RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue
audiences to serve. In 1984, 2RSR Sydney's management locked out the volunteers and shut down the station over just such issues . (The volunteers eventually managed to reopen the station and create a new management structure with more volunteer input. ) G) Regulatory agencies at a State or national level are very limited in what they can do to set and enforce 'community service' standards , and most of them don't even try . Perhaps that's because community standards do vary a lot from one community to another. Still, it IS possible to set some potentially meaningful overall standards. For example, the U.K. Independent Broadcastirig Authority asks license applicants to specify ptans for "collecting and preparing for broadcasting a range of community information and community service material," and also asks "Who will undertake the day-to-day work involved , anđ who will be responsible for scheđuling the material?"' At least such a provision serves to underline and pinpoint responsibility . The Australian Broadcasting Tribunal doesn't have very specific stanđards of service , but it does seem willing to tolerate a number of programming practices which might get stations removed from the airwaves m many other countries . H) As with all f orms of broađcasting , local radio faces the prospect of influence from its 'paymasters .' If local rađio is part of the national broadcasting service , the national service is unlikely to accord it a very high budgetary priority; television is much more visible , and much more likely to receive higher priority . If local radio is commercially supported , erriphasis is likely to be on the cheapest, least of fensive , most popular, forms of programming; pre-recorded music and national wire service news predominate , and programming specific to the community usually gets short shrift, although a few of the ILR stations have a far better than average track recorded in that regard . The public radio anđ community radio stations in the U.S. and Australia lead something of a hand-to-mouth existence , since their bases of financial support are numerous but somewhat unpredictable . Still, their heavy reliance on listener support reguires them to have strong ties with their communities , and volunteer labor in one or another form brings the community to the station in a very tangible way . I) Few local radio stations attempt to analyze local events . (Few national stations do so , either . ) That may be because news analysis can be very costly and may entail a greater risk of lawsuits . But stations with highly specific audiences m mmđ , e.g. 3CR Melbourne, Australia, often can inđuce volunteers to gather and analyze news on very specific local events of likeiy
138