Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!halley!watson From: watson@halley.UUCP (William Watson) Newsgroups: news.groups Subject: Re: creation of a newsgroup focusing on non-commercial radio Summary: Workers vs. Listeners Message-ID: <653@halley.UUCP> Date: 22 Jan 90 20:04:42 GMT References: Reply-To: cs.utexas.edu!halley!watson (William Watson) Organization: Tandem Computers, Austin, TX Lines: 42 Anton Rang writes: > > I feel that the "non-comm" (non-commercial) name would be confusing, >at least to people who haven't had experience in the radio field; I'd >prefer seeing rec.radio.public. (Then, if the traffic warrants it, >the group could later be split into .npr, .apr, .college, or whatever.) This brings up an important point. Many people would be interested in discussions of the material broadcast over "public" radio stations, but have little to no interest in the actual operation of such an establishment. Perhaps there should be two groups initially proposed: rec.radio.public for listeners to public radio. Discussions might include programs, distribution of progarm material, when and where certain shows air, &c. soc.radio.noncomm for discussions by people involved in the operation of non-commercial broadcast stations. The abbreviation should no be opaque to anyone with such contacts, as the term "non-commercial" comes from the FCC. Discussions here might include licensing, equipment, record reviewing policies, DJ freedom, and the wonders of block programmed schedules :-). Program matter discussions would (idealy?) focus on censorship, obscenity, and public decency matters, rather than "did you hear Car-Talk last week". I would be much more interested in the latter than the former. I expect that many more people would be interested in the former than the latter. Perhaps if the vote for a discussion of *running* a station fails, it should turn into a mailing list. Somehow, though, a mailing list seems to me to be an iffier proposition, with less convenient access. Of course, folks without usenet access might prefer a mailing list, as the would otherwise be cut off from the discussions. Comments? William -- William J. Watson (cs.utexas.edu!halley!watson, watson@halley.mpd.tandem.com, watson@halley.uucp)