[cma-l] Offensive language on Radio

[Ian Hickling]

Julian
Can I take you up on your last paragraph:
 
So getting back to the original point, a regulatory system which relies upon stations having fully resourced staff and management teams presents extra challenges for volunteer run stations such as ours.   If, at the meeting in October, Ofcom seem inclined to move towards increased regulation or expectations, I would ask that the Jaqui and the CMA represent the difficulties that this will pose for stations operating with minimal resources.

The Regulatory System doesn't and can't specify or rely on the level of staff resources that a station has available.
It simply states the rules and enforces them where there is a need.
 
You don't have to have enormous resources and dozens of trained staff to keep to the basic rules.
You just have to engage, train, brief and supervise them properly.
Those are surely the very basic requirements of people management in any business.
I totally reject the perpetual whinge that because people are volunteers you can't impose a level of discipline.
 
You don't learn to drive, get a licence, buy a car and then complain about having to stop at red lights.
You don't get a licence, run a radio station and then complain about having to suppress offensive language.
 
Where on earth is the problem?
------------------------------------
Ian Hickling
Partner
transplan UJK

 




From: julian at 10radio.org
To: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:31:09 +0100
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Offensive language on radio - how to avoid the pitfalls


Interesting debate.

It does seem that there are two models of community radio.


One is a radio station that happens to use community and voluntary resources.  The operational style is probably very similar to commercial radio.


The other is a community project that happens to produce radio.  


It's not to say one is better than the other, and I'm sure some stations combine both.  But we very much fall into the second model.


Hardly anyone had previous radio experience before we setup six years ago, but we had lots of community development experience.  We setup primarily to do community development.  In that context, we're not going to be negligent and we're not going to ignore what we have signed up to do.  But we are going to be realistic about what volunteers can be expected to do, and what they can achieve and deliver in the absence of full-time hands-on management.  From the conversations I've had, people from the more commercial and possibly top down model really struggle with this approach.  But it works for us, it works for our community, and from what Ofcom have said having monitored our output, it works for them as well.


So getting back to the original point, a regulatory system which relies upon stations having fully resourced staff and management teams presents extra challenges for volunteer run stations such as ours.   If, at the meeting in October, Ofcom seem inclined to move towards increased regulation or expectations, I would ask that the Jaqui and the CMA represent the difficulties that this will pose for stations operating with minimal resources.


Julian











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