[cma-l] FW: Poor Reception

[Canalside's The Thread]

James and all

 

Firstly     it is now in black      hand on heart I never even noticed it
was in blue, perhaps I am colourblind and didn’t notice ????

 

Secondly, can I say that I have no issues with anyone (James included)
giving me a ticking off for saying something they disagree with. Seriously,
that is fine by me and I take no offence whatsoever.

The thing I sadly am guilty of is I am not particularly very good at
explaining myself in the manner that I wish to, and the e-mail rhetoric
comes out a little to direct. We can be direct though, all of us and that’s
fine by me.

 

I do however wish to clear some things up :- 

 

I have had to refer to the dictionary following Davids e-mail on the board
as I was unclear about the ‘’not inconsiderable’’    ‘’visceral’’
unfortunately I still only just half understand it, but I think I get the
gist.

 

My passion, my emotion, my at times knee jerk reaction brews because I love
what we all do, and I love the people that this Community Radio Industry is
built on. I’m not aware that that is a crime, but I do take it on-board. I
do however take a dim view when I read through the mist and see little words
in there like ‘spite’   etc etc     there is no spite whatsoever in me and I
have nothing to be spiteful about. If you want the full facts, both this
Radio Station and myself have been the victim of spiteful behaviour from
other Stations as have many others in the Community Radio field, Canalside
is not alone.

 

I have read the trail following this e-mail and I wish to dispel a few
myths. 

 

1)       I do not wish to become some kind of martyr, I am not looking for
brownie points or to be paraded around in a sedan chair. I simply want an
even and level playing field which over the last ten years there HAS NOT
BEEN ! 

 

2)       The passion doesn’t bubble up because I suddenly wake up one
morning and decide to have a knee jerk 
. It is because this Radio Station
of ours has been under attack from the local ILR over the years ***   [and
if you want me to write a list of some of the nonsense over ten years I can
do 
..   it might be my longest e-mail yet]   ***  I have to say things have
died down a little over the past 18 months and I’m glad about that      I
would much rather try to work together (and we have)         

..    but
James et al seem to forget that if you wish to have a lecture on all of this
stuff then you have come to the right chappy to give it. We have been on the
receiving end of the FULL BLOWN restrictions and it lasted for 7 years 
..
it changed not because it was the right thing to do, it changed because
Ofcom at the drop of a hat gave silk fm a power boost     in otherwords, the
wrong reason. OK, we’re out of it 
 but I am not an ‘I’m alright Jack man’’
as I care about the other guys struggling along like Tudno and Bay  etc
that is why I am passionate and decent !

 

3)       Read what I write and not what you think I write. We applied for
the area that we have now because we were told that we might be struggling a
bit to get Macclesfield fully on the map. Reason, we had already been
knocked back once and we would be under full restrictions anyway because of
silk AND plonking ourselves fully in the middle of their ‘’’apparent area’’’
might make a bad situation seem even worse. I can explain this at a meeting
if you wish but it seems quite simple to me. I repeat, we are broadcasting
to an area that we didn’t particularly want, but was OK to at least get us
started. We had to write something down. We since were told that the 5km
rule was actually NOT a rule but a recommendation, this had a huge bearing
on the end result. Also, the fact of the matter is that if silk didn’t exist
we would have been able to set up right in the centre of Macclesfield and
broadcast to Macclesfield. People were hoodwinked, us included, but of
course not deliberately (well    not by Ofcom)

 

4)       My true feelings regarding broadcasting music is actually that I
believe we pay for our music and then we broadcast it and then PRS and PPL
ought to pay us. However, I know that this will never happen (but we can
dream)                        but          once again you are only reading
the bits you want to read. For clarification I have said that yes we do
report on the music, we report on how many tracks of the PPL artists we are
playing    end of !     that is a report. How many listeners is irrelevant
as I would have thought that if we have more listeners that is BETTER for
the artists (unless of course I have missed something again)    I don’t
expect to be charged for it. Likewise, if I pay my gas bill I pay on what I
use     ie: - gas = songs played        I don’t then get charged extra
because I happen to have 8 people huddled around a radiator as opposed to 2.
Also, we are all not-for-profit, that is what it says on the tin and at the
end of the year we all make nothing. By the Broadcasting Law we re-invest
that money into the project 

.so, the gross figures are a red herring and
irrelevant, they are just a means of being able to screw more money out of
people. Supposing our gross income is £800,000 a year, but our outfit and
premesies are state of the art and cost £798,000 a year to run, under these
rules we end up not with £2000 pounds float, but skint !   and minus  -

 

5)       All this bartering, contra deals, ceded air-time 
 it’s a
bureaucratic nonsense    we’re not in a Persian Market or running s Dutch
Auction, we are running a not-for-profit venture called Community Radio

 

On the final points I will make these observations. I have never said that
Community Radio is run by a load of nutcases, but I will say it is run more
on Get up and go, Passion and Dedication as opposed to A’Levels, University
and Degrees (try and read between the lines on this one)      of course the
ideal situation is a bit of both, but in reality that isn’t always possible.
We may be able to bring experts in if we didn’t have restrictions (ouch
there’s that word again) if we had slightly better coverage and could fix
problems quickly, but we can’t, so we debate and talk for another 5 years.

 

I possibly will have to put myself in the nutcases corner then 
.. but
please remember, we have been here for nearly 12 years being run by a
nutcase/doughnut or 2  and we have had to endure FULL BLOWN RESTRICTIONS and
a rather hostile commercial outfit.

 

Don’t despair for me James, and don’t despair for Community Radio. Also,
someone mentioned about devaluing Community Radio 
. Our on-air sound is as
good as anyone, we’re just short of a few bodies at the moment. Why ?    we
are victims of our own SUCCESS       2 more moving on to the BBC 
 one
moving to commercial Radio and another into TV / Music Production. Over the
12 years that is now 16 people making that move with 10 of them NEVER having
any Radio experience at all. And guess what, all being trained by a nutcase
/ doughnut

 

Don’t despair mate, certainly not for me.

 

I will gladly wander off the message board, that’s fine by me, and if folk
likewise want to wander off back into their little corner of the UK and put
up with rules and situations that to anyone with half a brain can see are
unfair then that is their democratic choice.

 

As for us, we will continue to move forward with passion, dedication, the
love of the community, and when the going gets tough, hang in there, oh and
not forgetting a bit of kneejerking.

 

Don’t despair, never despair, we’re fine and dandy

 

Oh, and one final thing, regardless of what pedestal people want to put
themselves on ‘we are Amateur’         we are Amateur but that doesn’t mean
we can’t be Professional. Unfortunately I drift quite a bit nearer to the
Amateur than Professional as you can see. Ask me if I’m bothered.

 

Don’t despair

 

Finally, if anyone else wishes to tick me off, that’s fine, I can hack it,
when I see you at the next meeting I’ll buy tou a cup of tea and biscuit.

 

I like you all, you people of great loveliness.

 

Adios

 

Regards

 

Nick

 

  _____  

From: James Cridland [mailto:james at cridland.net] 
Sent: 06 February 2015 09:14
To: Canalside's The Thread; The Community Media Association Discussion List
Subject: Re: [cma-l] FW: Poor Reception

 

Nick, I despair. Every single little-text blue email that comes in from you
leaves me more and more concerned for community radio.

You appear to make two points here:

1. You applied for a coverage area that you don't now want and now you want
to change it. Somehow this is someone else's fault: Ofcom, or government, or
Ed Vaisey, or the CMA's. It is "unfair", a "circus" and a "debacle".

2. You want to broadcast music but don't want to pay for it or report it.
Somehow this is all PPL's fault. They are "doughnuts".

With every pronouncement - every one of which is publicly published and none
of which is challenged by anyone else - you underline the widely-held view
that community radio is run by a bunch of amateur nutcases. That isn't fair
on community radio, but it's hardly surprising that one of RadioCentre's
concerns about community radio is that it devalues radio as a whole.

Heaven knows, this is advice I should take, too - but I do wish, for the
sake of the industry I love so much, that you'd just shut up.

Best,

James



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