ULFM

yuppy700

What do people think ?

Delta Kilo

I think its just a novelty that will soon wear off, leaving a lot of expensive equipment gathering dust in the near future I would imagine.

Give us a bloody decent website with up to date news on it and other interesting features.

It doesnt say much when a private "nickel-and-dime" enterprise is doing a far greater job of communicating UL related news than a full time communications officer with a team and a budget...

Polar Ice

A few years ago during rag week a few guys ran this. It was run using some Clubs & Societies gear and their own equipment: http://rag.skynet.ie/

There's a few things I simply don't understand so far about ULFM.
1. Why does the website use marquee tags!?!?!?!?! :eek:
2. The website needs a lot of TLC
3. Volume. Fix it.

ninty9er

Polar Ice wrote: »

A few years ago during rag week a few guys ran this. It was run using some Clubs & Societies gear and their own equipment: http://rag.skynet.ie/

There's a few things I simply don't understand so far about ULFM.
1. Why does the website use marquee tags!?!?!?!?! :eek:
2. The website needs a lot of TLC
3. Volume. Fix it.

Not sure of the details but the website is a pro-bono job, so will be added to as more techies volunteer their time.

I've been in the studio and there's just the one mic so the volume will depend on solo v team shows. I know Kelly's got someone working on it

yuppy700

@Delta : That thomond student times site seems to publish stuff right away. I prefer that method than to waiting a week and a half for an focal to let me whats going on.

@Polar ice : Any idea on how much rag radio cost ? and yeah I have been listening since 8 tonight and I just wound up turning the volume down low enough that the music wasn't blarring if I wanted to hear what they were saying in studio when a song finished. they really have to sort out the balance between the music and studio noise

@Derek : I think the noise issue is from when it changes from music to people talking in studio

Polar Ice

ninty9er wrote: »

Not sure of the details but the website is a pro-bono job, so will be added to as more techies volunteer their time.

Nearly all c&s websites are pro-bono...
Seriously though, marquee tags in 2011... that's like doing this

I could do pro-bono medical surgery :pac:

Slightly more seriously though if your website person needs help send them to the computer society session: http://registercs.ul.ie/?p=events&id=10420 (I run it pro-bono... like my surgery )
Also, if you feed me for a day I'd consider lending a hand (I like truffles)

KellingtonDawg

Hello!

May I just say that it is crushing my very soul that I work 13-hour days (including weekends) and all I get is grief. Will nobody say thank you? Will nobody have a good word to say???

I was an English student. I knew nothing about radio AT ALL before the summer. You guys wanted a radio station, I gave you a radio station. Did you just want a radio station so you could bitch about it? Of course there have been technical issues, we only started streaming five days ago! Are you SERIOUSLY complaining about technical issues after FIVE days of streaming?! The mind boggles.

To be honest, I shouldn't even be writing this. I do not wish to create a situation where I get even more abuse than I already do because, believe it or not, I take that kind of thing really personally and it affects me a great deal. What do I have to do to please you people? Genuinely asking. If there is something UL students want, I am only to happy to do my best to give it to them. But when they ask for something, and I deliver, it seems like they don't want it any more!

As for TST, I think it's great and I really appreciated that they were there to post the C&S story because it needed to be publicized and was time sensitive. No reflection on them at all, but I am in the process of setting up an online news site not unlike theirs. This was always my plan, because you guys asked for it, but I am only one person. I could not set up a radio station as well as an online news site as well as publish a fortnightly newspaper and handle all on campus advertisers and advertising and the ULSU website and all the various facebooks and Twitters we have. The online site will be set up by the end of the semester. That will have to suffice.

Kelly O'Brien
VP Communications

J_E

Unfortunately I can't seem to get the stream running from home, but I'm gonna try check it out tomorrow when I'm on campus. I'd be interested in doing a slot on it actually if they're looking for people.

KellingtonDawg

Cydoniac wrote: »

I'd be interested in doing a slot on it actually if they're looking for people.

There are a few territory problems, will you send me your location and I can check it out? And yes, I would be delighted to have you involved

I have a mailing list of around 200 people and I just sent out a mail last night to tell people about Monday and Wednesday slots I am going to allocate sooner than planned.

I have asked that people send me details of what kind of show they would like to present, what genre of music they would like to play, and the ratio of talking vs music played (approx). It would be helpful to know also if you wanted to host giveaways (prized sourced by my office of course!) and if you wanted to have guests on to co-host/be interviewed.

You can email this to me directly (kelly.obrien@ul.ie) or to contactulfm@gmail.com

Thanks for showing an interest, it makes the work worthwhile

Stickland

I think that ULFM will be an invaluable way of getting across Clubs and Socs information, helping to spread awareness during the likes of SHAG and RAG week and in general allow students who are doing multimedia/journalism/politics to get to grips with radio broadcasting.
It could also be a great tool for Election time plugs and also a way of the student union questioning local politicians or even UL presidents etc

Great initiative! It will pay off in the long term!

thelikelylad

KellingtonDawg wrote: »

There are a few territory problems, will you send me your location and I can check it out? And yes, I would be delighted to have you involved

I have a mailing list of around 200 people and I just sent out a mail last night to tell people about Monday and Wednesday slots I am going to allocate sooner than planned.

I have asked that people send me details of what kind of show they would like to present, what genre of music they would like to play, and the ratio of talking vs music played (approx). It would be helpful to know also if you wanted to host giveaways (prized sourced by my office of course!) and if you wanted to have guests on to co-host/be interviewed.

You can email this to me directly (kelly.obrien@ul.ie) or to contactulfm@gmail.com

Thanks for showing an interest, it makes the work worthwhile

You should set up a live stream from the studio on Ustream. You won't have any territory issues and you'll be able to embed the stream nicely into a facebook status so peeps can tune in straight from their news feed (or whatever it is now)

KellingtonDawg

thelikelylad wrote: »

You should set up a live stream from the studio on Ustream. You won't have any territory issues and you'll be able to embed the stream nicely into a facebook status so peeps can tune in straight from their news feed (or whatever it is now)

Thanks! !

billy the squid

heard a small bit of it tonight and didn't have any issue with it. the stream was of high quality too.

I say let those behind it find their feet and see how it goes.

iFada

KellingtonDawg wrote: »

Hello!

May I just say that it is crushing my very soul that I work 13-hour days (including weekends) and all I get is grief. Will nobody say thank you? Will nobody have a good word to say???

I was an English student. I knew nothing about radio AT ALL before the summer. You guys wanted a radio station, I gave you a radio station. Did you just want a radio station so you could bitch about it? Of course there have been technical issues, we only started streaming five days ago! Are you SERIOUSLY complaining about technical issues after FIVE days of streaming?! The mind boggles.

To be honest, I shouldn't even be writing this. I do not wish to create a situation where I get even more abuse than I already do because, believe it or not, I take that kind of thing really personally and it affects me a great deal. What do I have to do to please you people? Genuinely asking. If there is something UL students want, I am only to happy to do my best to give it to them. But when they ask for something, and I deliver, it seems like they don't want it any more!

As for TST, I think it's great and I really appreciated that they were there to post the C&S story because it needed to be publicized and was time sensitive. No reflection on them at all, but I am in the process of setting up an online news site not unlike theirs. This was always my plan, because you guys asked for it, but I am only one person. I could not set up a radio station as well as an online news site as well as publish a fortnightly newspaper and handle all on campus advertisers and advertising and the ULSU website and all the various facebooks and Twitters we have. The online site will be set up by the end of the semester. That will have to suffice.

Kelly O'Brien
VP Communications

I'm sorry if I seem to be adding to the abuse you perceive yourself to be receiving when I say this but this is an entirely inappropriate response to constructive criticism.

People were asked what their opinion on the site was, and they gave it. Not only that but they outlined specific areas that need improvement, the volume, the marquee tags and the frankly shocking appearance of the site. These are helpful things to point out, early expectable flaws in a fledgling venture.

To react by complaining that you haven't been getting enough pats on the back lately is simply unprofessional. You should be taking this criticism on board not throwing a wobbly. Your limitations in this area are perfectly understandable, but perhaps you should have ironed out the kinks in this system before going live, instead of throwing it up and then complaining and making excuses when people point out the flaws.

Your efforts to broaden the ways in which the SU communicates with the student population are commendable. A well run radio station and website would be a great addition to what is already on offer. But perhaps you are putting too much on your plate, particularily if you are going to take all of these comments personally. You were elected to this position by the students, and are paid from student funds to do this job. Perhaps you're in the wrong position if you are going to take any constructive comments about your work by students in such a maladaptive fashion.

Not one of these comments above mentioned you by name Kelly, they simply referred to ULFM. It is likely that when you said you "shouldn't even be writing this" you were entirely correct. I hope you can move past taking notes on how to improve your work like a personal affront, take these comments to heart and use them to improve the student experience as per your role as Communications officer.

MrsStuffings

it's good just maybe get more programming, atm it's kinda boring just turning on listening to songs.

you need more presenters and programmes.

but yeah it's good, fair play

KellingtonDawg

Just as a background note, and to clarify my seemingly strong response, my comments are also directed at other (less constructive) comments that were made about ULFM in another thread. I didn't not respond to them in that thread because it was not appropriate to do so considering the subject matter.

I am not looking for "pats on the back" (though I won't refuse 'em!) but I am throwing a bit of a wobbly... but understandably so in my opinion! I mean, I was at work today for 11 hours and when I got home I was directed to this thread and to another thread which (I apologize for being human!) really got to me!

I think that to be a successful Sabbatical Officer, you have to put your heart and soul into your work. And I have done this. And when you put your heart and soul into something, the work becomes personal. And any criticism on the work is taken to heart.

Taken to heart, but also taken on board. The kinks will be worked out soon.

Kelly

KellingtonDawg

MrsStuffings wrote: »

it's good just maybe get more programming, atm it's kinda boring just turning on listening to songs.

you need more presenters and programmes.

but yeah it's good, fair play

Thanks

As regards programming, I have 11am - 11pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The reasoning behind only having two days at the start was to allow everybody to be trained on the board and comfortable with the software before giving them a slot. This week will be 11-11 Tue, 12-3 Wed and 11-11 Thur. From next week, it will be 10am to 11:30pm Monday to Thursday with AutoDj running through the night and over the weekend.

To be honest, I'm feeling a little better about this now. Criticisms/Praise/Well wishing, I mean, loads of people are talking about it and voicing their opinions about it... that's something isn't it?!

Perhaps I'm just overtired and crabby. I had best get some sleep!

Thanks for the comments

Kelly

PS - On the off chance that anyone wants to talk to me about the station (grievances, suggestions, wanting to get involved) you can get me at kelly.obrien@ul.ie

djnr8

The only bad thing I have to say about UL FM is that Erasmus is keeping me from getting involved. Lads and ladies, if your going to be complaining about a few small problems that mildly inconvenience your listening pleasure you need to get over yourselves. It's being run by students, some with no experience whatsoever in radio. UL are providing another great service, for free, for it's students. It's also openly allowing people to get involved with a radio station, something which isn't widely available anywhere

reunion

KellingtonDawg wrote: »

May I just say that it is crushing my very soul that I work 13-hour days (including weekends) and all I get is grief. Will nobody say thank you? Will nobody have a good word to say???

Welcome to the world of a public figure. You are elected to represent the student body, alot of 4th years left last year and a load of new 1st year voices came in. Their voice is clearly different to those of the 4th years. Not saying you haven't done a good job, you have but I have done many long weekends, sleepless nights with no thank you and no salary.

KellingtonDawg wrote: »

As for TST, I think it's great and I really appreciated that they were there to post the C&S story because it needed to be publicized and was time sensitive. No reflection on them at all, but I am in the process of setting up an online news site not unlike theirs. This was always my plan, because you guys asked for it, but I am only one person. I could not set up a radio station as well as an online news site as well as publish a fortnightly newspaper and handle all on campus advertisers and advertising and the ULSU website and all the various facebooks and Twitters we have. The online site will be set up by the end of the semester. That will have to suffice.

Ask the guys who do thomond student times if they would be interested in running it, you would give a very small % of the budget to finance whatever and it's up and running. I imagine they have a panel of people who write aswell so you can get more stories for the paper possibly cutting down your time spent on that?

As it wants to expand to the entire of limerick city, you could take the articles about UL and just publish them in the physical newspaper version of an focal.

You could also purchase anfocal.ie and let that be the new domain for the online version. I will say it is kinda annoying going to http://issuu.com/ulsu/docs to get the newest an focal

KellingtonDawg wrote: »

Just as a background note, and to clarify my seemingly strong response, my comments are also directed at other (less constructive) comments that were made about ULFM in another thread. I didn't not respond to them in that thread because it was not appropriate to do so considering the subject matter.

This seems like the appropriate place to respond to comments. It might be why this thread was started.

djnr8 wrote: »

The only bad thing I have to say about UL FM is that Erasmus is keeping me from getting involved. Lads and ladies, if your going to be complaining about a few small problems that mildly inconvenience your listening pleasure you need to get over yourselves

If you are going to be complaining about a few small location problems that mildly inconvenience you get involved in ULFM you need to get over yourself.

Actually @kelly is it possible for someone to prerecord something at home (people on erasmus) and possibly allow it to be played? Or if people could create a playlist and request it to be played at night during the autodj thing?

djnr8 wrote: »

It's being run by students, some with no experience whatsoever in radio.
....
It's also openly allowing people to get involved with a radio station, something which isn't widely available anywhere

As are clubs and societies, if students did have the interest in getting involved in a radio station they could have set up the radio society and broadcast a radio station but they lacked a motivated individual to kickstart such a project.

Actually @kelly was it possible to start a radio society? I figure music/dj soc would love the air time and I imagine the long term goal is to have this completely student run. I figure clubs and societies could have also provided some funding to launch the society too saving on the communications budget.

djnr8 wrote: »

UL are providing another great service, for free, for it's students.

It's also not free, I pay a fee each year that goes to the SU some of which goes to the communication budget. It is free because students are paying for it. If it makes a profit/breaks even, than it truly is a free service, until then I would like to be able to listen to the service I'm paying for.

Also @kelly do you need a licence to stream music on ULFM? Like can ye play any song or just certain ones? because I think I remember rag radio or something could only play free songs....

wnolan1992

Jesus Christ.... surprised at the level of negativity in this thread so far....
As Kelly said, it's been FIVE DAYS. About THREE DAYS OF ACTUAL PRESENTING. The people running the station are not professional DJ's, it's obviously going to take a bit of time to get to grips with the technical side of things. Yeah, there is a slight problem with the music being at a high level and the mic being low, but this will work itself out as people get used to using the stuff.

Was listening from 8pm yesterday and have to say it kept me entertained for the night.

Complaining about the website is a bit premature no? It says right on the front that there is more to come....

If we don't support this then yes, it will probably fail and the equipment will go to waste, but if people actually listen, contribute, help out, try and get others to listen, then it's going to be successful.


Best of luck with this guys, it's seriously great to actually have a station dedicated to UL.

"The sound of the Wolfpack....oooowwwooooooh!!!" :pac:

Fishooks12

djnr8 wrote: »

if your going to be complaining about a few small problems that mildly inconvenience your listening pleasure you need to get over yourselves.

It's a thread where people can discuss ULFM, I think we as students have the right to criticize something that we pay part of our fee for.

Kelly is an elected representative that we voted for (myself included) so I don't think anyone offering criticism needs to "get over themselves", maybe you do?

Fishooks12

wnolan1992 wrote: »

Best of luck with this guys, it's seriously great to actually have a station dedicated to UL.

I can't see the everyday student sitting in a house in college court listening to it, the in house jokes and banter give of the same SU cliquey feel that has driven many away from the Union recently

wnolan1992

Fishooks12 wrote: »

I can't see the everyday student sitting in a house in college court listening to it, the in house jokes and banter give of the same SU cliquey feel that has driven many away from the Union recently

Well to be fair, it is mainly the main players in the SU that are presenting at the moment. Give it time, when more people are getting air time there will be a more diverse choice of people on it. The only way to break the "SU cliquey feel" is for more and more people to partake. I haven't set foot in the SU in about a year, but I'll be proposing a show.

Fishooks12 wrote: »

It's a thread where people can discuss ULFM, I think we as students have the right to criticize something that we pay part of our fee for.

Kelly is an elected representative that we voted for (myself included) so I don't think anyone offering criticism needs to "get over themselves", maybe you do?

You're right, and most poeple are offering constructive criticism. However the negativity of post #2 is less than helpful in fairness.

OneMoreThing!

wnolan1992 wrote: »

Complaining about the website is a bit premature no? It says right on the front that there is more to come....

Complaining about the website is in no way premature. This is a service that students are paying for. Why shouldn't we demand professionalism? Right now the website is rather abrasive on the eyes. **** man, the space jam website looks better and that hasn't changed since 1996!!! For reference: http://www2.warnerbros.com/spacejam/movie/jam.htm

Jester252

To be fair one can not complain about the criticism and not think of it as a personal attack but accepet it and try the best you can to deal with it

wnolan1992

OneMoreThing! wrote: »

Complaining about the website is in no way premature. This is a service that students are paying for. Why shouldn't we demand professionalism? Right now the website is rather abrasive on the eyes. **** man, the space jam website looks better and that hasn't changed since 1996!!! For reference: http://www2.warnerbros.com/spacejam/movie/jam.htm

Sure, demand professionalism. But at the same time realise that these are not professional radio people running the station. I'm not saying the website as it stands is acceptable, but Jesus give them a chance to work out the kinks in actually broadcasting first. What good will having a lovely looking website be if what actually matters, the radio content is ****e?

OneMoreThing!

wnolan1992 wrote: »

Sure, demand professionalism. But at the same time realise that these are not professional radio people running the station. I'm not saying the website as it stands is acceptable, but Jesus give them a chance to work out the kinks in actually broadcasting first. What good will having a lovely looking website be if what actually matters, the radio content is ****e?

Considering that ULFM is an online radio station then the website has to be at least "acceptable". It's not hard to design a good website. Just use joomla or wordpress and it'll be sound. There is only one page there. All they needed to do is make one page look good! That should not be a big ask for the Union considering the budget they have. I mean if you're going to pay for loads of equipment then why not just give a proper web designer 50 to 100 quid to get it right? It's online, it needs to look good online from day one. It seems a half arsed job. That kind of thing won't help get listeners. If it looks good people will stay, if not there's more chance of it repelling people.

Delta Kilo

Kelly,

With all due respect, you are an elected public representative and I would imagine that many of those souls offering constructive criticism voted for you.

Like a chef, if you cant handle the heat, then what the f*ck are you doing front and center at the oven?

You should have realised this when you were handing out lolly-pops last semester, gathering votes.

Judging by your reaction to this thread and from having witnessed your Hust during the hustings, perhaps being a public figure isnt for you.

My own opinion is that a functioning website should have taken far more priority over a novelty idea such as ULFM.

wnolan1992

OneMoreThing! wrote: »

Considering that ULFM is an online radio station then the website has to be at least "acceptable". It's not hard to design a good website. Just use joomla or wordpress and it'll be sound. There is only one page there. All they needed to do is make one page look good! That should not be a big ask for the Union considering the budget they have. I mean if you're going to pay for loads of equipment then why not just give a proper web designer 50 to 100 quid to get it right? It's online, it needs to look good online from day one. It seems a half arsed job. That kind of thing won't help get listeners. If it looks good people will stay, if not there's more chance of it repelling people.

You're probably right. I guess it doesn't bother me because i have the ulfm page minimised in the background all the time. Though I'm sure (rightly or wrongly) that Kelly and all others involved were putting so much effort into getting the station up and running smoothly that the website wasn't an immediate priority. And as you've said, this is easily remedied by paying a web designer, or i'm sure there're any number of students on campus who'd be willing to do it for free, so it's not really as big an issue as people are making out. Seriously, just give them time to get things working. If an air of negativity starts surrounding the station straight away....then that's not good...

CJKeane

Rag radio could only play free songs because they were broadcasting terrestrially (over the air waves) and had to follow BCI guidelines as well as IMRO. If they had played other songs then they would have had to buy a blanket license from IMRO.

impossiblesuzie

Delta Kilo wrote: »

Kelly,

With all due respect, you are an elected public representative and I would imagine that many of those souls offering constructive criticism voted for you.

Like a chef, if you cant handle the heat, then what the f*ck are you doing front and center at the oven?

You should have realised this when you were handing out lolly-pops last semester, gathering votes.

Judging by your reaction to this thread and from having witnessed your Hust during the hustings, perhaps being a public figure isnt for you.

My own opinion is that a functioning website should have taken far more priority over a novelty idea such as ULFM.

Inappropriate much? Kelly is entitled to her opinion, as are you, but making personal comments on her ability is crossing a line. I would advise you stick to the topic, which is ULFM, and either offer some constructive criticism or helpful suggestions. This is not an opportunity to take cheap digs at someone who is clearly trying her best to do a stressful job.