Metropol

bilky asko wrote:

cityprod wrote: No direct correlation, and I can say that with experience. With having around 15 years experience in retail, almost all of it customer-facing, you don't actually have to be a social butterfly to perform well at it. In fact, it's probably best if you're not, and I am most certainly not a social butterfly by any stretch of the imagination.

Heck, if you deal with the public all day, then it doesn't surprise me that you do behave like an anti-social hermit at times, because dealing with the public can do that to you, quite easily. Again, I can speak from experience, having been there and back again.

[...]

Well, yes, because you can. If you are taking a whole load of work-related stuff home with you every night, then it's no wonder that you come across so grouchy. Learn to let go at the end of the day. Worrying about stuff that happened earlier in the day isn't going to change anything, and worrying about tomorrow is equally fruitless.

You don't half have a knack for completely misinterpreting my posts in order to try and patronise me.

Again, that's in your head and your head alone. I'm not trying to patronise you, that isn't even close to where my head's at. It genuinely seems like you have no earthly clue about where my thinking is, you just assume things based upon what you would think in that situation. I'm making serious points here. If you're still dealing with work stuff out of work hours, then you aren't helping the business, or yourself. In the end, it's gonna cost your health, and maybe even cost the small business its survival. Again, I have some degree of experience here.

Leave work stuff at work, and let your mind and body recharge whilst home.

I've listened to community radio programmes which have been springboards for people to enter commercial radio, I've listened to the community radio programmes of the people on TV Forum that I've known to have such programmes; the quality of the output on many of them was very good quality. I don't hold that view about your programme.

You still haven't explained why you think my programme is inferior to other people's. Details, dear boy, details...

What makes good community radio is, as far as possible, reflecting the community it serves in both its content and the people involved in it. It shouldn't be open access to any old crackpot who wants to play at being on the radio.

Well, if you want the station to represent the people of the community, then you must accept that the best way to do that, is to have the members of the community actually present and produce the programmes.

And let's be honest here, nobody on community radio "plays" at being on the radio, because you can't afford to "play" with an FM transmitter at 25w Horizontal and 25w Vertical polarity. We all work damn hard to make sure what we do works for our audience. There's no "playing" going on.

Even something as simple as a scores service for local football teams

BBC Radio Cornwall already do that, why would we try to copy them?

or a general purpose of an under-represented community, does the job for me.

Rainbow Source, Cornwall's only LGBT radio show, every Wednesday.

Discovering new talent in terms of music

Lovely words, but very difficult to actually do with any degree of consistency

reflecting the local music scene (especially in innovative genres) - wonderful

.

Innovative genres? Jeez, you're only asking for the moon... on a stick.

When you got a music scene that goes from Choirs and Brass Bands, through folk and jazz, acoustic pop and electronic music to hard rock and punk, it's a really difficult thing to do, and it takes many programmes covering the different aspects. Heck, I do part of it in my own show from time to time, but I can't cover all that ground every week on a 2 hour show. I do what I can, but it's part of a team ethic, a key part of our programming over the course of a week.

But it does need to be listenable and not a load of old shite.

Well to me, listenable means entertaining, not boringly dry, but I'm guessing you have a different definition for listenable.

Martin Phillp wrote:Resonance has been mentioned already by Cityprod, yet receives funding from the Arts Council and has Guardianista backers which ensure the station's longevity. Those listeners may be tiny, but they have money to help support the station, can the same be said for Small Town FM playing Phil Collins between community information and dull interviews? (See That's TV for dull local interviews)

I don't need to, I already have a source for plenty of dull local interviews. It's called BBC Radio Cornwall. They seem to specialise in it.

What we do is fulfill our remit, provide the information the community needs, play popular music and familiar artists in daytime and go much more eclectic at evenings and weekends. It's because the community we serve covers most ages, from university students, all the way up to retired persons. The community is not big enough to handle a more specialised station, unlike London.

What do all these stations have in common? They don't let Dave Doubledecks on playing what he likes or a mix of music heard on better produced commercial stations.

Dave Doubledecks doesn't exist, if he ever did, and I seriously doubt that. He was the figment of the imagination of someone who wanted the kind of local commercial radio we mostly have to put up with now, lacking in personality and entertainment. Ironically, in Cornwall, we still have an example of someone who is the closest thing to a "Dave Doubledecks", though still not really close, his name is Freddy Zapp and he's on BBC Radio Cornwall on a Saturday lunchtime.

Those stations in London which had such a broad format have ceased transmission.

Well of course. London is a very different area to Falmouth/Penryn. What works in London is not going to work in our area. That's the real world for you. Falmouth/Penryn's eclecticness cannot be handled by multiple stations, it has to be done on one station, the size of the community could not support multiple stations, unlike London.

cityprod wrote:Again, that's in your head and your head alone. I'm not trying to patronise you, that isn't even close to where my head's at. It genuinely seems like you have no earthly clue about where my thinking is, you just assume things based upon what you would think in that situation. I'm making serious points here. If you're still dealing with work stuff out of work hours, then you aren't helping the business, or yourself. In the end, it's gonna cost your health, and maybe even cost the small business its survival. Again, I have some degree of experience here.

Leave work stuff at work, and let your mind and body recharge whilst home.

You don't know what sort of work I'm doing out of hours. In fact, it's something I'm actually greatly enjoying doing - it's not catch-up work or e-mails at 10pm, and it is something (despite your assertion) that will be of great benefit to the business.

cityprod wrote: You still haven't explained why you think my programme is inferior to other people's. Details, dear boy, details...

For the purposes of criticism and comment: Ian Beaumont Live and Direct - Speech Only (51MB)
Your delivery is awful and full of gaps, your traffic/travel/weather/shipping segments are far too long and made even longer by the constant gaps in your speech (which even the bed underneath your speech couldn't bridge without it sounding very awkward), there is very little spoken content that's going to be of any interest to anyone, you make constant, overly-accurate time references for no particular reason; your latest edition includes a pointless comment (which you admit is pointless) about the Orlando terrorist attack and then tastelessly read out lyrics from the next song you tenuously link to. What little interesting content there was in the latest edition languishes near the end of your programme bunched together.

The one thing I won't criticise is your speech impediment, but at times song titles are mumbled to the point of being unrecognisable.

From the last edition, the show being live only seemed necessary for the travel updates. There is no engagement with the listeners in any way whatsoever - surely vital for a community station - and I can't see anyone enduring the first hour to hear the acts at the non-alcohol event that was being promoted. There were tracks played from artists at the event, but I wonder precisely how many people would have made it that far, seeing as it was barely trailed.

Other community radio programmes I've listened to have people speaking at a normal speaking pace, not obsessing over irrelevant details in local information, and actually engage with listeners. They don't speak in a soporific tone, mistakes are not particularly noticeable, and they create a programme you can actually listen to for a length of time.

cityprod wrote:

What makes good community radio is, as far as possible, reflecting the community it serves in both its content and the people involved in it. It shouldn't be open access to any old crackpot who wants to play at being on the radio.

Well, if you want the station to represent the people of the community, then you must accept that the best way to do that, is to have the members of the community actually present and produce the programmes.

And let's be honest here, nobody on community radio "plays" at being on the radio, because you can't afford to "play" with an FM transmitter at 25w Horizontal and 25w Vertical polarity. We all work damn hard to make sure what we do works for our audience. There's no "playing" going on.

In what way is traffic, travel, and weather not served by other radio stations in the area? It's hardly distinctive.

cityprod wrote:

Even something as simple as a scores service for local football teams

BBC Radio Cornwall already do that, why would we try to copy them?

This is not a suggestion for Source FM or your show, it was an example of a show I listened to on a few occasions

cityprod wrote:

or a general purpose of an under-represented community, does the job for me.

Rainbow Source, Cornwall's only LGBT radio show, every Wednesday.

Hats off to Source FM. I am only criticising your show.

cityprod wrote:

Discovering new talent in terms of music

Lovely words, but very difficult to actually do with any degree of consistency

reflecting the local music scene (especially in innovative genres) - wonderful

.

Innovative genres? Jeez, you're only asking for the moon... on a stick.

When you got a music scene that goes from Choirs and Brass Bands, through folk and jazz, acoustic pop and electronic music to hard rock and punk, it's a really difficult thing to do, and it takes many programmes covering the different aspects. Heck, I do part of it in my own show from time to time, but I can't cover all that ground every week on a 2 hour show. I do what I can, but it's part of a team ethic, a key part of our programming over the course of a week.

Again, you misinterpret. I didn't say it had to be 100% new talent/local music, or even a large amount. It's the one and only thing that was interesting in your show to any degree.

cityprod wrote:

But it does need to be listenable and not a load of old shite.

Well to me, listenable means entertaining, not boringly dry, but I'm guessing you have a different definition for listenable.

You guess wrong. What was entertaining about your show bar the music from artists at that event being played?

I think i now understand why people call him 'cityprick'.

This is so fucking boring.

SomeRandomStuff wrote:I think i now understand why people call him 'cityprick'.

He's always right. This place appears to be the only place where he can 'discuss' radio since he was banned from Media.info.

Is Metro becoming a dumping ground for people banned from other forums then?

bilky asko wrote:

cityprod wrote:Again, that's in your head and your head alone. I'm not trying to patronise you, that isn't even close to where my head's at. It genuinely seems like you have no earthly clue about where my thinking is, you just assume things based upon what you would think in that situation. I'm making serious points here. If you're still dealing with work stuff out of work hours, then you aren't helping the business, or yourself. In the end, it's gonna cost your health, and maybe even cost the small business its survival. Again, I have some degree of experience here.

Leave work stuff at work, and let your mind and body recharge whilst home.

You don't know what sort of work I'm doing out of hours. In fact, it's something I'm actually greatly enjoying doing - it's not catch-up work or e-mails at 10pm, and it is something (despite your assertion) that will be of great benefit to the business.

It doesn't matter what you're doing and whether you're enjoying it or not. This is medical fact I'm talking about not some random supposition. If you want to fight the medical community on this, you go ahead. All I'm saying is don't be surprised if your health suffers some years down the road, or maybe even sooner than that.

Your delivery is awful and full of gaps, your traffic/travel/weather/shipping segments are far too long and made even longer by the constant gaps in your speech (which even the bed underneath your speech couldn't bridge without it sounding very awkward)

I'm not going to disagree that at times some of my delivery wasn't perfectly slick and commercial radio-like, but that's not what we're going for, and that's not what our audience wants. I will also say there were times when I wasn't happy with my own delivery, but there are plenty of legitimate reasons for that, such as translating colour coded maps into spoken words. Can it be improved? Oh yes, but if you're expecting commercial radio slickness all the time, then you're going to be permanently disappointed, because that's not what our audience wants. Even if we did try to be, we've got Pirate FM and Heart as competition, and they can do that far better than we can.

there is very little spoken content that's going to be of any interest to anyone,

Just because it might not be of interest to you, doesn't mean it isn't going to be of interest to somebody else. This is a fairly constant thing, people make the claim that something 'isn't of interest to anyone', and what they're really saying is that it isn't of interest to them, so they think that nobody else will be interested in it. Most showbiz stories hold no interest for me at all, but I don't assume that because I don't like them, nobody else will.

you make constant, overly-accurate time references for no particular reason;

Now this I find to be just bizarre. The time references are no different to what you hear on any other station at that time of day. I'm going to suggest that you are being hyper-critical here, just for the sake of criticising something. I can't see a legitimate criticism here.

your latest edition includes a pointless comment (which you admit is pointless) about the Orlando terrorist attack and then tastelessly read out lyrics from the next song you tenuously link to.

Lots of just plain old wrong here. First, I didn't even say the comment was pointless. I said there wasn't a lot I could say that hadn't been said already, but it wasn't pointless. You made a leap of logic there that you had no business making.

As for your assertion of tastelessness about quoting the lyrics, that's just plain old wrong. There's nothing tasteless about referencing somebody else's words who are saying what you are saying as well. That's not tasteless, that's being practical. It was why that song followed from that comment, it was why I deliberately referenced those lyrics. Also, the slow pace of the comment, that's a stylistic choice. It's meant to convey an image of thoughtful, considered. Obviously to you, it doesn't convey that image, cos you're only considering the superficial, and believe it or not, that piece was never ever meant to be superficial.

What little interesting content there was in the latest edition languishes near the end of your programme bunched together.

So you follow the same idea that a lot of people do that community means local and local only. That's not something I believe, and I look for other things such as is it relevant, is it useful or is it just interesting to someone. But this idea that local stations, of any kind, should only do local content is something I think is just just plain wrong.

From the last edition, the show being live only seemed necessary for the travel updates.

Again, that is an odd statement to make. You're implying that I could have pre-recorded a lot of my links, and could have taken the time to edit them to make them sound slicker, again, that's not what we're trying to do. Community radio should not try to be a copy, a bad copy at that, of commercial radio. I know plenty of stations do do that, and have legitimate reasons for believing that it works for them, and maybe for those going for under 35s only, there is a workable case for that, but if you have an audience that's more towards the older end of the audience spectrum, that kind of slickness is just not that important to them. It's superficial, and therefore, less important to them, than the actual content.

and I can't see anyone enduring the first hour to hear the acts at the non-alcohol event that was being promoted. There were tracks played from artists at the event, but I wonder precisely how many people would have made it that far, seeing as it was barely trailed.

Right, you do realise that the event concerned was at the time of the show, almost 2 weeks away. You don't go heavy promotion on an event until 1 week before hand. We've been doing these events in the park since 2012, I think we have a pretty good handle now on how to promote them.

Other community radio programmes I've listened to have people speaking at a normal speaking pace, not obsessing over irrelevant details in local information, and actually engage with listeners. They don't speak in a soporific tone, mistakes are not particularly noticeable, and they create a programme you can actually listen to for a length of time.

And again, you make the classic assumption, that just because you find it difficult, that everybody else will too. Well not everybody is as superficial as you are, stop it. You do yourself and your opinions no favours by your constant projection of them as facts or as things everybody believes in.

In what way is traffic, travel, and weather not served by other radio stations in the area? It's hardly distinctive.

Fair point. It's a way of raising money for the station, it's as simple as that. And by the way, that goes for commercial radio too. They wouldn't do it if they couldn't make money from it.

cityprod wrote:

Discovering new talent in terms of music

Lovely words, but very difficult to actually do with any degree of consistency

reflecting the local music scene (especially in innovative genres) - wonderful

.

Innovative genres? Jeez, you're only asking for the moon... on a stick.

When you got a music scene that goes from Choirs and Brass Bands, through folk and jazz, acoustic pop and electronic music to hard rock and punk, it's a really difficult thing to do, and it takes many programmes covering the different aspects. Heck, I do part of it in my own show from time to time, but I can't cover all that ground every week on a 2 hour show. I do what I can, but it's part of a team ethic, a key part of our programming over the course of a week.

Again, you misinterpret. I didn't say it had to be 100% new talent/local music, or even a large amount. It's the one and only thing that was interesting in your show to any degree.

And again, you make an assumption, a thought that you projected onto me, that wasn't in my head at all. I wasn't thinking that you had said it had to be 100% new talent/local music. That was in your head, not mine. Stop projecting your thoughts onto me, that doesn't make you sound better, it makes you sound worse every time you do that.

SomeRandomStuff wrote:I think i now understand why people call him 'cityprick'.

Yeah, that's really helpful![/sarcasm] Name-calling is so much easier than you know actually discussing anything. Is it any wonder the internet has become a farce, when the rules of the kids playground seem to be the only thing guiding people?

cityprod wrote:

SomeRandomStuff wrote:I think i now understand why people call him 'cityprick'.

Yeah, that's really helpful![/sarcasm] Name-calling is so much easier than you know actually discussing anything. Is it any wonder the internet has become a farce, when the rules of the kids playground seem to be the only thing guiding people?

shut up cityprick

Pete wrote:

cityprod wrote:

SomeRandomStuff wrote:I think i now understand why people call him 'cityprick'.

Yeah, that's really helpful![/sarcasm] Name-calling is so much easier than you know actually discussing anything. Is it any wonder the internet has become a farce, when the rules of the kids playground seem to be the only thing guiding people?

shut up cityprick

Thank you Pete for proving my point.