R2OK!

colby · Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 1216

Just when local radio couldn't get any worse (in the opinion of some, anyhow) so the Media regulator Ofcom has backed calls to deregulate local commercial radio but questioned a proposed "local impact test" outlined in a government-commissioned report on the sector - according to a story in today's Guardian Media.

We're informed that the review, conducted by the former GMG Radio chief executive John Myers and published last month, "advocated a radical overhaul of the way local commercial radio programming is regulated, with the scrapping of "outdated" and "pedantic" box-ticking in favour of a local impact test providing clear evidence of audience satisfaction".

Another nail in the coffin for public service radio, eh? (Gawd help us). With commercial broadcasting in the UK losing money hand over fist, I guess this was inevitable.

Come back Thatcher. I forgive you for the sins you committed against broadcasting in the early 80s. I do, honest. Well, almost.

Still, if they're really talking about "deregulation of the airwaves" I think I'll start up a radio station on a converted coaster ship and broadcast from a mooring 3 miles off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex. Do you think anybody will try and sink us this time round? Smile

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aviddiva

Regulation, schmegulation. Whatever the station, they always play the same things.
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colby · Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 1216

I agree. I blame "deregulation" for allowing the independent stations to be controlled by the major music companies.

It won't be like it on Pirate Radio Colby, coming to you live from the Goodship Colby three miles off the Essex coast at Frinton, that's for sure (as long as it's not too stormy, of course, because the old Dansette doesn't like it).
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