RE: BBC cutting news jobs

["Brian Vita" <brian_vita@cssinc.com>]

It is exactly the same principle.  Even the government, admittedly not often
enough, must step back and see if they're getting the most bang for the
buck.

Unless a radio station is heavily subsidized by a party with a vested
interest (ie NPR), it must continually make sure that it has an audience.
If, for example, you decided that you wanted to have an all polka station
(and bandwidth was available), you had better determine if you had an
audience for your advertisers.

Brian T. Vita, President
Cinema Service & Supply, Inc.
75 Walnut St. - Ste 4
Peabody, MA  01960-5626
(978)538-7575/Fax(978)538-7550
Sales(800)231-8849/Sales Fax(800)FAX-CSS5
www.cssinc.com

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
[mailto:owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org]On Behalf Of Joseph
Pappalardo
Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2003 11:52 PM
To: Brian Vita; Garrett Wollman
Cc: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
Subject: Re: BBC cutting news jobs


This sounds like the same rationale for changing formats here.  '...you have
to evaluate the "payback" of each dollar spent.'

JP


----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Vita" <brian_vita@cssinc.com>
To: "Garrett Wollman" <wollman@lcs.mit.edu>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2003 11:34 PM
Subject: RE: BBC cutting news jobs


> The purpose of the World Service was to spread the civilized "gospel" of
the
> British Empire into the far wild and less civilized (in their view)
reaches
> of the world.  In the age of funding cutbacks, you have to evaluate the
> "payback" of each dollar spent.  Apparently they didn't feel that the
amount
> that they were spending equaled or exceeded the perceived benefit.
>
> VOA's product was to spread the word of America's view of democracy,
> anti-communism and other political views to places in the world that our
> government felt needed to hear the message.  Like the BBC, when those in
> charge felt that its need was no longer as vital, it got cut back.
>
>
>
> Brian T. Vita, President
> Cinema Service & Supply, Inc.
> 75 Walnut St. - Ste 4
> Peabody, MA  01960-5626
> (978)538-7575/Fax(978)538-7550
> Sales(800)231-8849/Sales Fax(800)FAX-CSS5
> www.cssinc.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Garrett Wollman [mailto:wollman@lcs.mit.edu]
> Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2003 12:43 PM
> To: Brian Vita
> Cc: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> Subject: Re: BBC cutting news jobs
>
>
> <<On Sun, 26 Jan 2003 08:23:04 -0500, "Brian Vita" <brian_vita@cssinc.com>
> said:
>
> [Re: BBCWS to North America]
>
> > What do you contribute to them that would make paying for the broadcast
> > worth their while?
>
> The same could be said of 99% of their audience (not to mention that
> of RCI, VOA, and almost every other major non-religious international
> broadcaster).
>
> > Are you in their prime listening area? NO
>
> Do they have a `prime listening area'?  (Not really.)
>
> > Are you likely to use any of the services promoted on the station?
> > NO
>
> The BBC World Service does not have any `services promoted on the
> station' other than itself.
>
> > Are you even a displaced British citizen? NO
>
> Do you know something about Sven that the rest of us do not?
>
> At the time the decision was made to cease broadcasting to North
> America, the BBC management was unaware that most of the stations in
> the US which carry their programming do so for only a few, usually
> non-prime hours per day.  In many other countries, the stations which
> relay the World Service do so 24x7, as a courtesy of the host
> country's broadcasting services.
>
> -GAWollman
>