[cma-l] imaging and the announcement

Sun Jan 18 12:35:48 GMT 2015

It looks like the first sentence of my posting got chopped off (perhaps I deserve a beheading!). It should have started:

"Sorry if I've missed Ian's point, I just couldn't see how items 1-3 should have higher priority than item 4, since implementing them would be part of the Station Manager's responsibility. "

As you say Pippa, viability has to be proved from the outset, in fact beforehand, but I would say the main need to do so is not for the funders nor Ofcom, but to prove to yourselves there is any point pursuing the venture at all.

Any team setting out on this road has to decide how much compromise they can make in the early days to get started with the funding they can achieve, butof course that can be slightly chicken-amnd-egg. One of the toughest decisions is whether to 'go for broke' and plan everything to have full funding and high-standard facilities from the outset, and try to find big funders, or to start 'on a shoestring' with cobbled together gear and try to work upwards from that. 

I would say that at either extreme, one thing that can't be foregone is a paid station manager (not necessarily full-time) - but then I'm a station manager, so I would say that! Seriously, my observation is that any micro-scale station, needs at least one person, preferably a pair, with both personal and formal commitment to making sure things work and develop. Ironically, the bigger the station, probably the less important a station manager is to its success, but still a person with drive and commitment in the lead will make all the difference.

The other things I would say should not be compromised, even on the shoestring, are the ability to maintain a proper technical quality and reliability of transmission and programming, and of course the ability to comply with all Ofcom requiements (eg totally reliable logging of output). If a financially viable shoestring solution can't be found to meet these minimum needs, then I would say the whole scheme may not be something that can sensibly be pursued.

Sadly we've now seen two Scottish Highlands and Islands CR licencees hand back their licences after a few years of failing to get on air at all, because in each case after legnthy internal debate the groups decided that if they couldn't raise the funds to 'do the job properly' from the outset, then they wouldn't do it at all. One was in a thriving, densley populated town, the other on a lightly populated moutainous island. Right decisions? Who knows? At least they may have saved themselves years of tough struggle on something that was eventually going to prove non-viable in the long term anyway.

Alex

...
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Two Lochs Radio 
  To: pippa ; Ian Hickling ; The Community Media Association Discussion List 
  Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2015 2:34 PM
  Subject: Re: [cma-l] imaging and the announcement

  would be part of the Station Manager's responsibility. 

  Yes, I'd expect the station manager to do an awful lot more of course - it wasn't meant to be an exhaustive list of a Station Manager's responsibilities... has anyone ever got to the end of that list? One of the problems is that generally the smaller the station, the wider the range of the SM's direct responsibilities (but usually the lower the pay!).

  As for news, in our case we see local news as an absolutely key part of our local broadcasting - a key differentiator for us against any other radio service available in our area, and one of the main reasons for a sizeable proportion of our audience to tune in (chances are quite a few tune in for the local news and weather and then leave us again!). Producing it is probably our heaviest daily burden however - it is time consuming and tedious to produce, day-in, day-out. 

  For national news in daytime hours we get a 2-3 minute hourly bulletin from Glasgow. IRN/Sky News would sound completely wrong for us in the north-west of Scotland, but the 'Glasgow and the West Coast' bulletin of national and international news that we get fits in just fine.  During peak hours we follow the national bulletin with our local news and weather.

  Alex
    ----- 
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: pippa 
    To: tlr at gairloch.co.uk ; Ian Hickling ; The Community Media Association Discussion List 
    Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2015 11:39 AM
    Subject: Re: [cma-l] imaging and the announcement

    Absolutely Alex!  Once you are established, great. However it's difficult at start-up level though because you need to prove to funders (whether commercial or 3rd sector) that you are viable before they will stump up the cash.  

    What else would you expect a paid Station Manager to do?  For me, getting out and networking is a must.  

    Incidentally, I'd love to know how colleagues handle news coverage. Do you take a national service? Follow it up with local news snd weather?  Or is everything done in house? 

    Loving these conversations! Together we are stronger!

    Pippa

    Sent from Samsung Mobile

    -------- Original message --------
    From: tlr at gairloch.co.uk 
    Date: 17/01/2015 11:10 (GMT+00:00) 
    To: pippa at curlyradio.com,Ian Hickling <transplanfm at hotmail.com>,The Community Media Association Discussion List <cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk> 
    Subject: Re: [cma-l] imaging and the announcement 

    But if you put your number 4 as number 1 instead, all the rest should then be taken care of! :-) 
    Alex 
      On 16 January 2015 at 21:09 Ian Hickling <transplanfm at hotmail.com> wrote: 

      After having built over 40 stations but not actually ever had the pleasure of running one for more than 28 days, I'd prioritise in a different order: 
        1.. Professional imaging – so you sound to your audience  like a proper radio.  
        2.. A superb website featuring a listen again service and links with social media 
        3.. Make your ads in house by all means, but make very sure they sound professional. 
        4.. A full time paid Station Manager who runs the business professionally and effectively. 
        5.. Think carefully about News - go for local - don't bother with national. 
      Whisky Mac for me please! 
      Ian 

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