IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS OR ISSUES WITH TELEVISION OR RADIO IN ANY PART OF DORSET
we are here to help. We aim to improve:
ALL ASPECTS OF DIGITAL TELEVISION - FM RADIO – DAB –
& ESPECIALLY LOCAL DORSET NEWS & EVENTS COVERAGE ON ALL MEDIA
Picture: From The Dorset Page
The Dorset Broadcasting Action Group (DorBAG) is Co-Chaired by Oliver Letwin MP and Jim Knight MP with an Executive Committee committee comprising county, borough, town and parish council representatives, plus some experts & other group representatives. DorBAG's ultimate aims are to achieve a fair and reasonable service, from the BBC in particular, for the County of Dorset. The BBC freely admits that Dorset is ‘underserved’ despite no discount on our licence fee!
We have been concerned at reported problems with reception in some areas, and the quality and level of service on both Radio (FM & DAB) and on Terrestrial Television. In addition, the committee is working closely, especially with Digital UK, to address issues particularly relating to Terrestrial Television reception, with a focus on what will happen after switchover to digital. This is due to start, depending on where you live, in the spring of 2009.
Apart from reception issues, DorBAG has been pushing hard for Dorset to be provided with proper local news and events coverage on both terrestrial Television and Radio.
Television: The BBC has advised that, for television, transmitting local news and events coverage for the county will only be possible after switchover to Digital Terrestrial Television, & even then it depends on a number of factors. DorBAG continues to press for this service. However, in the meantime, the BBC has tried to encourage the present regional services (BBC Spotlight from Plymouth, BBC South in Southampton and Points West in Bristol) to cover more items on Dorset in their local news. Understandably, although Plymouth has made a marked improvement, as we are not their prime audience, we still get minimal coverage from the others, which is totally unsatisfactory - and what is worse is that, depending on where you live in the county, you can only see that local news broadcast from that particular region's transmitter. There are no means (today) to view the combined total news from all regions in one programme. Our main thrust now is to pursuade the BBC to ensure the county has adequate newsgathering resources and proper services by:
- folding Dorset into one BBC Region with one manager responsible for all our broadcasts.
- then providing a transmitter in the county to cover the county with suitable editorial content
- adding appropriate staff with a local managing editor to gather and report the news and events
- investing in a new studio in Dorchester to replace the present antiquated building
FM Radio: On a positive note, the BBC did agree that they could do something about radio**. Although they emphasised that the national FM radio network is not going to be expanded (as DAB is now supposed to be the future of radio. Having said that, there are some concerns as to the limited services available in Dorset at the present time), they were prepared to set up a special local station & FM network just for Dorset. They appeared to be sufficiently confident that the BBC Trust would approve it, that we believe they started on the process of setting it up while they waited for a Trust decision on the budgets. However, as most residents now know, this was cancelled by the Trust in their recent cutbacks. And then we heard from within the BBC that they were almost ready to **re-launch BBC Radio Dorset at the time of the announcement, which rather added salt to the wounds! If the requirements outlined above are implemented, we believe the local radio problem will solve itself in the process.
So we continue to press, not only for our own county coverage of both Dorset news and activities on Radio & on Terrestrial Television but, in addition, and most importantly, for a consolidated Dorset-wide service that we can all access at the same time, anywhere in the county by being folded into one BBC Region.
Status: We have pointed out to the BBC that, while their additional services on the internet are very welcome, they are no substitute for the majority of residents who still rely on radios and televisions for their news, information and entertainment. Nevertheless, we are delighted to work with the BBC on their Internet developments for the county, as it is obviously the way broadcasters (and others e.g. press) are moving with an eye to the future. In particular though, DorBAG welcomes the decision by the BBC to install a team of 5 additional staff, based in Dorset, to work on 'BBC Local', a news service that covers the internet, radio and television. Most important of all is the very welcome announcement that one of these people will be the Managing Editor for the county of Dorset and based in Dorchester! He/she will be in control of all Dorset news/events coverage on all media, and will report directly to the two Heads of BBC South & BBC South West Regions! We think this is a major step forward and look forward to hearing when this peron has been appointed.
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