[cma-l] imaging and the announcement
Canalside's The Thread
office at thethread.org.uk
Mon Jan 19 14:26:57 GMT 2015
Dear All
The Station Manager conversation is always a corker I reckon. Station
Managers in Community Radio are NOT really like Managers in other businesses
. We tend to be more of General Dogs Bodies and Gophers
. Has anyone
else experienced this ?? when we set out on this venture in 2004 I was
prepared to do whatever was needed to get the project up and running and
then tootling along. I aimed at doing about 20 hours a week and receiving
nothing but a few expenses. The 20 hours then became 25 and then very
quickly became 35 and then 40. A slight re-think was needed and it was
decided that I was to receive a little tickle £££ or 2
.. obviously, at
40 hours one or two of the other thing that I do had to be pushed slightly
to one side (ie my job)
..
In 2007 just before launching full-time we needed another serious re-think
as without realising it I was now doing 50 hours !
obviously the great question appeared from nowhere which was ‘’a good
Manager delegates’’
. All well and good,if, you have folk around you to
delegate to. We had lots of volunteers, but they were merely doing the shows
and then goodnight Vienna see ya next week. You end up with the same five
running the whole process, and therefore they are the five who receive a
little tickle £££ the situation in a roundabout way answered itself.
Are there any other Stations who are where they are today of course through
deliberate actions but also and element of fate and luck and basic HARD
GRAFT from a few people. Those people may also define their job description
as General Dogs Bodies and Gophers.
I say all of this without being derogatory to anyone
. My hours are now
averaging at 70 whilst receiving Part-Time pay. I’m not complaining, I am
merely making a point and giving you all the facts.
I reckon others are in the same Boat
..if they ain’t, then we’re doing
something wrong. But alas, we’ve been running for 12 years next year ! we
must surely be doing something right and our / my approach as you can see is
most definitely not Blue Chip big Management, it’s hard graft on the
treadmill.
Regards
Nick
_____
From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Two Lochs Radio
Sent: 18 January 2015 12:36
To: The Community Media Association Discussion List
Subject: Re: [cma-l] imaging and the announcement
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 <mailto:tlr at gairloch.co.uk>
To: pippa <mailto:pippa at curlyradio.com> ; Ian
<mailto:transplanfm at hotmail.com> Hickling ; The Community Media Association
Discussion <mailto:cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk> 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 <mailto:pippa at curlyradio.com>
To: tlr at gairloch.co.uk ; Ian <mailto:transplanfm at hotmail.com> Hickling ;
The Community Media Association <mailto:cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk>
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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