Have Radio Humberside done one?

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I do find this all quite amusing.

I have never listened to Burnsey but I have read countless posts, on here, about how poor his commentaries were. On that basis the change would seem to have merit.

Moving to DAB offers more the opportunity to listen; so a positive for many.

Moving to independent radio and commercials is a huge negative - I won't take up the new DAB opportunity because of the intrusion of adverts.

But what amuses me is the way in which Allam plays supporters - some more than others.

He has won the need for supporter interaction by hosting the Supporter Meetings - FA box ticked.

The OSC - say no more. Box ticked.

He's now got a community media lapdog broadcasting games and interviews - Community box ticked.

Another season without concessions - membership box ticked.

He's really not doing too badly against the resistance; is he?

Hi Fez, I am not sure if you are being ironic or sarcastic here and so happy to be wooshed if so, but there are assumptions made here that are not quite right.

Firstly, Burnsy and Swanny do the 'two lads at a game' schtick, although the build up/prep and after match stuff is on a shoestring budget actually well done and journalistically sound and professional. Their style clearly doesn't suit some on here and even I get a little bored with it, but in the main, listeners do like it. The BBC's own audience research suggests this, otherwise they would have changed it. A purely technical commentary might suit a lot on here - and I get that - but it would lose audience massively. People would switch off. I hate Alan Green as a commentator but I know exactly why he's there. Chazz has a very good point about Burnsy's 'relegation rant' and I am not here to defend Burnsy - he's big and daft enough to do that for himself, however, he went easy on the Allam's at the start of it all out of due respect, and once they decided he'd asked one to many questions that they felt uncomfortable with i.e. name change and the council stuff, they essentially shut up shop. His comments were in retrospect daft, but came out of frustration I would suggest.

Secondly, DAB doesn't offer more opportunity to listen. The take up of DAB in this region still lags some way behind FM listening. If it was the other way, City's games would have all been on DAB and not FM. Until there is an analogue switch off (and the only planned switch off was abandoned) the crossover will be gradual. Also, Viking's general target audience is very different to BBC RH's. The listeners to Viking are much younger, generally (aside from sport) Radio Humberside's listeners are much older and lean towards FM for their listening. It will change in time of course, but it is no where near as yet. Finally, on that point: BBC RH has to rent space on the DAB multiplex, this is much cheaper for Viking as the muiltiplexes are commercially owned.

Finally, Viking FM are not in anyway seen as community media or far that matter even local. They are part of the Bauer Group (formerly EMAP) and they gave up the pretence of being Independent Local Radio (ILR) a long, long time ago - they even include syndicated programmes and news at times. There is very little that is local about them. This is not a criticism of what they do - it is just the way it is. It adds to the plurality of the media, but operationally it is based on a US model of delivering audiences to advertisers at a minimum cost. I took your point but in actual fact they don't tick the community box in that sense.

So, I wouldn't say Allam has played us, except to say (as I have elsewhere) that whoever controls the media controls the message and this in my view is Ehab's real intent. For what it is worth, and just my opinion, it won't end well with Ehab and Viking. They are most likely to pull out if he overplays his hand.
 
What the club has done is give the commentary rights to another company, one they feel is more in line with their philosophy and principles

Don't know much about Viking, guessing it's your run of the mill local independent along the same line as we have over here with Silk FM & Signal.

If their philosophy & principles are in line with those that the Allam's project for the club then they too must be ignorant, lying, immoral ****s with no regard for their customers, children, OAPs, disabled people or any others. A philosophy in which it is normal to threaten & carry out aggressive actions towards anybody who has the audacity to either disagree with, or question, their motives or decisions.

The only positive for this is that it gives an outlet in which disruptive protest could most certainly make a difference.
 
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Hi Fez, I am not sure if you are being ironic or sarcastic here and so happy to be wooshed if so, but there are assumptions made here that are not quite right.

Firstly, Burnsy and Swanny do the 'two lads at a game' schtick, although the build up/prep and after match stuff is on a shoestring budget actually well done and journalistically sound and professional. Their style clearly doesn't suit some on here and even I get a little bored with it, but in the main, listeners do like it. The BBC's own audience research suggests this, otherwise they would have changed it. A purely technical commentary might suit a lot on here - and I get that - but it would lose audience massively. People would switch off. I hate Alan Green as a commentator but I know exactly why he's there. Chazz has a very good point about Burnsy's 'relegation rant' and I am not here to defend Burnsy - he's big and daft enough to do that for himself, however, he went easy on the Allam's at the start of it all out of due respect, and once they decided he'd asked one to many questions that they felt uncomfortable with i.e. name change and the council stuff, they essentially shut up shop. His comments were in retrospect daft, but came out of frustration I would suggest.

Secondly, DAB doesn't offer more opportunity to listen. The take up of DAB in this region still lags some way behind FM listening. If it was the other way, City's games would have all been on DAB and not FM. Until there is an analogue switch off (and the only planned switch off was abandoned) the crossover will be gradual. Also, Viking's general target audience is very different to BBC RH's. The listeners to Viking are much younger, generally (aside from sport) Radio Humberside's listeners are much older and lean towards FM for their listening. It will change in time of course, but it is no where near as yet. Finally, on that point: BBC RH has to rent space on the DAB multiplex, this is much cheaper for Viking as the muiltiplexes are commercially owned.

Finally, Viking FM are not in anyway seen as community media or far that matter even local. They are part of the Bauer Group (formerly EMAP) and they gave up the pretence of being Independent Local Radio (ILR) a long, long time ago - they even include syndicated programmes and news at times. There is very little that is local about them. This is not a criticism of what they do - it is just the way it is. It adds to the plurality of the media, but operationally it is based on a US model of delivering audiences to advertisers at a minimum cost. I took your point but in actual fact they don't tick the community box in that sense.

So, I wouldn't say Allam has played us, except to say (as I have elsewhere) that whoever controls the media controls the message and this in my view is Ehab's real intent. For what it is worth, and just my opinion, it won't end well with Ehab and Viking. They are most likely to pull out if he overplays his hand.

Excellent post <applause><applause>

I liked Humberside and think Burnsy got some very unfair criticism on here. Be careful what you wish for. As it'll be no doubt ****ing rubbish with Viking.
 
I love all this stuff about adverts. Back in the day when the BBC had a monopoly people tuned in to Radio Luxembourg to hear decent music and were happy to hear adverts in exchange. Then came Radio Caroline and a host of others including our own 270 with even more adverts and younger people stopped listen I g to the BBC in droves. Of course the powers that be Didn't like it and that dupposedly great champion of freedom showed his preference for state control by shuttingbtgem down on the pretext their frequencies were interfsringbwith all sorts of things. Needless to say when the BBC had control again years later those same frequencies were sold off for a lot of money.

I listened to Luxembourg and Caroline and have, over a number of decades, become advert averse; marketing now us a whole different beast nowadays. I think you should allow that likes and dislikes evolve for some people.
 
A few questions about Viking, they seem to have 3 channels, which is going to be sport? Do they cover Rugby League and Ferriby, Grimsby & Scunthorpe?
 
I love all this stuff about adverts. Back in the day when the BBC had a monopoly people tuned in to Radio Luxembourg to hear decent music and were happy to hear adverts in exchange. Then came Radio Caroline and a host of others including our own 270 with even more adverts and younger people stopped listen I g to the BBC in droves. Of course the powers that be Didn't like it and that dupposedly great champion of freedom showed his preference for state control by shuttingbtgem down on the pretext their frequencies were interfsringbwith all sorts of things. Needless to say when the BBC had control again years later those same frequencies were sold off for a lot of money.

Although the BBC didn't make any money from that, the government did. The BBC didn't learn the lesson of WWII, when initially troops were listening to German stations because they looked inwards and not towards Home and Hearth, the government forced them to create the Forces Programme (which became the Light Programme), that young war time audience grew old with the BBC LP and the pirates filled a gap. The government AGAIN forced the BBC to create a pop alternative. Your argument cuts both ways though. I'm not getting into a political discussion here because this is fact and not opinion. In the 60s, many Tory MPs surreptitiously supported the pirates as a way to force through the introduction of commercial radio (and many in the Labour party resisted it). Ironically, it was one of their own - Lord Pilkington who handed the local radio to the BBC (when expected to create Commercial Radio) and essentially CR had to wait another 9 years. When the urban based pirates emerged in the late 70s and early 80s, the Tories were dead against it and many in the Labour Party surreptitiously supported it!
 
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The BBC have said he didn't like the coverage they were getting. So, he's gone with someone else - yes, it's his right. But like all his decisions, the reasons he gives publicly are bullshit. Better commercial decision? On a station half the size of the previous station, that has less coverage (FM) in the area where the people most likely to listen actually live? It's the same logic that has them closing parts of the stadium to "improve the atmosphere in the bowl".

I never said, or think, it is a better commercial decision; it is simply a commercial decision he is entitled to make How good a change it becomes is a subjective point and not something that should inspire a rant about his evil intentions - there is plenty to criticise him for without making daft ****e up; it diminishes the valid points.
 
Don't know much about Viking, guessing it's your run of the mill local independent along the same line as we have over here with Silk FM & Signal.

If their philosophy & principles are in line with those that the Allam's project for the club then they too must be ignorant, lying, immoral ****s with no regard for their customers, children, OAPs, disabled people or any others. A philosophy in which it is normal to threaten & carry out aggressive actions towards anybody who has the audacity to either disagree with, or question, their motives or decisions.

The only positive for this is that it gives an outlet in which disruptive protest could most certainly make a difference.

Viking 2 is what used to be Magic FM, they have local news on the hour and local advertising, but most of the rest of the output is delivered centrally and the content isn't created in Hull. It's certainly not a community/local radio station.
 
I never said, or think, it is a better commercial decision; it is simply a commercial decision he is entitled to make How good a change it becomes is a subjective point and not something that should inspire a rant about his evil intentions - there is plenty to criticise him for without making daft ****e up; it diminishes the valid points.

There is only one reason behind this decision, Ehab's got the hump with Burnsy, there's nothing commercial about it.
 
But at what price? He's shut the Upper West. We'll see how full the East Stand is once the season starts. He's moved from a Radio Station with a large number of loyal local listeners to a commercial station with less than half the audience. Yes he may get a few more listeners on DAB but I don't think they will replace the Radio Humberside listeners lost. It may not even compensate for the Viking 2 listeners that won't listen to City.

You also seem to underestimate how petty and childish they are.

Taking that from my post (and what I know your knowledge of my anti-Allam sentiment is) is simply ridiculous.

I haven't given his commercial decision credibility at all, I have simply pointed out it is his right to do so.

I used the word opportunity quite deliberately in reference to DAB use. There is the opportunity for lost listeners (you are making a prediction, which is fair enough, if you wish to do that), and for the same take up, just as there is the opportunity for increased listening over a wider geographical area.

There might be a petty and childish element to the decision, but it is adequately offset by the commercial aspects - whether you like that or not.

To suggest that I 'underestimate how petty and childish they are' really made me laugh out loud. As usual, your post couldn't be further off the mark if you tried.
 
People on this board seem to have a real issue with telling the difference between someone reporting on a negative and actually enjoying it. Burnsy couldn't have come across more lamentful of our plight last season.

Its very simple. Burnsy, most of the time was saying exactly what the fans were saying and we know what Ehab thinks of the fans. This is why he had to shut him up.
 
It depends on what they get out of it. If it makes them more money then they may well ignore the criticism. Some companies may decide the criticism is justified and change their approach. Its not always black or white.

He hasn't said it is always black and white, simply that it does happen elsewhere. For it to be compared with the actions of despot regimes is ludicrous and unhelpful in achieving a balanced and credible argument against the ownership style of the Allams.