Manx Radio Staff Redundancies

[traveller]

Is it true that Manx Radio staff were given a briefing recently and were told that if the advertising revenue didn,t improve ( fat chance that with Three FM doing as well as it is) that there would likely be even more redundancies = the question is what have they done with all the dosh that was doled out to them last year ??

 

It,s a company isn,t it Radio Manx Limited - so is it solvent? Do the directors know if its trading whilst insolvent? Do they know what their personal liabilities are IF it is ?

 

What has David North to say about the poor application of technology on the " re-vamped" web site thats not working - where is the traffic news ? where is the search engine for reference to older stories ??? what is someone trying to hide access to??

 

Also if you look at the site it describes a John Marsom as "Business Director" but is he or isn,t he a director?? He's not listed as a director but describes himself as one - so , if I,m not mistaken a person who holds themselves out as a director is fully responsible as one including directors liabilities.

 

Who is a good lawyer out there who can give us a good steer on what is right and what is wrong with what the web site say,s

 

I also see under Andy Wint it says Susie Richardson makes his tea/// is she still on the payroll part funded by the taxpayer just to do this???

 

And since Chris Williams is acting as programme controller - which is what Andy Wint used to do (?) has andy Wint had a pay reduction ???

 

Bring it on (ThreeFM I mean)

the traveller

[loaf]

Is it true that Manx Radio staff were given a briefing recently and were told that if the advertising revenue didn,t improve ( fat chance that with Three FM doing as well as it is) that there would likely be even more redundancies = the question is what have they done with all the dosh that was doled out to them last year ??

 

In Manx Radio's defence, Manx Radio is the only station that devotes a large section of its broadcast hours to making manx community-based programmes that don't just consist of recorded music and a presenter. Energy still runs daytime slots without even a presenter from what I can gather – even cheaper. Making community programmes costs considerably more than the aforementioned music shows that are just broadcast on-the-fly, it often takes more people, needs research, fieldwork, mixing and editing for broadcast etc. I also believe that Manx Radio, unlike the other two broadcasters, have the remit of public service broadcasting on their books.

 

Aside from liking what 3FM are doing, Manx Radio would still be my first port of call in its capacity as a national broadcaster if something happened as per the government's "how to panic" leaflet.

 

High audience ratings isn't everything, it is important to have quality broadcasting present even if most people are flocking to watch Big Brother, for instance. As Manx Radio has certain public duties that the other two stations do not have, I do not mind there being a subsidy in its operation, but I agree the station should still be able to at least tread water, financially speaking.

 

As for the website, I think it's better, dunno about the "inconsistencies" you mention.

[Mission]

What has David North to say about the poor application of technology on the " re-vamped" web site thats not working  - where is the traffic news ? where is the search engine for reference to older stories ??? what is someone trying to hide access to??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Last Ten]

Nice one loaf

 

I agree whole heartedly what you have said.

 

Energy could be based anywhere in the world as it produces very little Manx related programmes.

 

3FM - The jury is still out on this station as far as I am concerned, and only time will tell how they perform!

 

Manx Radio - A good quality national radio station, with lots of ISLE OF MAN related programmes, although as the teacher told me on a number of occasions, "Could Do Better"

 

I believe competition is very healthy however I also believe that there are too many radio stations based on the Isle of Man especially where there are only 75,000 population, again time will tell who will be the survivor in this challenge...

 

Last Ten

[crumlin]

Manx Radio recieves loads of taxpayers money, and will do so as long as the Government can clean their dirty linen, live to the public. Bring back the Mannin Line by public presure and the Government will stop paying. We cant win.

 

Manx Radio have refused to broadcast at least two Public Statements in reply to Neds statements, why Manx Radio have been geged by Ned & Co.

Why is a Limited Company being funded by Government, Did they Fund Bob the Builder when he had problems, answer is no

[Broadcaster]

Traveller, you must either be an employee and sticking up for the bosses or else you are listening to a different 3FM. Anybody listening to 3FM would be aware of the lack of adverts, nobody can claim that is a station that is doing well!

 

A commercial radio station depends on adverts to fund the operation, whilst the listeners might enjoy the lack of adverts; it is not a situation for any commercial station to be in.

 

Having listened on and off to 3FM it strikes me that the majority of their play list is the same as Energy FM's, this is not what the Communications Commission said would be the case, I have also been told that the other company that applied for the licence was offering a totally different type of service which neither Manx Radio or Energy is offering, and yet 3FM got the licence

 

Traveller, you mention Andy Wint, well Andy Wint left Manx Radio a couple of months ago and is now a freelancer, who’s only contribution is the 60’s show on a Saturday.

 

Oh and the reference to Susie Richardson was obviously a tongue in check comment.

 

And no I don’t work for Manx Radio or Energy FM, my field is Television broadcasting.

[loaf]

Traveller, you must either be an employee and sticking up for the bosses or else you are listening to a different 3FM. Anybody listening to 3FM would be aware of the lack of adverts, nobody can claim that is a station that is doing well!

 

How many days has 3FM been going? If you're in television broadcasting, might I point out a certain Channel 4 that began its life with captions like "Countdown follows shortly" where advertising should have been. A lot of businesses will play it safe, see the general uptake of the station before advertising on it. You can't blame them for waiting to see how it pans out.

 

Having listened on and off to 3FM it strikes me that the majority of their play list is the same as Energy FM's,this is not what the Communications Commission said would be the case, I have also been told that the other company that applied for the licence was offering a totally different type of service which neither Manx Radio or Energy is offering, and yet 3FM got the licence

 

Dunno how you think the two stations have the same playlists. 3FM models itself on Radio 2, and to my knowledge, that's what they said the listener would get right from the start. It seems they have a charter somewhere of "What is a 3FM song?" - i.e. Recognizable to their intended age range, positive/upbeat, not a struggle to listen to and it seems to work to me, whereas Energy FM plays an immiscible blend of R n' B, hip hop, Germanic trance, sk8ter boi anthems, and gives ex Manx club DJs a place to go in their retirement years.

[Stu Peters]

Immiscible - fantastic word...had to look it up!

 

There's been no meeting (certainly that I've been invited to!) to prepare ANYONE for more redundancies, and the rest of Traveller's post seems equally ill-informed.

 

However - and remember what follows is only a personal opinion - the world of radio broadcasting in the Island over the last couple of years or so has altered dramatically, and changes have therefore been inevitable.

 

I think over 60% of Manx Radio's operating costs are covered by advertising and sponsorship income, with the government grant covering the rest.

 

If the grant remains constant, and the commercial revenue is diluted by fair competition, the only answer is to reduce costs. In some cases you can do that by improving efficiency, which is a good thing. Once you've squeezed the pips out by that method, the only remaining option is to cut services.

 

People tend to think that Manx Radio is awash with government money and 'political advisors'. Nothing could be further.

 

It IS though being run under the remit - agreed by Tynwald - of the 'Darwin' Report which taxpayers funded into the future of broadcasting in the Island.

 

When most people read that document, it appeared to provide a recommendation that Manx concentrate more on local news, current affairs, sport, documentary, and general speech-based programming for the mature audience, and leave the thumping bass beats and yoof market to Energy.

 

However, it was later pointed out that the actual wording of the document really meant that - effectively - any number of new stations could be licenced. Which certainly made ME check the small print!

 

The end result is that there are now three stations feeding at the same trough, and will mean that the market should stabilise at some point, and we'll each have to cut our cloth accordingly.

 

As other posters have wisely pointed out, it's a lot cheaper to let a computer select and play records than it is to produce programmes that have to be researched, written, recorded (often outside the studio), edited and mixed.

 

So the upshot is that the Manx people must decide - given the obvious options, and through the correct channels - what they want from Manx Radio.

 

I've posted before about the often-repeated red herring of 'hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers money' being spent on sustaining the station each year. Compare it with what the 'local' press gets each year in statutory Government advertising. See what the local BBC stations in the Channel Islands receive in network support and licence fee income. Or work out the actual cost per head here per annum in real terms - something like 20p a week!

 

And Crumlin... we have to exercise editorial judgement on every story we broadcast, lest we run up huge legal fees or worse which would come out of the same pot of money we make our programmes with. We ALWAYS attempt to provide fair and impartial coverage...but don't have the luxury of a team of advocates to check every statement that parties to a dispute might make in the heat of battle. There is NO bias or interference in our freedom to report matters, just a healthy dose of common sense and awareness of libel and slander laws. I'm not sure, but I THINK we were the only medium here to cover the Roly Drower story this week PRIOR to The Guardian article appearing.

 

Of course, constructive criticism is always welcomed - but let's all play fair at the same time and put some thought into these threads rather than idle conjecture and the results of 'a chat with a man in the pub who stopped off for a pint on his way to grind an axe'!

 

Fanx Tara.

[The Old Git]

There's been no meeting (certainly that I've been invited to!) to prepare ANYONE for more redundancies,

 

Would you agree that the recent redundancies have been badly handled?

 

I believe that there may be claims for unfair dismissal

[Bill Posters]

Good post Stu. (If it's any consolation Loaf had me scrambling for the dictionary as well)

 

I suspect, with Manx Radio, that it will be one of those:- "You don't miss it, until it's gone" things.

 

I am not a regular listener. But I would hate to see it cut back or go altogether. After all, you can only cut back costs so far.

[Broadcaster]

Loaf,

Please read my post, I was pointing out that nobody can claim that 3FM is "doing well" when it must be running at a loss on a daily basis. Whether people like it or not, was not my point merely that it is not going well from a commercial point of view.

 

Secondly you say as indeed 3FM do, that they are modelled on Radio2 ... sorry they are not. If you listen to the wide range of music that is played on Radio 2 you will realise they are not modelled on it. In fact if you ask the Director of Communications you will find that it was never supposed to be a “Radio 2” station. Having seen their licence, I fail to see how they can play their play list and still claim to be meeting their promise of performance, as they are licensed to meet the 35 – 55 age group. This was not the music that I heard them playing yesterday, it was as I have already said mainly the same as Energy FM’s, which I’ve noticed lately has less dance music on it, certainly during day time broadcasting.

 

Also on the subject of television, you are right, when Channel 4 launched, there was many such announcements and in fact the station was not even a full time broadcaster, but that has no bearing on the current market place and therefore your analogy for 3FM is somewhat wrong. Remember whilst the Communications Commission as a department is forecasting a downturn in advertising revenue (see their website for their report) the Director of Communications was pushing for a new licence to be issued as he considered the advertising market to grow. Left hand please meet the right hand.

 

And as a final point, you say Energy gives “ex Manx club DJs a place to go in their retirement years” I’ll take your word for that, but I was under the impression that Paul Hughes & Ricky Rooney still work in clubs, but is that any worse than 3FM being a retirement home for Manx Radio staff, on air and behind the scenes??

it

[Doric]

FRom Stu

 

And Crumlin... we have to exercise editorial judgement on every story we broadcast, lest we run up huge legal fees or worse which would come out of the same pot of money we make our programmes with. We ALWAYS attempt to provide fair and impartial coverage...but don't have the luxury of a team of advocates to check every statement that parties to a dispute might make in the heat of battle. There is NO bias or interference in our freedom to report matters, just a healthy dose of common sense and awareness of libel and slander laws. I'm not sure, but I THINK we were the only medium here to cover the Roly Drower story this week PRIOR to The Guardian article appearing.

 

Isnt there advocates who frequently sponsor mandate, specially when one of their cases is in the news? You could ask them to have a quick scan of any potental dodgy items.

 

Stu, youve used the Roly thing as a red herring as crumlin was aking about someone called Ned not Roly.

 

sorry to be all negative and that but could I just use this to say that if you asked anyone in island to name a program on Manx radio they would say "Mannin line" - it was famous and the flagship. Perhaps it wasn't run right. For example why didn't you occasional go into street and say excuse me - would you want a wurlitzah or something. Get a bit of street chat going and that.

 

Invite some radicals up for a cuop of tea at Mannin line. Aye even marge, then Royston etc. People would soon say "hey you asked Marge, we want to come up there" and you could say "yeap, come on then if you think your hard enough and that". well you get the drift I hope.

 

 

 

just to add that not many of travellers questions were really answered at all.

[loaf]

Loaf,

Please read my post, I was pointing out that nobody can claim that 3FM is "doing well" when it must be running at a loss on a daily basis. Whether people like it or not, was not my point merely that it is not going well from a commercial point of view.

Apologies, my mistake. But is Energy FM considered commercially successful now, merely by the apparent abundance of advertising? I seem to remember they were similarly short on adverts around their launch date and for some time after.

 

Also on the subject of television, you are right, when Channel 4 launched, there was many such announcements and in fact the station was not even a full time broadcaster, but that has no bearing on the current market place and therefore your analogy for 3FM is somewhat wrong.

I wasn't intending to make any direct analogy as such, I was merely demonstrating that it isn't unusual for broadcasters to start up short of advertising. As it was a mistaken response to your post it's a moot point anyway.

 

Secondly you say as indeed 3FM do, that they are modelled on Radio2 ... sorry they are not. If you listen to the wide range of music that is played on Radio 2 you will realise they are not modelled on it. In fact if you ask the Director of Communications you will find that it was never supposed to be a “Radio 2” station. Having seen their licence, I fail to see how they can play their play list and still claim to be meeting their promise of performance, as they are licensed to meet the 35 – 55 age group.

 

I think what they are saying is that Manx Radio is broadly analogous to Radio 4, speech, current affairs etc, Energy is to Radio 1, new music, youth oriented, 3FM is to Radio 2, 70s,80s,90s,present day popular music for the above 30 age range”. Perhaps it was just the sales pitch. You're right, I wouldn't say it is a carbon copy of Radio 2; it doesn't have Radio 2's budget for a start. If I were to criticise 3FM I'd say that they seem to be appealing to the younger half of their age range (I don't know many 55 year-olds into Natasha Beddingfield), but I do not believe they are in the same bracket as Energy.

 

This was not the music that I heard them playing yesterday, it was as I have already said mainly the same as Energy FM’s, which I’ve noticed lately has less dance music on it, certainly during day time broadcasting.

I think Energy had the advantage over Manx Radio in that it was mainly music programming and therefore won the vote in garages, shop floors, workshops etc. Perhaps Energy have sensed that it would lose some of this audience to 3FM and softened their playlists accordingly. Perhaps all three stations are veering off their licence remit a little in order to secure their audiences.

 

And as a final point, you say Energy gives “ex Manx club DJs a place to go in their retirement years” I’ll take your word for that, but I was under the impression that Paul Hughes & Ricky Rooney still work in clubs, but is that any worse than 3FM being a retirement home for Manx Radio staff, on air and behind the scenes??

Well, I'd say it's probably useful to have radio broadcasting experience if you're going to work in a radio station...

[tameelf]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/12/...ain655521.shtml

[Stu Peters]

Isnt there advocates who frequently sponsor mandate, specially when one of their cases is in the news? You could ask them to have a quick scan of any potental dodgy items.

 

No - and if they did they'd be paying for the sponsorship. Advocates (in my experience) understandably charge for advice.

 

Stu, youve used the Roly thing as a red herring as crumlin was aking about someone called Ned not Roly.

 

I answered the question to the best of my ability and simply used that as an example. I don't think we've interviewed anyone called Ned...

 

sorry to be all negative and that but could I just use this to say that if you asked anyone in island to name a program on Manx radio they would say "Mannin line" - it was famous and the flagship. Perhaps it wasn't run right. For example why didn't you occasional go into street and say excuse me - would you want a wurlitzah or something. Get a bit of street chat going and that.

 

In many ways it was a flagship - but the figures suggest that during the week it was getting a bit rusty. We already do lots of talking to people in the street, but doing that with the Mannin Line would give us even less of a chance of stopping someone saying something live that would land them (and us) in legal trouble.

 

Invite some radicals up for a cuop of tea at Mannin line. Aye even marge, then Royston etc. People would soon say "hey you asked Marge, we want to come up there" and you could say "yeap, come on then if you think your hard enough and that". well you get the drift I hope.

 

And then people would complain even more strongly that we have the same people on every day. I quite like the idea of challenging contributors to a bit of verbal jousting - but it would all end in tears.

 

just to add that not many of travellers questions were really answered at all.

Sorry - I did my best.

 

Would you agree that the recent redundancies have been badly handled?

 

I believe that there may be claims for unfair dismissal

 

Not for me to comment, I don't know about any such claims, and if I did it certainly wouldn't be appropriate to discuss them here.

 

Stu