[cma-l] Offensive language on radio - how to avoid the pitfalls
Ian Hickling
transplanfm at hotmail.com
Mon Sep 19 23:28:22 BST 2011
How to avoid the pitfalls?
Simple.
Don't play it unless you've auditioned it.
The Licensee is totally responsible for the station's output.
Accepting that the odd track can get through is lousy management - sorry!
Ans allowing all and sundry to add to the playlist is utter madness.
There are enough influences out there trying to kill off your station without adding Self Harming to the list!
------------------------------------
Ian Hickling
Partner
transplan UK
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:57:03 +0100
From: sandra.martin at saintfm.org.uk
To: cma-l at commedia.org.uk; julian at 10radio.org
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Offensive language on radio - how to avoid the pitfalls
Agree entirely with Julian, without someone who's sole responsibility it is to maintain the music library, be responsible for uploading, editing and scheduling the music daily the community world is at a disadvantage. We have to rely on our volunteers and our training, consequently with the best will in the world a non radio edit occasionally slips through the net.
SANDRA AMEY-MARTIN
STATION MANAGER
SAINT FM 94.7
01621 787829
07988 986975
www.saintfm.org.uk
On 19 September 2011 at 11:11 Julian Mellor <julian at 10radio.org> wrote:
This has already raised some issues and concerns for us.
Underlying it is I think the whole regulatory setup of radio i.e. everyone plays by the same rules. In itself there's nothing wrong with that, but when the rules are written by organisations with professional and paid capacity, those rules can easily be blind to the challenges that they pose to organisations running under limited volunteer steam.
At 10Radio we have a huge music library gleaned from our members' and volunteers' personal collections. Over the years we have weeded that to take out the explicits, but the occasional blip does still happen on our sustaining service (and results in immediate deletion). We encourage people to add new tracks and keep the collection alive (and we give them guidelines), but we don't have the capacity to supervise or double-check everything that has been added.
Furthermore, we don't insist that people only play from our own music library, so many bring in their own tracks. Again, we train presenters so that they know not to play explicits especially when children are in the likely audience, but some people may innocently play something that is deemed offensive (look at the words to almost every Amy Winehouse track!). A professional station may have the capacity to make sure that that doesn't happen. We simply don't.
We have even had an instance where someone with a grudge against us sent in a request to a new presenter for a particular track. When it was played they complained about the explicit references. Again, we don't have studio producers weeding out that sort of sabotage.
I know that we have signed up to Ofcom's regulatory framework and that is fine. But I would hate to think that this furore about offensive language ends up with more layers of regulation that we will simply be unable to implement. Some commercial stations would probably love to see the back of the pesky community sector ("they can't meet comply with the code, therefore they have to go"), but if we are to continue providing the local and accessible community service which we are committed to then at the meeting in October the CMA must fight for a realistic approach which accommodates all sectors of the radio industry, and not just the big boys.
toodlepip
Julian
................................................................................
10Radio: community radio for the 10 parishes
1 Croft Cottage, West St, Wiveliscombe, Somerset, TA4 2JP
Hear us on 105.3fm & www.10radio.org
JM tel: 01984 623 104
Studio and office tel: 01984 624 137
For details of our training, team building, hire and broadcast services , please go to www.10radio.com
10Radio CIC
Registered Office: 1 Croft Cottage, West St, Wiveliscombe, Somerset, TA4 2JP
Registered in England and Wales Number: 6004252
On 19 Sep 2011, at 10:24, Jaqui Devereux wrote:
Dear all in radio
As you will be aware, Ofcom informed broadcasters in a ‘Note to Broadcasters’ (in Broadcast Bulletin 188 - http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/enforcement/broadcast- bulletins/obb188/obb188.pdf) of their concern about offensive language in radio programming. This concern arose from a number of Findings, published in Broadcast Bulletin 188, which
featured offensive language in sound recordings and live music performances broadcast on radio services, especially those broadcast when children were particularly likely to be listening.
We strongly suggest that you read Ofcom's note, and we will be attending a special meeting in late October called by Ofcom to discuss the issue, we will feed back the outcomes from the meeting
Best wishes
Jaqui
--
Jaqui Devereux
Director, Community Media Association
Community Media Association
http://www.commedia.org.uk
t: 0114 279 5219
Canstream Internet Radio & Video
http://www.canstream.co.uk/
http://twitter.com/community_media
https://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation
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