i am still ultra devestated by last week's debacle. i will write more when i am no longer jet lagged and have actually been to my house to regroup. meanwhile i received this letter from the radio commission this morning: ========================================= 26 October 1998 Following your complaint - and others - the Radio Authority has considered the broadcasts of Xfm against its Promise of Performance. In summary, the outcome is that Authority Members have fined the company #4,000 (four thousand pounds) and we will be having talks with Xfm over the coming weeks. The Authority will be looking at the position again in the New Year. Members felt in particular the absence of the features as outlined - notwithstanding any problems encountered during the re-location of the studios - breached the spirit and, in specific instances also, the letter of the Promise of Performance. These are features which would include music and information not heard on other, more mainstream, stations. You will note that the Authority has welcomed changes made to the output recently. The present Xfm playlist may not be to the taste of every single alternative music fan. It is, however, far enough from those of mainstream stations to demonstrate commitment on the part of Xfm that "generally outside the mainstream" is the audience they do wish to address. The Authority understands that specialist music stations attract, quite obviously, the sort of passion not necessarily inspired by more mainstream stations. For example, certain country music fans deride "line dance" music and say it has no place on country stations, and that country should mean New Country. Others think Old Country should form the basis of stations, and anything else is just "spice". Arguments rage about whether artists can remain alternative when they are popular. What happens when an alternative track charts and becomes popular with people who don't normally follow the alternative scene? Is it alternative or mainstream? However, the Authority can only concern itself with one simple issue, which in the case of Xfm, is to ensure the station serves a market which is "generally outside the mainstream". We will continue to monitor the direction of the music and the Authority will look again at the whole question of Xfm output again in the New Year. Yours sincerely MARTIN CAMPBELL Head of Programming and Advertising _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". For list archives and searching, list rules, FAQ, poor jokes etc, see http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +---+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" +---+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+