 I don’t like disappointments. I reckon most people don’t like to be disappointed.Something that puzzles me is when I see someone putting a lot of effort into something that is in itself quite worthwhile, however some aspects of the thing fall short of expectations, and the activity doesn’t catch on as well as it should. There could be loads of reasons for this, however I’m interested in the reasons that I know can be eliminated, or turned around. What am I interested in? Promotion. Advertising. Getting the word out. It’s one of the leading reasons why I and a few others spend several hours each week putting together a news programme for Amateur Radio. Believe it or not, any item promoting Amateur Radio activity submitted to us for broadcast will go to air. Promotion of Amateur Radio activities is why we exist. You may be wondering now what brought this on. Nothing in particular, it’s more like an accumulation of wondering how to get the message through. I’m seeing people organise worthwhile activities who are not putting the energy into promotion of the activity. In an odd coincidence, several days after I started writing this piece, I received an email from a local Amateur, talking about the same thing. This is what he said: “Listening to the WIA news of recent years I notice that there is littleabout what amateurs are doing. Yes I know you can only broadcastwhat is received etc, but we just do not hear what great things localamateurs are doing from time to time.For example....
There are several, perhaps many among us, that do great things but you rarely hear about it. You tend to stumble across it by accident... We don't share our hobby well at all..I.wonder why...? I won’t pretend at all that putting your story to air on NewsWest is the perfect answer and only solution, however it’s a very good start. The NewsWest team aren’t professional journalists, we have lives to live, livings to earn, and families and hobbies to pay attention to. Nor do we expect you to be professional journalists, all for the same reasons. What NewsWest can do is transform your sketch details or activity outline into a recorded item for inclusion in the weekly news broadcast. There’s a good bunch of people who contribute regularly, on behalf of a club, and their items are guaranteed to go to air. What I’m after now is for the rest of you to put a bit of your activity planning effort aside to feed the publicity machine. That’s why NewsWest is here - to promote Amateur Radio clubs and activities. Please use NewsWest as it’s intended to be used. As I said, NewsWest isn’t the be-all and end-all of promotion and information sharing. The most important thing that happens when you decide to share, promote or advertise on NewsWest is that you have made a decision to share what you do with your Amateur Radio peers. I’m Bob vk6pop |