Radio Stuff
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Community Treasures
So we’re finally up and running, with proper motions being discussed. For those not familiar with the terminology, that’s not just idle chat about the digestive system. In fact, there’s a rather neat motion being proposed by the Trinity Mirror chapel. In order to stop the closure of local newspapers, a campaign to designate the…
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Let’s Gerron Wi It!
The morning’s proceedings have been dominated by two significant events. I say significant – to be honest they’re the only two things that have diverted my attention from a succession of speeches to do with the Annual Report, which consist of sometimes interesting information, but usually delivered with outstanding dreariness. So, significant event number one.…
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Whine on the Tyne
Normally, the first day of the NUJ conference proper sees most people in fairly fresh form. But thanks to a combination of hospitality and hostility last night, it’s a fairly subdued start to proceedings. Here’s my view for the next three days. And here’s the conference hall, in the distinctly 1960s surroundings of the Newcastle…
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Talk Of The Toon
Traditionally, August is seen as the silly season in journalism. The general rule of thumb being that everyone’s on holiday so not much gets done. And what follows the silly season? It is, of course, the conference season. But whilst your TV screens have probably mostly been filled this week by Labour and over the…
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A Cymru Conundrum
The thing about Heart is, it always sounds the same, no matter where you’re listening. Unless you’re in North East Wales. Heart Cymru is somewhat unique in Global Radio’s network of female-skewed pop music stations. And it’s all down the history of the licence. Heart Cymru was the product of merging two licences – Marcher…
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Don’t Shoot The Messenger
The phrase “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” frequently comes up in newsroom conversations. Whatever you do or don’t do as a journalist, someone will already be lining up to attack you. And nowhere more so than within the BBC, which this week has had to explain the background to a series…
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One View Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
As a postscript to this week’s earlier blog, it’s been interesting to see our friends at the BBC Local Radio Forum dismissing points made by members who disagree with its founders. Make your own mind up : And then one of their supporters telling another member to “get a life”, an abusive comment supported by……
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Twits – The Darker Side of Social Media
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but I was once fired from a voluntary organisation. It was a curious experience. I disagreed about the way certain things were being run, but the guy running things took exception to this and decided to boot me out. It was probably my fault. And disagreeing with people’s…
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News, views, music and more…
Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing. Looking at a past world through rose tinted specs will usually, at best, distort history as it actually happened. But for today’s blog, I hope you’ll indulge me. Because it’s exactly fifteen years to the day that I helped launch the East Midlands’ first regional radio station. Radio 106FM was…
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Bell Rings BBC Changes
It’s been a significant week for the BBC so far, and it’s still only Wednesday. But whilst most of the attention has been on the new Director General George Entwistle starting his new role, there’s been an equally significant shift at a local level. Local Radio was the focus of the Corporation’s programme of cuts,…
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