Radio Le Mans 2007

[Christopher]

Anything close to what monkey and geoffd suggested would be a huge improvement on last year.

Keep the no added value banter out of the updates.

The placings rundown should be exactly that, all the additional bits of interesting info can fill the time between the rundowns.

[Canada Phil]

As usual all good points of view. Hope Hindy is reading along. Oh and if we MUSt have Ads at least a variety please.
Phil

[mgmark]

Like many people I think the general coverage has moved away from the "Here to help those that have taken the Journey" to a "We'll take Le Mans to the world via the Internet" type of thing. 

Quite agree - As well as the position run downs, in the era of "help to those that have made the journey" the commentary was decidedly spicier, fruitier, open and honest than of late, probably because the broadcast was local to the circuit.  Particularly memorable years were the "Radio Le Mans sponsored by Jiffy condoms" year, the Andy Wallace year (when the enthusiastic pitlane lady thrust the microphone in front of him as he finished the first stint and, on asking "how was it for you" he replied "it's the biggest poiece of sh*t that I've driven".  More recently, there was the year that the football was on and we were treated to the simultaneous (and very good!) commentary of both the race and the england match.   It all really felt like Radio Le Mans was there as an integral part of the British contribution to the event, not just as english media coverage of it. 

We all appreciate the huge effort that goes into getting Radio Le Mans off the ground every year, but please, please, let's get more personality back into it - and Hindy has bags of that!

MG Mark

[enzo]

I think the updates are a great idea and then more discussion based material in between about the problems being encountered by different teams .
I would much prefer to hear a team manager / engineer etc. talking in a bit of detail about a problem they had previously than guess work as to whats happened.
Yeas by all means tell us car no. has been pulled into the pits or spun out, but when the problem is completely unknown do we need time wasted guessing the problem??

[Lorry]

..........Keep the no added value banter out of the updates......

I know its difficult finding 24 hours of material, stuck in a portacabin in the village, but some of this does sink to a low level, and I'm not taking about the middle of the night.  Interviews would be good.

I would prefer more results/updates, say at 15 minute intervals, as at LM you can wander off for a couple of hours, and its good to catch up quickly. And I don't care if its not official.

And please don't refer to a car by just the drivers name, as once you're out of the top 10 it means nothing - this is an awful problem with ALMS and Speed Channel, but must be from Nascar, where with 30 Chevys and 20 Fords on the grid, the drivers name is far more important, but strangely there is little mention of the entrant

[monkey]

And please don't refer to a car by just the drivers name, as once you're out of the top 10 it means nothing -
[/quote]


I could not agree with you more! It is really frustrating when this happens, entry model and number, position and place in relation to the car in front that is all we need in the update.

[Lazy B'stard]

Just spent last weekend on the Airfield at Carlisle servicing for the Historic crews on the Pirelli international Rally. The organisers kindly put out Globecast Radio on the PA system (they were also broadcasting from Carlisle, which must have been strange for our chums over the water). We had Hindy and Co. giving us updates of Quals at Houston all night- made us Le mansers present feel all of a glow inside

Not sure if its the same team as LM but it had a better balance between waffle/stats/and music.

Its quite alarming to hear that the Salo/Melo Ferarri has just gone fastest in GT2 followed with the news that car 156 in the Pirelli (our car) is reported to be on fire in the stage!

[Steve Pyro]

Termie sent a private email to John Hindhaugh of RLM re. this thread and Radio Le Mans 2007.

With permission, here's her email -



Hi there
Just to let you know that the discussion has started again re your 2007 coverage. http://www.clubarnage.com/forum/index.php?topic=6940.0

I don't know if you'd like to respond as personally, I think the Sebring coverage reflects the fact that you took on board quite a lot of what was said last year.

I'll try my best to come and say hi in June.  Not long now...

All the best
Deb

[Steve Pyro]

.... and here's Hindy's email reply



Hey Deb;

Sorry just picked this up. I went straight from Houston to the Nordschleife for some testing, heading home today.

I have to be honest and say that I sometimes wonder what people are listening to - there are still people talking about adverts and we actually didn’t have any last year! Also we had two interviewers in the pits at all times so there was always plenty of comment from the teams/drivers/engineers....

As for general content, in the "Good Old Days" the service was not run in any kind of professional way - I know I was part of it then too - and in fact the station nearly went away due to continued violation of French Radio regulations - The Jiffy sponsorship of the news is a perfect example, you are not allowed to sponsor news bulletins like that.

People also forget that in the early years we only had one radio mic that worked for about an hour at a time then took 45 mins to recharge, that we went off the air all together during the overnight hours during the week, and that we played music during the race to fill time in the middle of the night. Also as there was no TV we couldn’t "see" what was going on so if a car disappeared we had no idea where it had stopped...

Of course that is in the past now but since Haymarket abandoned the station after the 2005 race there is no big company willing to underwrite the service. Given that it is now me personally that bears the burden of paying ACO's large licence fees and the running costs, I cannot risk any sanction from the authorities. Having said that I think that we produce, technically and editorially, a much better, more professional and more informed service now than we have ever done, I accept that some people disagree but I am convinced that they are remembering with "rose tinted headphones..."

However we are making some changes this year that will affect - positively - the way that the updates are done. Effectively the updates will become a news bulletin with the field summary put in context with headlines, stories from the last few hours and clips from interviews.

Unfortunately the costs have gone up again, and despite the continued success of the station it’s getting harder to cover costs. The only way we can do this is to have sponsors and to reach the biggest audience possible. Simply put the Internet and latterly, the satellite audience, is what enables Radio Le Mans to continue.

I am pleased that so many people feel enough of a part of Radio Le Mans to want to comment - we can’t ever please every one I accept that - I just hope people understand that we  have mad a huge commitment to this station and that we are always working (without any gain) to ensure the future of the station.

Regards

John H

[termietermite]

Thanks Steve.

[monkey]

I am not sure what to make of that to be honest.

As I mentioned in my opening post, RLM is part of the fabric of this great event and I believe it will be as long as it continues to broadcast.

When this was debated last year I thought that there was an acceptance that there would be value in providing the race goer with succinct updates on a regular basis given that in recent years they have tended to 'ramble' somewhat.

Judging from the comments that have been made in this thread, there seems to be a consensus that continues to support the idea that this approach would be beneficial and very welcome.

I have no right to make any demands and would not dream of doing so, but feel that as a race goer this service would be valuable and much appreciated - it would seem that there are others that feel the same.

All I can say is that I hope that those at RLM consider this request and feel it is worthy of implimenting

[geoffd]

Well, it was good of Hindy to make a comment on our comments!  Not sure if I agree with his comment about no adverts last year, but I suppose playing the sponsors jingles doesn't count as advertising?

I guess the reality is that some sort of advertising/sponsorship is needed to pay for the service, so we must accept it, it doesn't bother me that much anyway.

If the revised race info segment is as good as it could be and covers all of the field, then most of us would be happy I would have thought, I know that I only listen to RLM to find out what is going on in the race, especially if I have been away from the track for a while, and want to catch up on whats happening to my fave teams/cars/drivers.

[oldtimer]

OK time for me to add my twopenneth worth...

I wonder whether Hindy is still feeling a little raw from last year's thread as I think he has missed the point of the current set of correspondence somewhat.

Last year the debate on this site identified some areas of the RLM offering that some felt were either not quite as they used to be or not quite as they should be.  At times the debate did become heated but was always meant to be a constructive one.  On the whole I think it was.

I hear what Hindy is saying about the huge commitment that he personally, and his colleagues and associates at RLM, give to the station.  I am sure we do all appreciate that.  I know I do  - even though I was perhaps one of the more vociferous voices in last year's thread.

RLM is part of the fabric of the event and long may it continue to be so.

As far as I can see all that we are asking in the current thread is that the positive elements from last year's debate be acted upon in a way that can give an improved service to the trackside listener.  The fact that in the early days the service was "not run in any professional way" is of little relevance to today's listener.  The really important factor is that it sounded great and represented a giant leap forward to the trackside spectator in terms of accessing race information.

As for those rose tinted headphones that Hindy refers to... here I disagree.  The service may be "...technically and editorially, a much better, more professional and more informed service now..." but from the perspective of those of us who listen from a trackside position it does not deliver as we need it to.

The listening environment is a difficult one - noise, variable reception and so on.  These factors are what make it important for regular race updates to be in a consistent delivery style.

I sincerely hope that what we wrote last year, and again are writing now, is taken account of.  Hindy's description of the bulletins effectively becoming "... a news bulletin with the field summary put in context with headlines, stories from the last few hours and clips from interviews." sounds exactly the same as it was last year.  We don't want that stuff during the regular bulletins because it is just this sort of content that causes the presenters to start rambling off-topic (something we know a lot about on the CA forum!).  I am NOT saying that this sort of content should not be broadcast, but please NOT during the updates...

If Hindy's comment that "Simply put the Internet and latterly, the satellite audience, is what enables Radio Le Mans to continue" is true - and he obviously knows far better than I - then maybe the service should become known as Le Mans Online (or something).  That way the trackside spectators would know that the service is no longer aimed at us and we would have to accept the broadcast format as it is and take out from it any nugget of information that we can in the knowledge that, unfortunately, our requirements are not directly catered for anymore.

[termietermite]

The way I read Hindy's e-mail re the "news bulletin" bit o/t, suggests to me that it will be pre-prepared (this will have to be the case if clips from interviews will be included) and will prevent the scenario you describe -ie, it will be un-interuptable (if that's a word).

As I said above (a long time ago) I did feel that the coverage at Sebring was a vast improvement, with regard to regular up-dates.  But you want to be very grateful that the ads won't make their way across the Atlantic!

[monkey]

The way I read Hindy's e-mail re the "news bulletin" bit o/t, suggests to me that it will be pre-prepared (this will have to be the case if clips from interviews will be included) and will prevent the scenario you describe -ie, it will be un-interuptable (if that's a word).

I think the consensus is requesting that the updates are cut to the bare minimum - 'Car number 14 is fourth, 1 lap ahead of car number 12 which is fifth and 30 seconds ahead of etc etc' through the field, nothing more or less than that. If that was provided on a regular basis, same time every hour, then that would be brilliant - 'news bulletins' sounds like what we had last year which is not easy to follow trackside I'm afraid. Well near impossible actually.