[cma-l] Ofcom and Tomorrow

Wed Jul 1 16:31:45 BST 2015

I would imagine that we could have done a plethora of things over the years
if we hadn’t been doing an impression of a Hamster on Wheel – Running like
mad and not getting anywhere !   Most of our energy has been taken up
arguing over what % we can earn to ‘provide a service’        remember this
is    ‘provide a service’ and NOT make profit 
.. plus it took 5 years to
get the £15,000 grand lee-way in place.

Some may say ‘’ere we go again, he’s off’’      not really, as it is all
relevant. It’s all to do with wasted energy and lack of funding. Most of us
are actually only about £30,000 a year short, which is the difference
between running something not far short of BBC standards. The BBC could
certainly off-load some of their programming and resources so that we could
work in tandem.

I think the first port of call though is to get the communication channels
open. Making 5 phone calls and sending 5 e-mails to the organ grinder and
getting no reply is once again not good use of time, then doing the same
again to the Deputy organ grinder only to end up dealing with the monkey who
can’t give you any answers anyway.

I can relate to everything that has been mentioned before but we need to
understand the process and what the end result needs to be. A simple way of
looking at it would be 

imagine BBC Manchester has 5 Sports Journalists
.. each beavers away through the week but can’t actually get on-air because
there is no room or they are not quite good enough 
. Why can’t one of those
journalists come and ply their trade on a Saturday for example at our
Stations ?  at no cost of course.

The last discussions seemed to end up whereby we were making Programmes for
the BBC 

 for free of course 
..   they then sack about 40 folk as they
don’t need them.

When we sit down at one of these meetings people should at least be honest

. I asked the question first off last time and received no answer 
 I just
got blank stares and others ducking for cover.

1)       Is the suggestion a genuine sharing of resources ?

2)       Is the suggestion a sharing of resources plus a bit of a tickle £££
?

3)       Is the suggestion actually a cost saving exercise by the BBC but
dressed up as something else ?

Why don’t BBC Journalists at BBC Manchester (for example) do a series of
News bulletins ?    3 a day   one in a morning, one at lunchtime, one at
afternoon/drive and send them out as two minute bites. Good practice for
their journalists.

They could focus on Rochdale News / Oldham News / Macclesfield News /
Swinton      just plucking areas out of the air here      Salford /
Stockport 
.. places where we have Community Stations  ??      I accept
there is only so much time, but they must have news stories that are never
used, they are too small for the bigger Manchester pool of News.

In otherwords use Community Radio as a training resource and/or somewhere to
off load programming that otherwise wouldn’t get used. Forget the funding at
the moment 
. Focus on the content. It’s a win/win for everyone.

It comes to pass that to me it appeared as if this was the idea, but we
ended up going the wrong way 
.. bottom to top instead of top to bottom. And
as I have previously pointed out, when we tried to speak to someone about it
in a polite and positive manner, it was like trying to get hold of Lord
Lucan. In fact, he would have been easier to get hold of.

Anyway, I’m off now to climb back onto the Wheel  :-)

Nick

  _____  

From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Ian Hickling
Sent: 01 July 2015 15:21
To: The Community Media Association Discussion List
Subject: [cma-l] Ofcom and Tomorrow

Maybe it's me Alan - but I'm sorry - I don't understand "....the sum of the
spare capacity of a dozen community radio stations couldn’t properly
resource the output ...."

Could you expand on that please?

Ian Hickling

Partner

 <http://www.transplanuk.com/> 

Office: 01635 578435  (7am-11pm UK time)

Carphone: 07530 980115 (only responds when driving)

6 Horn Street, Compton, NEWBURY, RG20 6QS

  _____  

Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2015 13:51:28 +0100
From: alan.coote at 5digital.co.uk
To: cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Ofcom and Tomorrow

An interesting idea however I struggle to see how the even the sum of the
spare capacity of a dozen community radio stations couldn’t properly
resource the output of even one BBC local radio station.  

Wouldn’t a better approach be to building on the CMA / BBC MoU to get so
many hours of local BBC radio airtime dedicated to community radio
programmes? 

Good luck. 

Alan 

From: <cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk> on behalf of Trevor Lockwood
Reply-To: Trevor Lockwood, "cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk"
Date: Wednesday, 1 July 2015 09:20
To: "cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk"
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Ofcom and Tomorrow

Donald

Keep the idea of 'fraction of the cost' quiet! BBC Local Radio spends over
£200 million (last time I looked). We can provide a much better service.

Tony: community media should encompass all forms of communication. 

To start with we need to create a small team - anyone willing please contact
me. 

Then we can ask CMA Council if our project can work within the CMA. Then
look at what grants/support/crowd funding is available to keep us in coffee
and biscuits.

Trevor Lockwood BSc FRSA
Tel/mobile: 01394 27032801394 270328, 07746 47418067746 471486

Call <https://> 

Send <https://>  SMS

Add to <https://>  Skype

You'll need Skype CreditFree via Skype

  _____  

From: Tony Bailey <ravensound at pilgrimsound.co.uk>
To: cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk 
Sent: Tuesday, 30 June 2015, 14:27
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Ofcom and Tomorrow

One of the questions I've often asked is did we make a mistake back in the
80's in assuming that the only route for a truly local radio service was via
the then IBA.  Our original 1970's community radio project was formed as a
group to provide programming on the BBC "local" station.  The beeb of course
had no intention of providing community radio (unless forced to by someone
else doing it) and probably wouldn't have got involved in "local" radio
either had it not been for the threat of ILR.  Against this background it is
easy to see why the commercial route was thought by most people to be the
only one worth pursuing.  It is something of a minor miracle that community
radio exists at all when you look at the politics and vested interests that
surround it.  While we are on the subject of the statutory services, I feel
it should be pointed out that the national tv networks don't do very well in
"local" news provision either, the tv local news we now pay for (a couple of
stories and the footy), if you can find it in the schedules, is pretty poor
in my opinion.

Tony Bailey

On 30/06/15 11:41, Donald Mack wrote:

Hear hear.

We can demonstrate how CR benefits all sectors and all for a fraction of the
License Fee or its future equivalent.

Sign me up

On 29 June 2015 at 14:39 Trevor Lockwood  <mailto:lockwood at btinternet.com>
<lockwood at btinternet.com> wrote:

It's my belief that we should now develop a strategy for 2016 when the BBC
Charter is up for renewal.

It should present us for an excellent opportunity to argue our case to
replace the present BBC local radio structure.

We can present excellent arguments to support our case.

I'd be happy to be part of a working party that put that strategy together.

In the present and future climate within broadcasting this is the best
opportunity we shall ever have to expand our range, and provide a truly
local broadcasting network for this country.

Trevor Lockwood BSc FRSA
Tel/mobile: 01394 27032801394 270328, 07746 47418067746 471486 <https://>
<https://>  <https://> 
www.debenradio.co.uk

Call <https://> 

Send SMS <https://> 

Add to Skype <https://> 

You'll need Skype CreditFree via Skype

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