[cma-l] DCMS consultation meetings on amendments to communityradio law

Wed Oct 19 12:25:44 BST 2011

Just a quick note to say I agree with Martin, Radioplayer has been good for us at Future. Lots of positive feedback from people listening online who previously struggled to. We may not be on DAB, but at least with Radioplayer we are ‘on a level’ with BBC, Heart, Kiss etc when it comes to listening online. And that can only help us sell ourselves better in the future.

Terry Lee
Station Manager
Future Radio

________________________________
From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk [mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Martin Steers
Sent: 19 October 2011 11:41
To: London Chinese Radio
Cc: cma-l
Subject: Re: [cma-l] DCMS consultation meetings on amendments to communityradio law

I do agree that as a sector we need to come together, and your also right that all stations should be standing together, I suspect we sort of fall into the "I'm alright Jack" (although we do want a slightly better coverage), however we will still stand together as part of the CMA to say that CR needs looking at and adjusting by Gov / DCMS.

On another point however I wanted to correct, the UKRadioPlayer which I think you are referring to is a great opportunity for community radio stations. It provides a standard player that listeners are getting used to and also a search feature that if setup right will drive listeners into your station, we know that for us if people put in Luton we should come top, above the BBC and Commercial stations.. also the stats will be made available to stations, and as we have seen with absolute they say they have grown listenership away from the BBC (and some BBC data released say they have lost online listenership because of the player).

So I would look into the UK Radio Player if you are a community station!.

Martin

On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 10:20 AM, London Chinese Radio <admin at londonhuayu.co.uk<mailto:admin at londonhuayu.co.uk>> wrote:
I agree with Nick too, to some extent. And also with Ian. And Roger. Hmmm, that makes me quite an agreeable person!

As for effective communication, I often wonder why we are all ranting to each other, and what use that is?
But actually it is the right place, because its the CMA forum, and they are the ones that should be taking our message on.

However, I also despair, as Nick points out, that there are a lot of "I'm alright Jacks" around, and the problem is that people will whinge and rant until they get what they want, be it a license, some funding, some change in broadcasting regulations that affects them directly in a positive way.

The problem is, then they're alright, Jack. Even if everybody else isn't. The CMA doesn't have enough welly because membership of the CMA contains very little in the way of obligation. If it were like a union, the CMA could go up to whoever-it-is and say "right, we're not going to stand for this and we have 128 stations behind us". But they can't and the people we are up against know this and are laughing. And that's why they don't take us seriously. The BBC, and umbrella commercial radio outfits are organised in that way. And they have effective lobbying, and so can get regulation past (such as the 50% rule) that should never have existed.

The example I particularly take issue with is how all the CMA members are going to the BBC iRadio, while the CMA player, which we should be supporting, flounders. It's a crying shame, because if we acted together the CMA player would contain much more content of original and diverse nature than the iRadio. Plus we wouldn't be all donating all our listening statistics, in glorious detail, to the BBC to help them make sure their radio / choice of music is more spot on than ours (and I CMA stations don't get access to all that data).

Anyway, I didn't want to turn this into a rant. I just wanted to point out the need for unity.

Best

Peter Vautier
London Chinese Radio

On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 7:35 AM, Ian Hickling <transplanfm at hotmail.com<mailto:transplanfm at hotmail.com>> wrote:

OK Roger - I was joking!
Regarding this:

CR is being badly treated by the authorities. Why should commercial businesses be protected by law from the activities of community projects? It’s nonsense.

I agree!
But we all knew about that from the very beginning.
Did we complain then?
Have we been complaining continuously ever since?
What results have we seen?
What does this tell you about effective communication?

------------------------------------

Ian Hickling
Partner

transplan UK

________________________________
From: rj.thorne at btinternet.com<mailto:rj.thorne at btinternet.com>
To: cma-l at commedia.org.uk<mailto:cma-l at commedia.org.uk>
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:13:16 +0100

Subject: Re: [cma-l] DCMS consultation meetings on amendments to communityradio law

Please don’t speak for me - I’m not fed up with his moaning,  though I’d say that “ranting” is a better description of Nick’s posts at times!  As is regularly pointed out he can be inaccurate, and certainly often comes out of left-field.  But usually worth a read even if just for the entertainment.

Underneath it all though the man is correct. CR is being badly treated by the authorities. Why should commercial businesses be protected by law from the activities of community projects? It’s nonsense.

I would pay money to be a fly on the wall at a meeting between Nick and the DCMS.....

From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk<mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk> [mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk<mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk>] On Behalf Of Ian Hickling

Sent: 18 October 2011 14:18
To: office at ccr-fm.co..uk<mailto:office at ccr-fm.co.uk>; Alan Coote; cma-l

Subject: [cma-l] DCMS consultation meetings on amendments to communityradio law

Nick

I'm going to do this in public, because we're all fed up with your moaning.
No - actually - we do appreciate what you're saying.
Let's get some facts into this.

Firstly - about Key 103 - if it is that causing the problem.
That's on 103,0 at 347 metres AOD and an antenna elevation of 40m with an aggregate 4kW on Saddleworth Moor and you're on 102,8 with 25W at 153m AOD and 34m antenna elevation and an aggregate 48W at Bolligton - 27km due south with a complete geological signal block anywhere to the east of you.
103,0 is second adjacent to you, which providing you're both within specification, means no part of your transmission envelopes overlap more than at -60dB.
That is one millionth of full power level.

So - any cross-talk you're getting can only be attributed - forgive me for being blunt - to the use of crap radio receivers.
I'm sure you wouldn't want legislation introduced  to allow for that?
No fault of the rules, the broadcasters or of Ofcom.
There is a possible solution of moving your frequency either one channel further away from Key 103 or somewhere entirely different - but that's a much bigger exercise as I'm sure you'll understand.

Secondly - the so-called "crackle crackle hiss hiss crackle" is not being generated by you or by them.
It's your radio picking up other random signals which are of a level higher than the wanted one..

This may be because of low signal strength - or again the radio itself - or more likely its aerial aystem.
Again, not the fault of the rules, the broadcasters or of Ofcom.

Thirdly - your idea of upping power by 1W at a time. Beside it being completely outside any concept of engineering planning logic, it would do no good at all. Power (allied with propagation format) gets you penetration; height gets you range. So - to increase coverage area you'll need to provide your antenna with a better view of its target. Therefore more height - or an entirely new location. That's always assuming that you are actually emitting your full ERP, which in itself may be part of the problem.

Look - buy me a decent lunch and I'll spend a day with you looking at the problem and I'll do you a Spectrum Audit Scan which will show just how near or effective other broadcasters are. And I'll analyse your problem crackle/hiss areas too.
Then we might be able to come up with a good practical sound engineering solution.

------------------------------------

Ian Hickling
Partner

transplan UK

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