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.
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Thursday, 2 February 2017
Friday, 24 May 2013
Woolwich Murder and the problems of using the wrong word.
It's no secret that a lot of us have felt something in the wake of a soldier being murdered just outside of Woolwich Barracks in South London. The story has some unique oddities to it anyway. No criminal of any kind hangs around waiting for the Police to pick them up, and only the dumbest think that the police will kill them rather than capturing them. Also, not since the days of the Northern Ireland troubles have the armed forces been a regular target for murder in this country. So, this is an unusual case all told.
But the media, especially the press, and parts of social media have been bandying about the words "terrorist" and "terrorism" in relation to this murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, a member of the 2nd Batallion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
It is far too easy to use the words terrorist and terrorism, in situations where we just don't know the full back story. The security services had picked up one of the suspects before, and one is believed to have converted to Islam. However, no killing done in anyones name, never mind the name of God, is justified. Calling it terrorism, or the perpetrators terrorists, is giving credence and credibility to their complaints, which is the last thing you need to do. In some cases, it might actually glorify their actions and their motives, and that is a definite no-no.
And just as bad, is several facebook postings that crop up all over the social network from pages and organisations with agendas of their own, shared by well meaning people who do not realise what these postings really mean. Some of these posts that get shared espouse racial hatrid, contain statements attributed to politicians that were in fact never made by those politicians, and do nothing to help solve the real problems of the world. In fact, some of these posts are borderline incitement to violence against other people. Be very careful what you share, some of these posts are close to or borderline illegal.
What happened was a murder. That is emotive enough. Calling it terrorism is too emotive, it provokes fear and anger, which is exactly what these people want. They want us to be afraid, they want us to be angry. It's irresponsible, especially for this Conservative government and the media, to do the radical's job for them. They should be more responsible and not use over-emotive words, that do the radical's bidding. For the Conservative government, that's their modus operandi, provoke fear, emotionalise everything, divide and conquer. For the media, it's all about sales, ratings, numbers. They think emotionalising the story will get better ratings, more sales.
The best thing to do, is actually to de-emotionalise and de-editorialise this story. It was a murder. The murder victim was a serving soldier, two men charged at police, they were arrested. Those are the pure undiluted facts. Calling it terrorism, or butchery as one columnist in the Telegraph did, is emotionalising and editorialising the story. Now a newspaper columnist can do that if they want. But if they feel like they should do things like that, then do it about a week or so afterwards, not in the relatively immediate aftermath, up to 72 hours after the event.
The English Defence League amongst others are not helping this whole situation by declaring war on extremist preachers of Islam. That will do nothing to decrease tensions.
In short, never call it terrorism. Never call them terrorists. You will give them what they want.
But the media, especially the press, and parts of social media have been bandying about the words "terrorist" and "terrorism" in relation to this murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, a member of the 2nd Batallion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
It is far too easy to use the words terrorist and terrorism, in situations where we just don't know the full back story. The security services had picked up one of the suspects before, and one is believed to have converted to Islam. However, no killing done in anyones name, never mind the name of God, is justified. Calling it terrorism, or the perpetrators terrorists, is giving credence and credibility to their complaints, which is the last thing you need to do. In some cases, it might actually glorify their actions and their motives, and that is a definite no-no.
And just as bad, is several facebook postings that crop up all over the social network from pages and organisations with agendas of their own, shared by well meaning people who do not realise what these postings really mean. Some of these posts that get shared espouse racial hatrid, contain statements attributed to politicians that were in fact never made by those politicians, and do nothing to help solve the real problems of the world. In fact, some of these posts are borderline incitement to violence against other people. Be very careful what you share, some of these posts are close to or borderline illegal.
What happened was a murder. That is emotive enough. Calling it terrorism is too emotive, it provokes fear and anger, which is exactly what these people want. They want us to be afraid, they want us to be angry. It's irresponsible, especially for this Conservative government and the media, to do the radical's job for them. They should be more responsible and not use over-emotive words, that do the radical's bidding. For the Conservative government, that's their modus operandi, provoke fear, emotionalise everything, divide and conquer. For the media, it's all about sales, ratings, numbers. They think emotionalising the story will get better ratings, more sales.
The best thing to do, is actually to de-emotionalise and de-editorialise this story. It was a murder. The murder victim was a serving soldier, two men charged at police, they were arrested. Those are the pure undiluted facts. Calling it terrorism, or butchery as one columnist in the Telegraph did, is emotionalising and editorialising the story. Now a newspaper columnist can do that if they want. But if they feel like they should do things like that, then do it about a week or so afterwards, not in the relatively immediate aftermath, up to 72 hours after the event.
The English Defence League amongst others are not helping this whole situation by declaring war on extremist preachers of Islam. That will do nothing to decrease tensions.
In short, never call it terrorism. Never call them terrorists. You will give them what they want.
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Global buys Atlantic FM: There are no winners here.
I am disappointed at the recent news that Global Radio is buying Atlantic FM and rebranding it to Heart.
Programming will no longer come from Atlantic's studios in St Agnes but from the old Gemini FM studios in Exeter. Programmes from Exeter, for a Cornish audience. That's really going to get an audience... NOT!
You see Heart's owner, Global Radio, is a combination of all the worst parts of UK broadcast history.
It goes all the way back to 1980. Back then, a radio station called Radio West started broadcasting in Bristol. By 1985 though, it and nearby station Wiltshire Radio were losing money hand over fist. The IBA, the regulator at the time, examined the situation and was presented by the stations with a proposal. Allow the two stations to merge, and broadcasts could continue, otherwise, both stations would have failed and the licences would have to be readvertised.
The IBA knew that re-adveritisng licences for areas where stations had failed could be problematic. The IBA had previously disallowed a takeover of Centre Radio in Leicestershire in 1983, and the station had gone off air. The owners of Radio Trent offered to start a new station in Leicestershire, called Leicester Sound, and 11 months after Centre Radio went off air, Leicester Sound signed on. So the IBA had previous experience of the difficulties of re-advertising a licence. They were determined not to make the same mistake again.
So the IBA basically allowed the merger to go ahead. But in the process, a monster was born, that thought that expansionism was the way to go. Once the IBA had been replaced by The Radio Authority and the ITC by Margaret Thatcher's government, GWR began expaniding it's reach. GWR teamed up with Capital to buy Plymouth Sound and DevonAir Radio. DevonAir was replaced by Gemini FM in a franchise auction, and Capital basically sold the rest of Plymouth Sound to GWR. GWR continued to pick up stations including the Chiltern Radio network and would begin the process of slowly eroding localness from it's output. First, all the AM stations were replaced by a networked Classic Gold service with just 4 hours of local output per day for 6 days out of 7, a total of 24 hours of local programming a week.
Then GWR tried to get local programming cut down to just 13 hours a day across their network, but the regulator said that it had to be 16 hours a day. As a deliberate move, they made 3 of the local hours 3am to 6am in the morning, at the most unprofitable time of the day. It was as though they were trying to send a message to the regulator that local doesn't work. Network programming ran from 7pm till 3am.
Eventually, OFCOM backed down and basically local programming has been slashed on Heart ever since. There is now only 7 hours of "local" programming on Heart on weekdays, and 4 hours at weekends, a total of 43 hours a week. The company behind Heart, Global Radio, basically these days is a mixture of the GCap attitudes and the attitude of Charles Allen, who basically oversaw the downgrading of ITV from a serious regional broadcaster with a unique selling point, to a company that is little different from the myriad of digital TV broadcasters. In short, it is the worst of all media worlds, joined together in one place.
People have said this will increase choice. It won't. Heart were already broadcasting in Cornwall via DAB Digital Radio, relaying the Devon service with Plymouth ads. The least I can hope for is that on the Cornwall mux they arrange to playout the Cornwall ads instead. Other than that, there would be no discernable difference in output, and we have lost the Atlantic FM sound on FM, to make way for Heart. Jermey Scott called this an upgrade for Atlantic. it is not, it is a downgrade, and most listeners in Cornwall will know this.
Expect the listenership figures for Atlantic/Heart to plummet from the current 71,000, to a level nearer 17,000 or even maybe nearer 7,000.
Pirate FM and BBC Radio Cornwall will undoubtedly be the beneficiaries. There's enough history as well to back that up. In 1999, Plymouth Sound AM was replaced by Classic Gold. The figures dropped from 67,000 to 20,000. Pirate FM picked up most of the listeners who deserted. Now, history will repeat itself, and Global Radio haven't learned the lessons of the past. If you don't learn from the past, you are destined to repeat the mistakes of the past, which is what Global will do.
The worst part is whilst Atlantic FM never made a profit, they were almost as well respected as Pirate FM. They knew they were coming into a tough market with both Pirate FM and BBC Radio Cornwall being long established and successful stations. That Atlantic FM couldn't be profitable despite their best efforts is regrettable, and understandable. But the fact that Global haven't understood the dynamics of the area they are proposing to move into and are going to output to Cornwall from Exeter and London, shows how much the company is out of touch with actuality.
Global Radio haven't even been profitable the last 2 financial years, yet Ashley Tabor has taken home about £6million in bonuses. Bonuses for failure. Failing to grow in terms of listeners, and failing to grow in terms of credibility and respect.
Global is about as hated as GWR Group and GCap Media were before them. That sort of baggage only weighs a company down. Global is a company that needs to change it's whole direction and priorities. Being overfocused on cutting costs, does not lead to making profits. Their whole mindset, has to turn towards growth, growing the company and investing in its future. ITV know all about that. Since Charles Allen left ITV, they have been trying to grow their business, but the market does not have faith in ITV. It was in 2007 that ITV last saw their share price above the £1 level that indicates market confidence in a company, and even though they have recovered from their March 2009 lows of around 18p per share, they have still yet to recover above the £1 level. Global is not a plc, unlike ITV, so it's shares do not trade. But I would imagine that if they did trade on the stock exchange,they would similarly trade below £1.
This move is not good for commercial radio as a whole, and further reinforces the image that Global, through their actions, are slowly destroying local radio, in the same way that ITV decimated regional television. And whilst that definitely isn't what they are trying to do, that is the perception they are giving off, and as I always say, perception IS reality.
Programming will no longer come from Atlantic's studios in St Agnes but from the old Gemini FM studios in Exeter. Programmes from Exeter, for a Cornish audience. That's really going to get an audience... NOT!
You see Heart's owner, Global Radio, is a combination of all the worst parts of UK broadcast history.
It goes all the way back to 1980. Back then, a radio station called Radio West started broadcasting in Bristol. By 1985 though, it and nearby station Wiltshire Radio were losing money hand over fist. The IBA, the regulator at the time, examined the situation and was presented by the stations with a proposal. Allow the two stations to merge, and broadcasts could continue, otherwise, both stations would have failed and the licences would have to be readvertised.
The IBA knew that re-adveritisng licences for areas where stations had failed could be problematic. The IBA had previously disallowed a takeover of Centre Radio in Leicestershire in 1983, and the station had gone off air. The owners of Radio Trent offered to start a new station in Leicestershire, called Leicester Sound, and 11 months after Centre Radio went off air, Leicester Sound signed on. So the IBA had previous experience of the difficulties of re-advertising a licence. They were determined not to make the same mistake again.
So the IBA basically allowed the merger to go ahead. But in the process, a monster was born, that thought that expansionism was the way to go. Once the IBA had been replaced by The Radio Authority and the ITC by Margaret Thatcher's government, GWR began expaniding it's reach. GWR teamed up with Capital to buy Plymouth Sound and DevonAir Radio. DevonAir was replaced by Gemini FM in a franchise auction, and Capital basically sold the rest of Plymouth Sound to GWR. GWR continued to pick up stations including the Chiltern Radio network and would begin the process of slowly eroding localness from it's output. First, all the AM stations were replaced by a networked Classic Gold service with just 4 hours of local output per day for 6 days out of 7, a total of 24 hours of local programming a week.
Then GWR tried to get local programming cut down to just 13 hours a day across their network, but the regulator said that it had to be 16 hours a day. As a deliberate move, they made 3 of the local hours 3am to 6am in the morning, at the most unprofitable time of the day. It was as though they were trying to send a message to the regulator that local doesn't work. Network programming ran from 7pm till 3am.
Eventually, OFCOM backed down and basically local programming has been slashed on Heart ever since. There is now only 7 hours of "local" programming on Heart on weekdays, and 4 hours at weekends, a total of 43 hours a week. The company behind Heart, Global Radio, basically these days is a mixture of the GCap attitudes and the attitude of Charles Allen, who basically oversaw the downgrading of ITV from a serious regional broadcaster with a unique selling point, to a company that is little different from the myriad of digital TV broadcasters. In short, it is the worst of all media worlds, joined together in one place.
People have said this will increase choice. It won't. Heart were already broadcasting in Cornwall via DAB Digital Radio, relaying the Devon service with Plymouth ads. The least I can hope for is that on the Cornwall mux they arrange to playout the Cornwall ads instead. Other than that, there would be no discernable difference in output, and we have lost the Atlantic FM sound on FM, to make way for Heart. Jermey Scott called this an upgrade for Atlantic. it is not, it is a downgrade, and most listeners in Cornwall will know this.
Expect the listenership figures for Atlantic/Heart to plummet from the current 71,000, to a level nearer 17,000 or even maybe nearer 7,000.
Pirate FM and BBC Radio Cornwall will undoubtedly be the beneficiaries. There's enough history as well to back that up. In 1999, Plymouth Sound AM was replaced by Classic Gold. The figures dropped from 67,000 to 20,000. Pirate FM picked up most of the listeners who deserted. Now, history will repeat itself, and Global Radio haven't learned the lessons of the past. If you don't learn from the past, you are destined to repeat the mistakes of the past, which is what Global will do.
The worst part is whilst Atlantic FM never made a profit, they were almost as well respected as Pirate FM. They knew they were coming into a tough market with both Pirate FM and BBC Radio Cornwall being long established and successful stations. That Atlantic FM couldn't be profitable despite their best efforts is regrettable, and understandable. But the fact that Global haven't understood the dynamics of the area they are proposing to move into and are going to output to Cornwall from Exeter and London, shows how much the company is out of touch with actuality.
Global Radio haven't even been profitable the last 2 financial years, yet Ashley Tabor has taken home about £6million in bonuses. Bonuses for failure. Failing to grow in terms of listeners, and failing to grow in terms of credibility and respect.
Global is about as hated as GWR Group and GCap Media were before them. That sort of baggage only weighs a company down. Global is a company that needs to change it's whole direction and priorities. Being overfocused on cutting costs, does not lead to making profits. Their whole mindset, has to turn towards growth, growing the company and investing in its future. ITV know all about that. Since Charles Allen left ITV, they have been trying to grow their business, but the market does not have faith in ITV. It was in 2007 that ITV last saw their share price above the £1 level that indicates market confidence in a company, and even though they have recovered from their March 2009 lows of around 18p per share, they have still yet to recover above the £1 level. Global is not a plc, unlike ITV, so it's shares do not trade. But I would imagine that if they did trade on the stock exchange,they would similarly trade below £1.
This move is not good for commercial radio as a whole, and further reinforces the image that Global, through their actions, are slowly destroying local radio, in the same way that ITV decimated regional television. And whilst that definitely isn't what they are trying to do, that is the perception they are giving off, and as I always say, perception IS reality.
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