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<DIV>I'm writing to send round my sincere apologies for my message I sent
yesterday as, for many, it's not been read in the way it was originally
intended. It was supposed to work as a rallying cry - and to be a
little bit tongue in cheek as well...(feel free to mock me, xxx,
etc) </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But I did want it to be provocative to those who haven't signed
or circulated the petition. It was filled with frustration and irritation that 6
weeks of non-stop communications has resulted in very few people signing it,
especially considering how big the sector is.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>That's what my e-mail was about. No more, no less. And yes, it served
a purpose of attracting another 150 signatures since the CMA published it.
That's roughly a 6% increase in numbers. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I have had several supportive messages from colleagues who can see what I
was trying to achieve. I also had one from Bill Best who has inherited a massive
amount of extra work because of my ill-fated rally cry! Sorry again Bill.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But hate my prose or love it - this petition is going to do more damage to
our sector than good if this poor turnout remains. What do those
numbers tell the Government? That it's not important. This was
told to me 4 weeks ago by our President Ian Stewart MP - Chair of the all party
parliamentary community media group. And, as Ian asked me to do "what I
can" to help boost these numbers - I have had this additional task of trying to
get as many names signed up as possible - by getting those people that we all
see in our radio stations every single day on board and signed up. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I have gone about this task in good humour, along with Karl Hartland and
Steve Buckley - and spent many hours and days on the phone
talking to station managers across the country, I've tried hard and I feel like
I've done my bit.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I apologise whole heartedly to those colleagues who took offence at my
appeal.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I will add one last word - please don't let my email get in the way of
the issue which is that we need to support this petition and make sure the
Government understands just how important, and how big we are. We currently look
quite insignificant, according to this petition. And that's my major
concern.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="12"><B>Kindest
Regards<BR>Steve Suttie<BR>Station Manager, 94.4FM Salford City
Radio</B><BR>office<B> 0161 793 2939 </B><BR>mobile <STRONG>07772 355
852</STRONG></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#ff00ff size=3
FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="12"><BR><STRONG>WINNERS - Community Award - Salford
Business Awards 2009</STRONG></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#000000 size=3
FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="12"><BR><STRONG>Support Community Radio - SIGN THE
PETITION: </STRONG><FONT color=#0080ff size=4><A
href="http://allthevoices.org">http://allthevoices.org</A>
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