Submit a show proposal to DCUfm

Arquinsiel · 23-08-2010 01:02AM

Why ask questions if you don't want to hear the answers?

Landa2 · 23-08-2010 01:03AM

Just a quick note on the speakers.. Ive been in DCU for quite some time and if these repeats are anything to go by it will probably be a bit more.. I have seen/heard those things going on multiple occasions in my 5 year stint in the college and for more than a week.. Each time dcufm did take them down due to complaints.. But then they went out again once the "coast was clear" or something like that

Oh.. Just to clear it up.. the speakers in question are the black ones with the blue LED light on it that is always pointed out the window of the station on full blast.. the exterior ones which im sure you are talking about werent actually all that bad at all and were kept at a reasonably acceptable level for everyone except one lecturer in SALIS.. They were a good addition for the station to have and gave the campus a feel of something going on.. These speakers were initially set up on RAG week i believe and then brought back by DCUFM at the start of last year, although i may be wrong on this..

But anyway, yes the speakers that matt is talking about were horribly annoying and made the hub an uncomfortable place to be in when they were on..

Landa2 · 23-08-2010 01:36AM

As for a show idea, why not try a phone show or something like that, they are always quite a bit of fun to listen to.. It seems to be the direction most main stream stations are going in, there is no reason i can see that DCUFM cant do if not the same something similar.. just a thought..

XPS · 23-08-2010 08:14AM

Landa2 wrote: »

As for a show idea, why not try a phone show or something like that, they are always quite a bit of fun to listen to.. It seems to be the direction most main stream stations are going in, there is no reason i can see that DCUFM cant do if not the same something similar.. just a thought..

Until there are complaints about the station phone bill....but I think the lads are working on a skype-type system

robby^5 · 23-08-2010 08:42AM

Daysha wrote: »

2) The speakers were tried for one week, people complained so they were taken down. Sorted.

They were put back up many times before after complaints and it's happened year after year for more than a week. They're damn annoying and their presence has damaged DCUfm's reputation immensely with a lot of students. As matthew said, a lot of people see DCUfm as a bunch of very annoying people with little or no consideration for their fellow students, only concerned with extremely invasive attempts to attract attention and that will probably be a reputation that'll be hard to shake, but it can be done so long as they dont repeat these actions again.

All they can do is move on, do not repeat the same mistake again and try and build a better reputation with students who havent experienced their monumental mistakes of the past.

As for a show proposal, "Boards Watch" an hourly update on the happenings of the DCU forums on boards.ie

THIS JUST IN: Popular boards spokesperson Matthewthebig exiled from forum! Up next, DCUfm thread spirals into trollfest, updates from the field. :pac:

I'd love a call in show with the SU on the air so that students can pose questions directly to them, not just at election time but during the year when the SU are getting comfortable in their positions of power. This would be a great alternative for the people who cant attend UC.

I'd also like to see something like an anti-top ten where students vote on singles that arent top of the charts and are not getting airplay.

Daysha · 23-08-2010 09:39AM

robby^5 wrote: »

As for a show proposal, "Boards Watch" an hourly update on the happenings of the DCU forums on boards.ie

THIS JUST IN: Popular boards spokesperson Matthewthebig exiled from forum! Up next, DCUfm thread spirals into trollfest, updates from the field. :pac:

Hilarious

His ban is only for a couple of day and when it's up I hope he posts some of the points he was expressed with me via PM, some of them are valid in fairness.

These are good suggestions though, especially the DCUs own top 10 charts. I'm sure that's something that can be looked into.

Benny Lava · 23-08-2010 09:59AM

Slobodan's chart idea seems to be quite popular!

We'll never hear the end of this now.

Landa2 · 23-08-2010 10:29AM

XPS wrote: »

Until there are complaints about the station phone bill....but I think the lads are working on a skype-type system

The assumption being that a phone show would only have incoming calls.. Outgoing (to actually generate a bill) suggests some kind of Adrian Kennedy prank debackle.. :rolleyes:

nessymon · 23-08-2010 10:35AM

Phone shows work by calling back the listener.. so yes phone bills..

Landa2 · 23-08-2010 10:43AM

Apologies.. Shows what i know

You ask for suggestions... and phone show was well a suggestion.. a better way to phrase your answer would have been..

"Landa, its not a bad idea but unfortunately phone shows dont work that way, the caller calls and in turn is then called back, so bills do end up building up quite fast, but we'll see if we can get skype up.. Cheers for the suggestion though"

See that doesnt sound as snarky at all..

nessymon · 23-08-2010 10:48AM

sorry.. I wasn't being sarky.. I was reading through the thread as I was doing two other things..

multitasking

a phone show would be a great idea if DCUfm had a number of phone lines. All callers need to be called back to verify their details and just in case they say something defamatory

XPS · 23-08-2010 10:50AM

Landa2 wrote: »

Apologies.. Shows what i know

You ask for suggestions... and phone show was well a suggestion.. a better way to phrase your answer would have been..

"Landa, its not a bad idea but unfortunately phone shows dont work that way, the caller calls and in turn is then called back, so bills do end up building up quite fast, but we'll see if we can get skype up.. Cheers for the suggestion though"

See that doesnt sound as snarky at all..

I think this is symptomatic of what ordinarily happens when you mention DCUfm - people don't understand how DCUfm works/or the conditions DCUfm has to operate in and they get frustrated about how what is a simple process in their heads, ends up being a drawn out, laborious process with DCUfm jumping through hoops etc to get things done.....when you are right it should just be a simple process, but I have never known anything in DCU to be simple

I don't think nessymon was been intentionally snarky I just think its the nature of the message board lol

XPS · 23-08-2010 10:54AM

nessymon wrote: »

sorry.. I wasn't being sarky.. I was reading through the thread as I was doing two other things..

multitasking

a phone show would be a great idea if DCUfm had a number of phone lines. All callers need to be called back to verify their details and just in case they say something defamatory

Or if DCUfm had a production booth - like every other student radio station in the country, or if it had a proper quality phone line, or yes multiple phone lines, or if it wasn't made feel bad every time it lifted the phone. But it is a great idea, somebody should tell the people who stop these things from happening that DCUfm can't meet the demand of what students want to hear on their radio station because the facilities aren't up to scratch.

Cid-Highwind · 23-08-2010 11:05AM

XPS wrote: »

Or if DCUfm had a production booth - like every other student radio station in the country, or if it had a proper quality phone line, or yes multiple phone lines, or if it wasn't made feel bad every time it lifted the phone. But it is a great idea, somebody should tell the people who stop these things from happening that DCUfm can't meet the demand of what students want to hear on their radio station because the facilities aren't up to scratch.

I haven't seen the facilities of other student radio stations, and frankly I don't care.

The fact is that DCU is a small university and the resources for running a station are limited. In the last 2/3 years there has been a massive (in terms of the SPC budget) investment in the facilities at the radio station.

If the radio is well run both as a station and as a student society then it will continue to receive funding to improve it's resources and equipment, otherwise, it won't.

john.needham · 23-08-2010 12:10PM

DCUfm wrote: »

one of the issues that keeps coming through is that DCUfm appears to be a closed shop. That couldn't be further from the truth..

Cid-Highwind wrote: »

The fact is that DCU is a small university and the resources for running a station are limited. In the last 2/3 years there has been a massive (in terms of the SPC budget) investment in the facilities at the radio station.

If the radio is well run both as a station and as a student society then it will continue to receive funding to improve it's resources and equipment, otherwise, it won't.

Given the level of investment (and the general cycle of looking for more) would it be a bad idea if the listernship numbers were made public? It wouldnt have to be drilled down to the "by show" numbers, but even a weekly average would be good to see.

Noodleworm · 23-08-2010 02:24PM

There is a way of seeing how many people are listening(or at least streaming), they were using it online in the studio one evening when I was there.
at that time it was about 15 people

hopefully its gone up. It varied by show and time.

XPS · 23-08-2010 02:38PM

I suppose the release of the listnership figures is a matter for station management - although they did release figures to the College View in the last edition of the paper for the summer.

I do like the idea of the SU people coming in and answering questions about their job and stuff, could be good - but jesus we don't want the station accused of being too 'newsy', even though those programmes attract the highest listenership at times, big name guests, awards and sponsorship, but hey...

I really like the anti-chart idea, could really work, buts its a matter of getting people to vote, the sms text line that was set up last year really enhanced listenership participation in shows.

23-08-2010 03:10PM

Building on the anti-chart idea, how about just playing all genres of music? There is so much good music which doesn't get any daytime airplay on the majority of radio stations, because it doesn't appeal to morons.

Urizen · 23-08-2010 03:15PM

And move the Metal show back to a reasonable time! Srsly, it used to be like 7/8 on a Tuesday. That made sense

MightyMighty737 · 23-08-2010 03:19PM

Urizen wrote: »

And move the Metal show back to a reasonable time! Srsly, it used to be like 7/8 on a Tuesday. That made sense

+1 on this.
I didn't really listen in to DCUfm at all that much last year, but a weekly show that played ska and punk would encourage me to tune in. You don't get to hear any of that stuff on Irish radio.

DCUfm · 23-08-2010 03:51PM

MightyMighty737 wrote: »

+1 on this.
I didn't really listen in to DCUfm at all that much last year, but a weekly show that played ska and punk would encourage me to tune in. You don't get to hear any of that stuff on Irish radio.

We are actually looking for someone to head up a ska show, you wouldn't be interested yourself, would you?

slasher_65 · 23-08-2010 03:56PM

I sent in my proposal this morning, but another idea struck me. Forgive me if this has been suggested before.

So, there are issues with actually broadcasting. What about a free iPhone and Android app which simply took the live stream and played it? Multitasking and all.

XPS · 23-08-2010 04:01PM

slasher_65 wrote: »

I sent in my proposal this morning, but another idea struck me. Forgive me if this has been suggested before.

So, there are issues with actually broadcasting. What about a free iPhone and Android app which simply took the live stream and played it? Multitasking and all.

Was in the pipeline, but had to be pulled - although an android app may be possible - actually come to think of it -there may now be a way around the iPhone issues that FM ran into last year - hmmmm, time to go a hunting. But yes FM management really wanted to do this.

DCUfm · 23-08-2010 04:03PM

slasher_65 wrote: »

I sent in my proposal this morning, but another idea struck me. Forgive me if this has been suggested before.

So, there are issues with actually broadcasting. What about a free iPhone and Android app which simply took the live stream and played it? Multitasking and all.

That was our intention, but the company that was going to do the app for us had issues with the way the stream is configured. We're still working on it, but if you have any expertise in the area, we'd be more than happy for you to chip in with ideas

DCUfm · 23-08-2010 04:15PM

robby^5 wrote: »

I'd love a call in show with the SU on the air so that students can pose questions directly to them, not just at election time but during the year when the SU are getting comfortable in their positions of power. This would be a great alternative for the people who cant attend UC.

I'd also like to see something like an anti-top ten where students vote on singles that arent top of the charts and are not getting airplay.

Both great ideas and will be looked into. The first shouldn't be a problem so long as the SU exec don't object. The second might pose a few problems, but we'll certainly look into it

Cid-Highwind wrote: »

I haven't seen the facilities of other student radio stations, and frankly I don't care.

The fact is that DCU is a small university and the resources for running a station are limited. In the last 2/3 years there has been a massive (in terms of the SPC budget) investment in the facilities at the radio station.

If the radio is well run both as a station and as a student society then it will continue to receive funding to improve it's resources and equipment, otherwise, it won't.

The last time major funds went into the station was before the 2008 academic year. The current management team was not in place then. We have asked to know just how much money was invested at that time, but we haven't been told yet. We fully understand that it was a big commitment at the time. Also the equipment bought with those funds has given us an edge over many of the other college stations in that regard. However, last year the station received about €1,500 in funding from the SPC. In terms of running a radio station, that's a miniscule budget.
Many of the ideas that have been suggested here would mean that we'd need further phone lines or an ISDN line.
We also brought in advertising revenue which has gone towards buying equipment for the station. DCUfm is not looking to bleed the SLC dry, we just want to work out the best way to continue the return that the college gets for its money.
We have just had the most successful year in the history of the station. At the beginning of last year we were told that we had to prove ourselves, I think we've done that. And we'll continue to do so this year.
MPS, which is the society DCUfm is a part of was the Most Improved Society in Ireland this year, so we are doing our best as both a society and a radio station.

john.needham wrote: »

Given the level of investment (and the general cycle of looking for more) would it be a bad idea if the listernship numbers were made public? It wouldnt have to be drilled down to the "by show" numbers, but even a weekly average would be good to see.

I’d be glad to give you an overall view of the listenership stats

They were published in an issue of the College View several months back. There has been a huge increase on last year. We had an average listenership of 200 every weekday. Our most listened to show was the April 7th edition of Phinx Firemix, which had 1,100 listeners over the three hour period. That show also received over 300 texts in the same time. Other highly ranked shows included our election count coverage and our SU debate programmes.

Noodleworm wrote: »

There is a way of seeing how many people are listening(or at least streaming), they were using it online in the studio one evening when I was there.

Noodleworm wrote: »

at that time it was about 15 people hopefully its gone up. It varied by show and time.

That was when we were with Redbrick, the stats from HEAnet are what we are working with now and we cannot access them directly.

Now, I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but this thread is about the ideas you guys have for shows we could put to air next semester. I know a lot of you have a lot of points to make about the station, but could we keep this on topic. If you’d like to email me at manager@dcufm.com, I’d be happy to talk to you about any issue you have with the station. Most of the posts so far have been incredibly useful, and I’d like to thank you all for your involvement.
We have received some fantastic proposals so far and you’ll definitely be hearing a large proportion of them on air in two months time.

If you have an idea that you’d like to bring to DCUfm then please do email us at info@dcufm.com. Remember, no idea is too weird, this is radio, anything’s possible!

DCUfm · 23-08-2010 04:23PM

Congratulations to all you guys who got offered places in DCU through the CAO today, we look forward to seeing you in September. To those of you who didn't, don't worry. There are plenty of options open to ye, I hope we'll get to see you in DCU some day.

I anyone doesn't have an idea for a show and just really wants to get involved then you too can email us at info@dcufm.com. Just to introduce yourself and tell us about your interests, the more specific the better, and we'll take it from there.

MightyMighty737 · 23-08-2010 04:27PM

DCUfm wrote: »

We are actually looking for someone to head up a ska show, you wouldn't be interested yourself, would you?

Sure why not!

I'm just finishing off my repeats atm, then I'll shoot you an email.

DCUfm · 23-08-2010 04:30PM

MightyMighty737 wrote: »

Sure why not!

I'm just finishing off my repeats atm, then I'll shoot you an email.

Excellent, that's what we like to hear

We look forward to hearing from you.

Cid-Highwind · 23-08-2010 05:24PM

DCUfm wrote: »

]The last time major funds went into the station was before the 2008 academic year. The current management team was not in place then. We have asked to know just how much money was invested at that time, but we haven't been told yet. We fully understand that it was a big commitment at the time.

It was the 2008/2009 academic year. From what I remember the initial budget to get all the new equipment for the station was about €7k (with the SU contributing some of that). I can't remember what the final number was, but I'm fairly sure it exceeded the original planned budget.

Katniss everMean · 23-08-2010 05:48PM

DCUfm wrote: »

That was our intention, but the company that was going to do the app for us had issues with the way the stream is configured. We're still working on it, but if you have any expertise in the area, we'd be more than happy for you to chip in with ideas

Don't go to companies they will just rip you off. You have an entire course devoted to software engineering. 3rd and 4th years are always looking for ideas for their projects. Why not send out a mail asking if anyone would be interested in creating an iPhone or android app?

Only thing means waiting for a year, but hey, it be free.

Submit a show proposal to DCUfm

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