Comments on: It’s snow joke

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:02:02 +0000

Worth noting that Bauer Big City stations use the splash pages to. However, we only put them up during the morning. Preferring to take them down once traffic returns to a more normal level. Important to get the balance between splash page and normal site right. We found this worked well, ensuring the up to the minute content was there when people needed it most, but not in the way for those that were not interested. Of course, regardless of whether or not the splash page was there, it was still very easy to access the school closures information

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:38:31 +0000

Radio Today have published an article to go along with your blog post. You even get a mention. What a lovely bunch of people they are.

http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.5556

By: Gav

Gav — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:03:24 +0000

Thanks for the kind comment about The Revolution’s website.
The splash page pictured there was a standard template we rolled out to all our radio station websites on the first heavy morning, and was well received by all which was nice.

Especially considering we only originally did it to ease pressure on our servers, by delivering a static HTML pre-site page, rather than the regular PHP generated page.

By: Phil Edmonds

Phil Edmonds — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:47:15 +0000

Interesting point as to how much people would turn to their local Community Radio station for snow information.

I know of many Community Radio stations in the Manchester area who have had reduced programming due to their volunteer presenters no being able to make it to the studio.

A case in point on your screen grab of the Wythenshawe FM site you’ll notice large amounts of “Non Stop Music Mix” on the ‘now and next’ – as there was no live breakfast show. So there would certainly be no mention on the radio of what’s happening, so people would have tuned elsewhere for information (it’s a whole other discussion as to what Community Radio stations should be doing in this situation.)

Also although ‘snow’ is not mentioned on the Wythenshawe FM web site – there is a link to the Manchester City Council website school closures down in the ‘What’s On Guide’ box on the bottom left, admittedly not the most prominent – but the best given the “shortcomings” of the design and coding of the web site. (I can safely say that as occasional code monkey of said website, though it’s not my original design.)

By: David Beard

David Beard — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:45:21 +0000

As a radio consumer, the first place I’d head for snow information is, errr, the radio. You know, listen to them.

Not read their accompanying site. To my mind, radio websites support their proposition – not provide live info. For that, I go to a news web site.

By: James Cridland

James Cridland — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:03:02 +0000

Phill: glad to hear it. I knew you were on the case really.
Andy: not having a pop at community radio (not sure why you’d think I was); not sure why it’s acceptable for them not to bother, though.
Michael: I’d point to the earlier blog posts I link to – it’s clear that, yes, the audience would expect this information to be on their radio station’s website.

By: Michael Cook

Michael Cook — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:07:06 +0000

Local radio stations come into their own in bad weather. Their websites should reflect that.

But do Galaxy and Xfm really come into the category of local radio any more? Aren’t they branded entertainment vehicles, mostly networked, extremely light on information?

Would their audience really expect to find school closures on the Galaxy website any more than they would expect to find school closures on iTunes? And where did my kids go online this morning to check on their own school? Not the BBC or a radio station, but the school website.

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:10:24 +0000

Not sure it’s that fair to single out a community station – most of their websites are rather less than one-man operations, usually with a volunteer updating it as and when they’re able to. A cursory check round some other North West CR websites reveals just two with obvious snow info on their homepages – Tameside Radio and Cheshire FM.

I manage Moorlands Radio’s website (www.moorlandsradio.co.uk) and have added a section for listeners to report on the conditions in their area linked to from a large homepage image, but that’s about the limit of what I was able to do yesterday with no advance warning that the weather was set to be bad. Given more time, I’d have liked to have set up a page of school closures as well as a simple messageboard (just like a blog comments section) for listeners in our more remote villages to let other listeners know about conditions. I’ll ensure it’s all in place and ready to go at the press of a button next time – lesson learned!

By: Phill Clark

Phill Clark — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:27:55 +0000

You’re too early James! Real & Smooth (once we have the vast majority of the info) go to dedicated pre-site landing pages with all the snow info.

Good point though as to why it’s item 3 on the carousel on the main sites! The investigation begins…