions on premium 
lines) and pointed out that, as a community station staffed entirely by 
volunteers, we don't have the capacity to monitor, enforce and edit everything 
to the level they seem to be requiring.  I said that it would be likely to drive 
away presenters and stop us repeating anything.  Surely, I said, Ofcom does not 
want to constrain community broadcasters in this way.

They came back the same day (preferring to call rather than write) and said it 
is indeed their intention to constrain broadcasters.  The way around it, they 
said, is for any repeated shows to give a date reference when inviting listeners 
to make contact.  Furthermore,  presenters must not invite contact if they are 
likely to forget to check the messages.

I sent out an instruction to our presenters and already one has come back saying 
it will destroy his spontaneity and, given that he can't guarantee that a date 
reference will always be given, he is withdrawing his repeats (4 hours of lost 
programming per week and many saddened listeners).   

I instinctively react against people banging on about nanny states, red tape 
etc, but this seems absolute madness and inspires me to move to Tunbridge Wells 
from where I shall write to my MP.

How does everyone else deal with the issue?  

(And for the avoidance of doubt this is written live at 9:15am on Thursday 26 
May but I may be away from my desk when you reply)

Julian

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