Latest information of things going on at HRB from the Station Manager.

We have held the first meeting of the new committee, and we are all fired with enthusiasm and raring to go. Next meeting is May 14th. If you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know before then.

The new committee

Following the AGM a couple of people have agreed to be co-opted on to the committee to fill some of the spaces left because no-one stood for the posts at the AGM. The committee for the coming year is as follows:

• Chairman - Bob Henderson.
• Station Manager - Frank Heinley, elected unopposed at the AGM for a 2 year stint.
• Head Of Presenters - Simon Astrop, completing the 2nd year of a 2 year stint.
• Recruitment And Training - Phil Murphy, Phil has agreed to be co-opted to the committee to fill this post.
• Head of Ward Interviewers - Karen Lakin, Karen has agreed to be co-opted to the committee to fill this post.
• Librarian - Jonathan Israel was elected unopposed to this position for a 1 year stint.
• Publicity - this post is currently vacant, Frank Heinley will be coordinating any publicity.
• Fund Raising - this post is currently vacant, the role will be shared among the rest of the committee, Frank Heinley will coordinate.
• HBA Representative - Richard Edwards remains in this position.
• Membership Secretary - Garry Lakin has agreed to be appointed to this post.
• Engineer - as Barry will be leaving the station soon, for the moment Frank Heinley is coordinating the engineering activities for the moment.

Studio Refit / Myriad

As you are probably sick of hearing, we can't as yet install the Myriad 24 hour system because of problems connecting it to our current mixers. At the recent HBA conference Garry & I spent several hours talking to people in the trade show looking for options and quotes. I am still waiting to receive some of the quotes, and I will be chasing them up soon. All the options are expensive, and we need to take the time to ensure that we make the correct decisions.

The Myriad system itself is currently in my lounge. With Garry's help music is being loaded and catalogued. I am also writing a user guide and trying things out so we know how to use it and what it can do. I had thought that we could put the server in the cupboard to provide a 24 hour service, and worry about putting the workstations into the studios later. We cannot do this, because you can't use the automation server to control the system (well you can, but everything you do will go out on air!) we need one of the workstations installed to run the system properly.

One of the options we are considering is to cannibalise the two existing mixers to provide one properly working studio. The small studio would then have a temporary mixer installed (we still have the old mixers from the previous studios) and Myriad installed in that, so we can work on Myriad without affecting to on-air studio. Depending on how this gets set up, it may mean that the small studio is out of use for a while (months) until it is properly rebuilt / refitted / whatever we decide to do with it.

No decisions have yet been made, we are still investigating options.

Once the decisions are made, we need to organise funding. We need to have some ideas that will generate more cash than the usual fetes etc that we do. The fetes are good because they generate publicity, they are more public relations than fund raising. We hope that a small sub-committee will be set up to arrange this, come the time we will be seeking volunteers.

Studio Problem

There has been a problem in the studio - in the large studio, under the desk is a tuner. Please try not to kick it. This is the tuner that provides melody while we are off air. Recently it has been kicked and damaged, so there was nothing going out when we were not there. We are working to move this into the new cupboard, meanwhile, please take care.

Publicity

If you are planning or even thinking about contacting the local press, or celebrities, please contact me first. We need to prevent duplication and maintain a consistent story about what we do.

The HRB Social

All who were there agree this was a great success. Thanks to Andrew and Nick for organising it. We need to do more of this. Anyone who wants to organise another social event, please let me know.

30 Years of HRB

On the 11th November 2008 HRB will be 30. We need to celebrate this in some way. It would be nice to have a year of celebrations, from November this year through to next. Something every month to get us out in the community generating publicity and raising money. Time to start thinking about this now. Any ideas, let me know. And when I say ideas, we are not looking for "why don't we do...." type ideas, but "can I organise......" type ideas. Can you organise something? Let us know.

Frank Heinley,
Station Manager
April 2007