UK Commercial Radio Deregulation: The Good, and the Very, Very Bad.

I imagine there's a somewhat polarized response that is developing to the news that commercial radio formats are to go in terms of regulation from OFCOM.

Those who are closest to the front line on this will be mostly celebrating the deregulation. Those who are most passionate about radio will probably be bemoaning the loss of the localness requirement.

None the less, what we have here truly is a mixed bag of deregulation. There are some bits that are very good, and there are some others that are truly very, very bad.

So lets start with the best change of the lot. The removal of requirements to play a perticular genre of music. In practice, these were pretty much nonsense anyway, as the format could be written in such a loose way that you could often play almost anything popular and not contravene your format requirements.

Community radio stations have also over the past 10 years highlighted the problem with music formats. Because community radio didn't have this requirement to play a certain music format, it can and very often does, play almost anything and almost everything, within acceptable standards, such as definitely not having songs with losts of swear words in it during times when children would be listening.

Stations like Source FM actually make a point of playing local music from local musicians, music that, until now, gets zero airplay on commercial radio, despite the fact that many songs are indistinguishable in quality terms, from the material submitted by the big music companies. The only actual difference in the sound of the music will sometimes be the instruments used.

If anything, the elimination of music formats as a regulatory requirement, might actually free up commercial stations to take more risks at least musically. If you value localness in anyway, consider scheduling a locally originated track in one music slot per hour during your locally originated programming.

Or, how about an hour long weekly programme, where you only play locally originated music. BBC has already done something similar with their "BBC Introducing..." shows that air for one or two hours per week on the BBC Local Radio stations.

With Ofcom no longer required to approve music format changes, it should allow stations to be more free to add different genres music to their mix as needed. I'd argue that having classical music on a Sunday morning would be more popular than having the same normal music mix.

I'm also reassured by the assurances that there will be strong requirements to provide national and local news, weather and travel.

Local information is one of the key reasons that people tune into local radio as whole, be it BBC, commercial radio or community radio. It is especially important during times of severe weather, when information about school closures, power interruptions, disruption to public transport and many other things, goes from being merely a nicety, to being absolutely essential.

Local television and local radio in other countries understand that providing much more specific and localised information in times where it is required, is much more beneficial to the station, as well as being beneficial to the listeners.

The biggest problem with the deregulation is the removal of localness requirments. Now, stations will be able to share programming 24/7/365, rather than having to provide breakfast and drivetime programming on weekdays, and honestly, that is a big mistake.

I just said that during times of severe weather, local information is more important, and just because the technology is available to enable centralised hubbing of multiple stations with the ability to provide local links on those different stations, doesn't mean that localness should not be a requirement.

How do you build rapport with an audience in a local area, if your presenters and station staff aren't out and about in that area? It's difficult. The Breeze right now has network programming based in Bristol & Southampton. It's difficult for those presenters to build good rapport with audiences in Torbay, which is the most south westerly version of The Breeze.

Heart's Network programming is produced in London. Now how are they meant to be a presence from Scotland to Cornwall, when they're in London?

Local stations that have local presenters going out and about meeting local audiences at local events build much better rapport and have a much stronger connection with the audience, than a network presenter who might occasionally appear at an event in your local area, but mostly is never seen.

Yes, social media helps that process, but nowhere near as much as people think. Being out and about, representing the stations at local events, is at least 10 times more effective than anything social media can achieve.

So, overall, this has the potential to be far more positive for commercial radio, but radio needs to be careful not to do things that alienate the audience, because despite what commercial radio seems to think, the advertisers will not stay if the audiences decide to leave the station.

You can't make a station appealing to advertisers, you have to make it appeal to listeners, and then, the advertisers will come aboard, because you have the listeners. Reducing locally originated programme below the current minimum level, is likely to alienate the audience.

Ian Beaumont Live & Direct video short: Brexit is a mess.

My latest video post, on the Brexit Secretary, David Davis, being forced to admit that the UK government has not conducted a single Impact Assessment on the aftermath of leaving the EU, despite having previously said his department was doing about 57 of them.

Viewpoint: An Open Letter To David Lloyd

David, you are an industry veteran who has been around the block since 1980.  You have so much experience and your books and blog are full of valuable insights that mostly are bang on the money.

But nobody bats a perfect innings, nobody hits the ball out of the park every time, and I'm afraid in your Open Letter To Tony Hall, you miss the mark by such a wide margin, that it's hard to believe that you actually spent a year in BBC Local Radio.  I feel I shouldn't have to be explaining what I'm about to say to you, but here goes.

This is a new time for BBC Local Radio, and indeed for all media.  Now more than ever before in the broadcasting world, broadcasters need to work as though they are working for multimedia operations, because the reality is, they are.

Back in the early days of the internet, a radio station's website or a TV station's website, could be like a shop window, giving people a flavour of what the radio station or TV channel could provide, if you chose to listen or watch.  

Nowadays, the online shop window concept seems about as archaic as silent movies, a style of movies that I love and adore, yet are so associated with the early days of Hollywood and film making.

Radio and TV broadcaster websites these days have to be another platform, for the broadcaster.  Online broadcasting for radio is now commonplace, and few radio stations worldwide don't actually have some form of online relay of their signal, or in some cases, an online-only schedule that allows them to have content going out online whilst live sports content that they don't have online rights for goes out over the airwaves.

How often do you hear on jingles these days something like, On FM, online and on your mobile?  Online broadcasting allows for greater reach, and through mobile apps like BBC iPlayer Radio, Tune In, RadioPlayer and others, as long as you are in range of mobile signal, you can listen to any station you choose, from just about anywhere in the world.

Of course, the text side of the equation is still there, and many radio stations are using the resources that are available to them, on their website to provide local news and information, plus taking national and international news and sport from Sky News or some other national provider.

And now, social media is added to the mix.  And this is where things get interesting.

Your own words David...

"...A radio station cannot target everyone. Radio One would be less successful were it targeted at everyone, and so would Radio Two. It does not work. You will create a radio network which is expensively-producing valuable output, consumed by ever fewer people..."

This is where you are wrong, David.  These days, a radio station can target everyone, but in different ways.

Social media is about the younger demographic, they get their news these days mostly from social media and the internet.  Radio is becoming an older demographic thing generally.  People gravitate onto radio usually through online listening these days, alongside their surfing and web browsing.

And here's another time you made the same point in the article...

"...You suggest moving from a 50+ target. The BBC appears to believe it is appropriate to require a Radio 1 to target young - but not for any one of your services necessarily to trouble with those of us over fifty - radio’s most avid consumers. Not only a puzzling decision, but irresponsible. Commercial radio cannot target 50+ given it is simply not economically viable . You have just announced that BBC radio should no longer charge itself with the interests of those over fifty. Can that be right?"

Okay, two big problems here.  First, commercial radio cannot target 50+ due to lack of economic viability?  How come channels like Gold and Smooth, and the Bauer City 2 stations, and My Music Radio and Encore and Classic FM all do so well.  Most of the demographic targets of those stations are 35-64 year olds, which means according to you that half the target audience of these stations is untargetable.

And as for the fact that BBC national services don't target the over 50s, I would suggest that BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 Extra and BBC World Service all to some degree target the over 50s audience and do fairly well in that demo. 

Heck, I'm aware of commercial stations picking up audiences way older than their demographic targetting, because the person likes what they hear.  

What the BBC is doing, is similar to what community radio has been doing for itself.  Defining the role for the station, rather than the demographic, which is at best, is imprecise, and at worst, an idea drowned under the weight of stereotypes that don't exist and nobody actually believes in.  Nobody actually matches the stereotypes, so forget about them.  And forget about demographics, they'll only lead you down the wrong path.

Instead, define what your station's role is.  Radio 1's role is to pioneer new music and new artists.  The community radio station I do programmes for, Source FM, has a role, to promote local music and local issues that are of interest to the audience in our area, which is generally more progressive than other parts of Cornwall, which are more conservative.  In 2016's Brexit referendum, the Truro and Falmouth constituency voted Remain by 54-46.  BBC Local Radio's role is also to provide coverage of local issues.  But it needs to do more than just that, it needs to carve out its own important role, and Tony Hall's speech actually suggested that he had a vision for what BBC Local Radio should be.

"...Firstly, I want us to be more creative; and more local. As I said, I’m going to restore responsibility and accountability for the evening schedule – giving it back to local editors. Next summer we’ll be ending the All England show. I understand why it came about, but it’s not local enough; and it limits creativity.

We’re going to help you change the music you play too – giving you playlists which reflect the diversity of our cities and our counties. I want that to happen – and your colleagues at Radio 2 are going to work with you to do that.

Secondly, we need to do more to celebrate the diversity of our communities
So, as and when I can, I’ll introduce a fund to help you do just that....

...And, finally, I want us to continue to invest in our digital future.  It’s something David Holdsworth has felt very strongly about too. Rightly so. We need the right kit. We’ve got some brilliant journalists working in local radio – and I’ve already seen some great innovation. But you simply don’t have the best mobile equipment. That’s going to change.

And it’s going to help our local editors – every one of you – to be more ambitious.

Over the next few months, we’ll be working out how you can produce, publish and take charge of all your digital content. Because I want to put you in control."



Now, do I agree with everything that he sets out in his vision?  Most of it, but whether I agree with it or not, is not the point.  The point is he's defining the broad strokes of BBC Local Radio's role in the future.  

 Now, a couple more points...

"...You announce that budgets are not being reduced. Frankly, Tony, this is appalling. In such demanding times, every media outlet in the country is making economies. As I have demonstrated with granular detail at the invitation of your executives,BBC local stations could be managed more efficiently on far less money with greater success. You are wasting licence fee payers’ cash. Whilst many people on local radio work their socks off producing great radio, just about every employee could point to many inefficiencies too, if invited. Local radio will always be expensive, and this short -term announcement simply places local radio irresponsibly in long term peril."

...The only point I agree with here is that BBC Local Radio could be managed more efficiently on far less money, although whether that would bring greater success is debateable.  But frankly, there is massive overspending in other areas outside local radio, and the BBC needs to look at that first.  They do need to change the way they produce local radio, but even then, the idea that you need to cut budgets on BBC local radio is preposterous.  It's losing them listeners, you have said so yourself.  Adjusting how programmes are done so that the budget can go further, sure, but don't cut any more and really, they should invest more in local radio.  

How local is Heart really?  Heart only provides 43 hours a week of local/regional programming.  The remaining 125 hours a week are networked.  Commercial radio is heading towards a mostly networked model, with weekday breakfast, weekday drivetime and weekend breakfast being the only parts of the schedule that are local.  Local News might be done throughout daytime, but that is minimal local content in network daytimes, which really shows up commercial radio's commitment to localness, little more than a tick box exercise to keep the regulator happy.

Meanwhile, BBC Local Radio is live and local for at least 14 hours a day Monday to Friday, 12 hours on Saturday and 13 hours on a Sunday.  That adds up to a total of 95 hours of local programming, with the rest either being shared regional programming, the network evening show, and 5 Live's Up All Night, which totals around 73 hours.  Which one were listeners more concerned about?  Heart's network invasion of daytime, or BBC local radio's network evening show?  The answer was BBC local radio's network evening show, despite the fact the evening slot had fewer people listening to that than were listening to Heart's Daytime output.  I think that says it all about how little people truly care about local commercial radio.  But the BBC's local output is held in far greater esteem.

You might think this is the wrong move from the BBC.  I think this is exactly the right kind of thing that the BBC should be doing more of.  More local radio, more regional TV.  Such a move would solidify the BBC's position in local and regional broadcasting, a position that right now seems to be built on quicksand.  Better, more stable foundations will make for a better BBC.

Viewpoint: BBC Local Radio cancels the network evening show, and cancels the cuts!

Finally... some sense has at last permeated into the hallways of Broadcasting House, and penetrated the thick skulls of BBC management.

Just think about this.  In the last year, BBC Local Radio in England reached 133,000 less people now than it did in 2016, according to RAJAR.  And why is that?  Because they were continuing to use an outdated idea of what BBC Local Radio is.  Well, outdated is not perhaps the most accurate term for it.  Try, short sighted, ill-advised, ill-judged, and outdated.  The current local radio format, is basically the same one that has been in place since 1992, before the internet became a common thing, and before social media even existed.

At the time, the strategy seemed to be a good one, make BBC journalism the core of the local radio product.  The net result of that though was a more talk format during weekday daytime, which felt a little off, and also an all talk breakfast slot.  This felt a little bit like overkill, in trying to differentiate themselves from their commercial radio competition.  As the internet has become a phenomenon and social media has come into being and grown into another phenomenon, so the strategy of serving the over 50s audience, allowing commercial radio to come in and hoover up the 18-54 audience, has looked more and more ill-judged.  After all, local radio should be serving communities, not demographics.

In fact, BBC Director General Lord Tony Hall even admitted as much in his speech at the Frank Gillard Awards in Coventry Cathedral tonight.  “Local Radio should be for everybody,” he said. “It’s there to serve the Facebook generation as much as the rest of us.”Too right it is there to serve everyone in a community, even if that community is as diverse and eclectic as Cornwall. 

But the thing that makes me most overjoyed, is the cancellation of the network evening show.  In my view, it was and still is, the biggest mistake BBC local radio ever made.  Heck, there have been times in the past when BBC local radio had to save money, and cut the number of regional outputs in the evening slot from the previous 10, down to 4.  Whilst it didn't feel particularly local, it didn't feel particularly distant either.  The network evening show has felt distant and disconnected from the rest of the BBC local radio output, even though they were following the daytime more talk format, which was also a mistake for an evening show to do.

 On top of that, it eliminated some particularly well thought out local strategies for the evening output, such as Duncan Warren's Evening Show on BBC Radios Cornwall, Devon, Guernsey and Jersey.  Any sports coverage that any of the local stations needed to do was cleverly opted out of the show at the relevant point, and then they would opt back in at the end.  Meanwhile Duncan's show would update the information on that sports event during the show for those who couldn't bear to listen to the coverage, or just weren't in the right area.

Listeners to BBC Local Radio stations in the South were annoyed to lose the thinner record spinner, Roger Day from their evening output.  BBC Radio London would lose their nightly sports programme, which was a great idea for an area like London, where there are many different sports teams and usually at least one of them would be in action most evenings.  In many areas, there was consternation about losing these good local shows for a network evening show.  But now, the beast that is the network evening show, has been slayed, or at least is dying a slow death, officially ending next summer, probably right around the time next year's football season starts at a guess.

In fact, Tony Hall's speech at the Frank Gillard Awards held great promise for the future of BBC Local Radio.

“I’m a Director-General who believes in Local Radio. I recognise the unique value the BBC locally can bring. We’re an organisation that’s global, national and rooted in our local teams. Local Radio is in the DNA of our communities. I think that is more important than ever. England’s changing. It’s always been a patchwork of communities, with quite distinct identities. While Newcastle’s population is getting older, Bradford’s is getting younger and Birmingham is becoming one of the most diverse cities in Europe. Decision-making is being devolved too – there are mayors in some of the big metropolitan areas and that’s having an impact.

“I want to hear the sound of England as it changes. So while other media are becoming creatively less local, I want us to become even more so and to connect with our audiences in new ways.

“For many years the BBC has been reducing its investment in Local Radio. The development of new technology and the growth of smartphones has seen many people getting their local news, weather and traffic information digitally. But the rise of digital technology has also seen the rise of fake news, not just on a global level but on a local one as well. That’s why the role of BBC Local Radio is actually becoming more important – not less.

“Local Radio should be for everybody. It’s there to serve the Facebook generation every bit as much as the rest of us. My ambition for BBC Local Radio is for it to have more creative freedom, to celebrate local life, to be the place where we report local news but also the place we reflect local identity, nurture local talent and engage local audiences through digital platforms. I want to see a renaissance in Local Radio.”

Now, what this implies, is in many ways, a back to basics approach for BBC Local Radio, back to how it used to be before 1992, when the station's Managing Director, had much greater control over the local output, than the current Editors do. 

Community Radio has taken on a lot of what BBC local radio, and indeed Independent Local Radio, used to be.  Community radio has really become the community's voice on the airwaves, the place where local life is not only celebrated, it's almost revered.  Community radio nowadays reflects local identity and nurtures local talent more than the BBC or Local Commercial Radio does.  Local Commercial Radio is going more generic and more national, and has been for a long time.  And Tony Hall is quite correct when stating that the BBC had been reducing investment in Local Radio, but from what he's saying, and this is purely speculation on my part, that increased investment in the Local Radio product is coming and its coming at a more local level.  But what does this mean?

In an area which I'm most familiar with, the South West, I can forsee a few possibilities.  The first, and easiest to achieve, is increasing the output of Somerset Sound, or as it is now known BBC Somerset.  At the moment, BBC Somerset shares output with Radio Bristol 0500-0630 and 1200-1600 on weekdays, as well as sharing the evening and overnight output from 1900 to 0500, whether that's BBC Radio 5 Live, Ujima Radio, Somer Valley FM or BCFM, or any other programme for that matter.

At the weekends, BBC Somerset broadcasts local programmes from 0600 to 1300 on a Saturday, whilst on Sundays, BBC Somerset and BBC Radio Bristol completely share output.  Changing that situation so that from 0500-1900 on weekdays, and 0600-1800 on weekends, BBC Somerset is completely local, is the minimum requirement.

The second requires more work, but I am sure this can be done, and that is to turn the weekday breakfast opt-out for Dorset into a full radio station.   The minimum requirement here is adding some weekday drivetime output, but in reality, nothing less than a full local radio service will do.  Lots of people in Dorset think that the BBC forgets about them, and to be fair, they have a point.  Years ago, the BBC Dorset FM optout ran from 0630 to 1300 every weekday, opting out of BBC Radio Devon.  Now it's merely 0630 to 0900 opting out of BBC Radio Solent.  There needs to be some serious work done to change the long earned reputation that to the BBC, Dorset is the forgotten county.

The third is the one that I think might be least likely to happen, but they have done opt-outs before for this area, and could easily again, and that is to make the 95.7 FM frequency for BBC Radio Devon in Plymouth, as well as the DAB version on the Plymouth multiplex, a Plymouth opt-out or even, a full separate station.  A BBC Plymouth, maybe titled BBC Plymouth Sound as a needle to Heart, would only have Radio Plymouth as the local competition, as Heart South West's output in Plymouth is the same as it is across the rest of Devon, minus adverts of course.  The BBC could have the advantage by doing local Plymouth Breakfast and Drivetime shows, plus weekend breakfast as well.  Eventually, you might look to go full time with it, but that could be a way off in the future.

A fourth possibility would be to give BBC Radio Cornwall, the same status as BBC Radio Wales, Scotland and Ulster, and make it a National Regional station.  This is unlikely to happen, but if they are serious about increasing local output, then how about adding local output to evenings and late night, 7 days a week.  This would give the station the same levels of programming that the national regionals do.  Even adding a daily news bulletin in the Cornish Language, even if it was only a couple of minutes, would make a difference to how the radio station is percieved in the Duchy.

And that's just on four of the 40 stations that the BBC currently runs, with the option to increase that so much more.  With ViLoR, their Virtual Local Radio software, they have an option to run continuous music overnight rather than Radio 5 Live.  When Radio 5 Live was introduced as the overnight sustaining service in the mid 1990s, it was done because it was the only way to hear 5 Live without interference.  Now you have 5 Live on Digital Satellite (both Sky and Freesat), Digital Cable, Digital Terrestrial, online, and on DAB as well, the 5 Live overnight sustaining service just isn't necessary any longer.

Stations can contribute programmes to air overnight, and there are already a number of good candidates in my view for this.  Programmes like Paul Miller's Soul Show, Graham Pass's show of crooners and music from the vintage years, Richard Green's Vintage Chart Show, Gillham Gold, and many others could be shared across network overnight, just like some of these programmes are already shared between stations in regional structres weekend evenings and Sunday afternoons.

All of these things and many more can be done relatively easily and quite quickly.  The BBC is also supposed to be working with the community radio stations.  Now BBC Radio Bristol utilises this partnership quite well, with Ujima Radio, BCFM and Somer Valley FM all producing a weekly hour of output to go out overnight at the weekend, plus there's a best of community radio show on Sunday afternoons at 5pm, and all of those programmes can be heard on BBC iPlayer Radio.  BBC Radio Cornwall for instance, could work with Coast FM, Source FM, CHBN and RSAB to provide weekly hours of output that could be used to provide more local content at weekends, evenings or overnights.

BBC Radio Devon have Soundart Radio, Phonic FM, Bay FM and The Voice as possible producers of community radio hours.  There's a lot of options out there that BBC Local Radio could utilise.

Hopefully we'll start seeing changes in 2018, but the one I am most looking forward to, is saying goodbye and good riddance to the network evening show. 

Viewpoint On Wrestling Update: Darren Young and Summer Rae also released

Whilst I'm in the midst of writing my last post because it was a big surprise, two more names got released by WWE.

BREAKING NEWS: WWE has come to terms on the releases of WWE Superstars Darren Young and Summer Rae. https://t.co/CU8R144QG2

— WWE (@WWE) October 29, 2017

These are far less of a surprise.  Summer Rae had been drafted to RAW but had not appeared.  In fact, best that I can tell, Summer Rae hasn't appeared on screen since Wrestlemania 32.  Rae was another one who was with FCW in 2011, and became FCW General Manager in March 2012.  When FCW became NXT, she became a ring announcer for NXT, before transitioning to actual wrestling in 2013.  She became Fandango's dance partner and valet in April 2013, and she would stay in the main roster for the rest of her career.  She never won a single title during her time in WWE.

Darren Young on the other hand first appeared in a WWE ring back in 2005, usually as a jobber on episodes of WWE Heat and WWE Velocity, when they were B-shows to RAW and SmackDown respectively.  Darren would also join FCW, though that was in 2009, and would be in a tag team with Percy Watson, called The South Beach Party Boys.

He was one of the rookies in the first season of the NXT game show/reality show.  He later became part of the infmaous Nexus group and angle.  He would return for Season 5 of NXT, and would have a rivalry with Titus O'Neil.  In 2012 Young and O'Neill became The Prime Time Players and were signed to Smackdown.  The Prime Time Players would be split up in 2014 but came back together in 2015 when they would go on to win the WWE Tag Team Championship from the New Day.

Darren Young hasn't been on TV since injuring his arm in January 2017. 

I'm hoping there are no more releases to come today, I'm not sure I can keep up.

Viewpoint On Wrestling: Emma Released

Man, this one has caught me by surprise.  Just seen a post on Facebook, from WWE's official Facebook, that Emma has been released.

Emma, real name Tenille Dashwood, has been with WWE since 2011, when she was in their Florida Championship Wrestling developmental territory.  FCW became NXT in 2012, and competed several times for the NXT Women's Championship, but never won it.  She was called up to the main roster in 2014 and stayed there for about a year before returning to NXT.  She was once again called up to the main roster in March 2016.  And in all that time, she never won a single title.  In fact, she was barely midcard in the WWE women's roster, sometimes little more than a jobber.

I was expecting her to be part of the upcoming Survivor Series 5 on 5 match between RAW and SmackDown's women's divisions.  Obviously that is not going to be the case.

WWE released their fairly standard statement on the release on WWE.com.  It read...

"WWE has come to terms on the release of WWE Superstar Emma. 
WWE wishes Emma the best in all of her future endeavors."

But what are her future endeavours?  She hasn't posted on Twitter since Friday, and her last post was kinda cryptic...

Walking into the weekend like...

Photo: @HarryLHGFX
HMUA: @stellakae pic.twitter.com/OxkJJe5dYf

— EMMA (@EmmaWWE) October 27, 2017

Obviously, we won't be seeing her in a WWE ring anytime soon, but she could make an appearance on Impact Wrestling or Ring Of Honor, as they continue to slowly establish their Women Of Honor division, or she could appear in a Women's only promotion, such as Shimmer or Shine.

Whatever happens, I wish Tenille all the very best in whatever she does.

Viewpoint: The WhatCulture Exodus: What Just Happened?

WhatCulture announces staff departures. pic.twitter.com/FRMauHon7t

— WhatCulture (@whatculture) September 19, 2017

When I woke up this morning, I wasn't expecting this to happen.

This is a surprise in the world of new media.  WhatCulture may have originally been a film blog in 2006 called Obsessed With Film, but in recent times, it has become far more than that.  With sections covering Wrestling, Film, TV, Gaming, Comics, Sports and Offbeat stories amongst other things, WhatCulture has become one of the biggest sites on the net, with articles and lists every day.

And then there was the YouTube channels.  They started about three years ago, and the first voice and face that became a character, and more than just a narrator, was Adam Blampied.  His first video was on the WhatCulture Wrestling channel and it was this little masterpiece.




From there, Adam Blampied became a big part of the WhatCulture brand.  His face and voice became synonymous with WhatCulture Wrestling mainly, but WhatCulture in general as well.  He created the "How WWE Should Have Booked" series of videos, and the "What Just Happened" series, as well as others.

From there we got Adam vs Adam, as Adam Pacitti joined the fray.  From there would be born a rivalry that powered WhatCulture into the internet stratosphere.  Adam Blampied would also team up with Brian Zane from Wrestling With Wregret to do videos, including How WWE Should Have Booked The Invasion, and Heroes Of Wrestling.

Then Jack King aka Jack The Jobber arrived and joined the fun and games but he seemed to be a bit of a third wheel, and to be fair, he was definitely outclassed in the wit department by the two Adams, but he had his own style which made him stand out, in both a good and bad way, but mostly good.

Then Ross Tweddell arrived and became King Ross, and he became a larger than life character in general.  These four people, along with unseen editor Sam Driver, who Adam Blampied would often reference in his videos, have been the core of the explosion in WhatCulture content on YouTube.

But now, these 5 people have left WhatCulture, and also left WCPW, the wrestling promotion that they created just over a year ago, and Adam Blampied was the General Manager for, before today.

So what does this mean?  Well it means that WhatCulture and WCPW will be much the poorer.  Although most of these people didn't write the stuff they were saying, they gave it life in their own unique way, by adding in their own personality and character, and most of the rest of WhatCulture's hosts just don't have the same levels of engagement with the readers and viewers, or the same levels of personality.

It's a real loss to WhatCulture, but what about the internet?

Well, Adam Blampied's twitter account has given us a teasing clue about what happens next...

Join us. pic.twitter.com/m00QLBHssm

— Adam Blampied (@AdamTheBlampied) September 19, 2017

I guess we will be finding out soon enough, but in the meantime...

...I'm Ian Beaumont and that's What Just Happened.

Viewpoint: Can We End This Nightmare Now, Please?

So let me get this straight. Donald Trump posted footage from WWE, from Wrestlemania 23 to be precise, phtoshopped to replace Vince McMahon's head with a CNN logo, footage that showed him beating up on "CNN".

That's low. That's dispicable. That's sad. Using one fake thing, professional wrestling, to accuse CNN of being fake, and showing how he wants to beat up on them. Sadly, his fans just eat it up.

The rest of us know that he has sadly demonstrated that he does not respect the media, which we already knew, but that he also does not respect the office of President. 

This is not reality TV, this is not a ratings war. He is supposed to be the President of the USA. Instead, he is nothing more than a cult leader, destroying the United States, under the Cult Of Trumpistan. 

He's too stupid to resign, and his cabinet is too in his thrall to dump him. Somebody needs to do something to end this travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham of a presidency. 

Somebody in the Congress needs to do something, soon, whilst there is still something of the United States left to salvage.

Roger Moore: 1927-2017

With the heaviest of hearts, we must share the awful news that our father, Sir Roger Moore, passed away today. We are all devastated. pic.twitter.com/6dhiA6dnVg

— Sir Roger Moore (@sirrogermoore) May 23, 2017

Goodbye, Mr Bond.

Viewpoint: Manchester Concert Explosion.

My first thoughts in this situation, are the same this time as they always are, they are with the families and friends of the victims. There are no words right now, that will soothe their pain, or ease them through what will be one of the hardest, toughest times they will ever go through.

My second thought is the same one I have every time somebody uses one of the T words in this kind of situation.  The T words being terror, terrorist and terrorism.  Whether the crime fits the definition of terrorism or not, I will not used the T words to describe it.  This was a crime, an act of premeditated murder.  Even describing it that way is emotive enough.  The fact that the perpetrator committed suicide in the act, just means that it saves the expense of a trial and the ongoing cost of keeping him in prison.  Rather than face human justice, the perpetrator convicted himself in the highest court of all, and all he did in the process was to allow the gods and goddesses to send him into his eternal damnation much sooner than originally planned.

My last thought here is simply this.  Carry on as normal today.  Don't let this or any other criminal act of this magnitude change who you are or what you do.

Viewpoint: The clock is ticking on Donald Trump.

We are getting ever closer, inch by inch, foot by foot, yard by yard, to a moment like this one...

...and believe me, there will be whooping and hollering around the world when he does go down.

The announcement that a special counsel has been appointed to investigate the reported meddling in the US Presidential Election by Russia and whether Trump campaign associates or the campaign itself, collaborated with the meddling, has invariably thrown a spanner into the barely functional works of this White House.

We've heard a report that apparently Donald Trump went into his White House accomodations earlier on today, and apart from food and drink requests has not emerged since.  If he has any sense at all, which is unlikely, he'd head for Moscow on the first flight he could charter, and leave everybody else behind and go into hiding.  Unfortunately, he's too much of an egomaniac and spotlight hog to want to go into hiding for very long. 

The strangeness here, is although in the history of the USA, there have 15 people impeached at the federal level, the two presidents impeached, were both acquitted in the Senate, and both were Democrats.  Andrew Johnson in 1868, and Bill Clinton in 1999.  Richard Nixon was never actually impeached.  Articles of impeachment had been agreed by the House Judiciary Committee, but Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.

Whatever happens now, we are in territory that is reminiscent of Watergate, but also way greater than a bungled break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic Party.  The words "high treason" are being used in intelligence circles right now, and those words are not used lightly, or even at all.  But they are being used now.  This is a situation that may have to call for a completely new response, including possibly an election re-run, or a brand new election.  Nothing at this stage should be ruled out or in,  Everything is still on the table.

The only real question remaining is whether Trump's self-preservation instincts will overtake his grossly inflated ego, and make him head for the hills.  I'm not sure his ego will allow him to see how deep the quicksand is, or even that he is sinking in it.  And if that is the case, his whole administration might just go down with him.

Viewpoint: Eurovision Song Contest needs a change

So, at this year's Eurovision Song Contest, the UK's entry placed 15th, scoring 111 points.  Not as bad as I feared, but also not as good as I expected.

Half the juries gave the UK points, ranging from the 1 point awarded by Austria, Greece and Norway, to the 10 points awarded by Slovenia and the 12 points awarded by Australia.

4 countries awarded points in the televoting.  3 of those countries were not countries that had juries awarding points.  Only Australia awarded points in both the jury stage and the televoting stage, but the televoting only brought 3 points, compared to 12 points from the jury.  The rest of the points came from Spain (1), Ireland (4) and Malta (4).

99 points from the juries, just 12 points from the televoting. 

Now obviously politics, in the form of Brexit, played its part with the public in Europe, but considering the juries rated us so highly, putting us in 10th place overall in terms of jury scores, it makes the televoting look worse.  The televoters had us in 20th place, hence why we ended up with mid table mediocrity at 15th.

However, at almost 4 hours long just for the final, the Eurovision Song Contest is proving to be a difficult sell now, especially as in Kiev, where the event was taking place, it was almost 2am when the show finished.  The fact that the show starts at 8pm UK time, means its 9pm in most of Western Europe, ecxept Portugal and Ireland, and 10pm in most of Eastren Europe.  It's getting too long and unweildly to be just one show.

And indeed it isn't.  You have two semi-finals, one on Tuesday, one on Thursday, and it's been that way since 2004.  And in my view, the semi finals are not serving the contest well.

First off, you have the big 5, who get automatic byes straight through to the final.  The Big 5 are the biggest monetary contributors to the EBU.  The year's host nation also automatically qualifies, and then from however many countries beyond those 6 have submitted entries, they are split into 2 pools, and have to go through a semi final each to qualify.  The top 10 from each semi-final get through to the final, leaving you with 26 finalists.

Each semi final though goes on for about 2.5 hours, with somewhere between 15 and 20 songs per semi.  It makes the total investment over the whole week about 9 hours.  And again, in a place like Kiev, it's past midnight when the shows end.

There has to be a better way to do this, and perhaps there is.

Get rid of the semi-finals, and have all countries competing in a new Eurovision Weekend.  It starts on Saturday night with the entries, performing for the juries and the audience.  This process is going to be long, but during a Eurovision party, it's really the songs that matter, that's the main thing that brings people together, the music.  So, let the music take centre stage, start the event earlier, 7pm UK or 7.30pm UK rather than 8pm, and everyone can have their Eurovision party and enjoy the music.

The juries would then meet up on Sunday morning to award the points for each country, and from after the performers have finished on stage, the lines could then open for televoting.  Then, like the X Factor and Britain's Got Talent do, have a Sunday night results programme, where the country representatives can announce the jury points, and their countries televoting points, and then we end up with a winner.  So for instance, if one country was awarded 12 points from each of the other 41 country juries, and 12 points from each of the other 41 countries televoting, their final score would be 984 points.

Currently, the juries watch their own performance, untelevised, on Friday night, and they finalise their scores before the live broadcast ever happens.  Where as televoters get mere minutes to make up their mind and cast their own vote.  Leaving the lines open all through the night, into Sunday and right up until the beginning of the results show, would leave much more time to get the votes in, and you can still have some performances to start the show off well, before the results get announced.

Whilst Saturday night's programme is still likely to be about 4 hours, the new Sunday night programme would be only half that at most, and the combined length is less than the current 9 hour time investment that we are currently asked for.

NFL showing its international intentions

I could write rant after rant after rant about Donald Trump, but frankly that would be boring, so I want to tackle some other stories here for a little bit.

I am a bit of a sports fan, okay, a lot of a sports fan, and I'm getting ready for the Super Bowl this weekend, and saw with interest on a recent episode of Around The Horn, a story about the NFL playing a game in Mexico City next year.

It does look like that the NFL is showing its hand with regards to adding more international teams to their roster.  London has already seen many NFL matches with 4 more coming up next season.

But the NFL's history with the World League Of American Football, later NFL Europe League and NFL Europa; gives some interesting background.

For the 1991 and 1992 seasons, there were more North American teams than European ones.  Only one of those teams was outside the US, and it wasn't in Mexico, it was in Canada.  The Montreal Machine.  The other North American teams by the way were Birmingham Fire (that's Birmingham, Alabama, not the West Midlands), New York/New Jersey Knights, Ohio Glory, Orlando Thunder, Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks, Sacramento Surge & San Antonio Riders.

Other than New York, who already have the Giants and the Jets, none of the other cities in the North American section of the WLAF, have a current NFL franchise.  Interestingly though, Florida already has 3 teams in their state.  Jacksonville Jaguars, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Miami Dolphins.  The Carolina Panthers are based in the same state as the Skyhawks were but at the other end of the state.  The Cincinnati Bengals are in the same state that the Glory were.

The European teams were across a greater number of countries originally.  The UK had the London Monarchs, Germany had the Frankfurt Galaxy and Spain had the Barcelona Dragons.  When the World League became exclusively European in 1995, they added the Netherlands with the Amsterdam Admirals, and they added teams in the UK and Germany, the Scottish Claymores and the Rhein Fire in Dusseldorf.

When the London Monarchs tried playing home games in different locations in 1998, rebranding themselves as the England Monarchs, the move ultimately failed and the franchise was shutdown and replaced by the Berlin Thunder.

Gradually NFL Europe became more and more NFL Germany, as Barcelona Dragons were shutdown in 2003 and replaced by the Cologne Centurions, and the following year, the Scottish Claymores were closed down and replaced by the Hamburg Sea Devils.  Only the Amsterdam Admirals would keep going as the sole non-German NFL Europa team until the league folded in 2007.

So, whilst the NFL's international ambitions have been there for a long time, the lack of international success in terms of building teams, doesn't bode well.