Spoke to Matt Davison today and gave him a bit of a grilling over the pathetic coverage we get and said imho he wasnt truthful last year when he said we would be covered and also said that coveing us zero times against non kent clubs was terrible.
He said if we were in a big meaningful game he would cover us but radio kent will not cover welling IF it means dropping any of the clubs matches of the teams they do cover, as those residents in those areas paid their licence fee. I pointed out that we also pay and get no coverage and radio kent have always covered us before they decided to stop. He said he talks to Jamie often for interviews as that costs 10p!!!
He also said we are Radio London's club and if we wanted match coverage at radio kent we should lobby the bbc to cover metropolitan clubs whether that be surrey, essex or kent covering sides in metropolitan london. Or we should lobby for Radio Kent to get more money to cover their metropolitan clubs.
At least we know the score now (i always knew as much to be fair), we wont be covered unless its play offs or a big cup game or we play a kent side.
Maybe we should get in touch with other clubs not covered by the BBC and get a petition to the BBC to improve matters.
Fair play to him for at least not shirking questions and being honest.
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Alexander O'Neal 1987 "I'm fed up cos all you wanna do is criticize "
TPO thought I would have a moan at the BBC trust and found out from their web page they had a consultation about local radio. Trouble is it ended 21st December. If we had know we could have made representations.
Facts are they have given us resonable coverage up to about two seasons ago, what has suddenly changed now? the only thing i can think of is other clubs like Dartford riseing up the leagues, so they suddenly decide to drop us, the facts are i bet he still kept calling todays game a kent derby, when their new policy clearly means it isnt, they covered our woking match, this meant they dropped their other sides for the day, they covered Bromley at Orient again dropping their other sides,not to mention Charlton coverage although provided by BBC London is still taking air time away from other kent clubs, they used to put the occasional Non League commentary on medium wave before they covered charlton (even Welling) Did you remind Davidson that Blackheath RFC is a little more London then Welling? I still think the best option would be to ban them from PVR & try to get other clubs like Bromley & Cray involved, (Cray had excellent coverage a couple of years ago when they won promotion)
It's all clearly a policy decision at the station rather than any wider Trust issue.
Tom - is Matt saying no one west of Dartford towards town pays their licence fee? Do me a favour. The Charlton and Blackheath rugby coverage argument doesn't add up. WIE discovered a few seasons ago that BBC Essex covered metropolitan sides far better and more consistently than BBC Kent does. And why should we be lobbying their paymasters for a bigger budget?!! That's their job. I agree that getting together with Bromley and Cray (as well as Thamesmead and VCD) is a good idea.
Dave - Similarly, the BBC can't agree about its stance on local radio generally. DQF (Delivering Quality First/Delivering Questionable Fare) proposed major cuts generally to local radio, which some managing editors have spoken out against. The Local Government Association also said that BBC local radio excels in, and was largely created in the event of, national/regional emergencies (as well as local sports coverage) and that this should continue unaffected.
BBC Radio Kent is making up inconsistent sports coverage policy and succeeding, not for the first time, in making themselves look foolish.
Basically they are saying we will cover you if you have a big game but not at other times, that can not be right, we are either a Kent club or not, they just want to jump on the bandwagon for the big games then dump us.
The Charlton thing i seem to remember him saying that thats because they have loads of fans in Kent, Blackheath will be some rugby quota thing which can still be argued as crap as there is plenty of Rugby in kent they could cover.
Maybe we should just do protests when radio kent are at games and all congregate chanting near the commentators that radio kent should do one. Shame them into giving us decent coverage and not just "10p phone calls".
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Alexander O'Neal 1987 "I'm fed up cos all you wanna do is criticize "
In the 90's we used to get good coverage on Radio Thamesmead and they also used to provide good allround Kent coverage on the day. They also had a Sunday evening show where we always had a managers interview. In those days we always had a good stalwart in Tudor Jones, God rest him.
For Davison to say we wont cover you but we will for big games is taking the piss. I am all for publicity for the club but this outfit does us no favours. Unless we can get something more positive I really dont see thier value
We had excellent coverage from radio kent. Nick Mullins, Duncan Jones, John Warnett all covered us regularly as one of the feature clubs. Sadly Mullins and Jones moved on to be decent on National BBC or TV and the ones that have taken over dont want to cover us unless its a "big" game or a kent side is playing us.
We would get more publicity getting a tie in with a community or hospital radio station. Then banning Radio Kent until we get equal coverage to the other kent sides at our level. At the end of the day Radio Kent would be losing a fair few games if we banned them from commentating or updating.
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Alexander O'Neal 1987 "I'm fed up cos all you wanna do is criticize "
Surprise, Surprise, for one game only Welling are back in Kent, with a reporter at todays game with Chelmsford, Matt Davidson has slipped up their!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bandwagon time again, As once again BBC Radio Kent move the goal posts with website commentary of Woking V Welling.
They are only covering it as it the outcome of the game effects Dartford as much as us it does us, it they wasn't up there with us - I bet they woundn't bother?
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''It is our duty to preserve the real values of this sport. And while we're around, that passion will be there''
I cant wait to see if the tie in with Meridian comes off. Radio Kent Absolute joke of a station. Second in league won 10 on bounce, in 3rd round of Trophy. We need to be mindful if they suddenly want to start covering us if we go up or go deep in the Trophy. We can do that if meridian partner with us.
I detest Radio Kent, shambles.
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Alexander O'Neal 1987 "I'm fed up cos all you wanna do is criticize "
To say we are BBC London's club doesn't stack up. I worked at BBC London since its formation around 10-12 years back and the sports editor there said he didn't have the manpower to cover us. If he covered us then he would have to cover Hayes, Boreham Wood, Hornchurch etc etc.
He said he couldn't cover lower non league teams due to the high number of clubs in London. He has a genunine point if you look at Conf South teams (and above) London have;
Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, West Ham, Fulham, QPR, Palace, Watford (sort of), Millwall, Charlton, Orient, Brentford, Barnet, Dagenham, Wimbledon (plus us, Bromley, Hayes, Stevenage in the wider area).
Look at Kent: Gillingham, Dover, Tonbridge, Dartford, Ebbsfleet (us & Bromley should be here).
It's a no brainer we should be covered by BBC Radio Kent.
BBC London like many stations have gone through major cuts recently and lost sports shows unless there is a live game - we have zero chance unless a big game crops up. I don't think BBC Kent will cover us unless we up sticks and relocate in front of a village green with one only pub and chirpy vicar. Thing is - why do we have to be in deepest Kent to 'qualify' for coverage?
This whole issue has gone on too far long and the crucial thing is, it shouldn't be up to us or someone at the radio station. It has to go higher and we deserve to get coverage by the BBC - especially as lower ranked clubs like Maidstone get far more air time. Which station that is, should be up to the Trust or head of the region. Interestingly enough the boss of BBC London is also boss of BBC South East which includes Radio Kent, Surrey etc. It has to go above him to the Controller of English Regions. Perhaps a letter from the club first then once that falls on deaf ears (which it will do) then fans letters, facebook campaign etc.
They used a Yorkshire reporter for Maidstone at Halifax. What i find mad, is If Dartford are covered by the home team (Surrey, Yorkshire, nottingham, BBC WM etc) they still send someone and the bbc have Two live commentaries on same game, where they could take the home stations commentary and send someone else to Welling, Bromley etc etc and cover more clubs.
Radio Kent is just piss poor end of story and apart from one or two of the reporters... amateur from top to bottom and told us porkies when Matt Davison said at the start if you do well we will cover you... then changed their minds.
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Alexander O'Neal 1987 "I'm fed up cos all you wanna do is criticize "
We were given team of the day on Tuesday but they couldn't wait to steer the conversation away from Welling & back to their usual favourites like Dover, they hate us doing being near the top its harder for them to ignore us. They have covered one game this season surprise surprise the Bishop Stortford game, while they used a BBC Lancashire reporter for Bromley's FAC game at Fleetwood, their attitude stinks, they can cover us if they want too, but choose to jump on the bandwagon just for the big matches. I wonder if they will cover our Grimsby match?
I thought that they would jump on the bandwagon & cover today's match, i could not believe that they planed to cover the big ??? match at Margate, when it was called off they switched to Whitstable,we have not even had a manager interview for weeks, it seems the better we do the less coverage we get, they really are a disgrace. plenty of coverage i presume paid for coverage of Kent based??? Blackheath RFC
Radio Kent is just piss poor end of story and apart from one or two of the reporters... amateur from top to bottom and told us porkies when Matt Davison said at the start if you do well we will cover you... then changed their minds.
Surprisingly enough after talking to them on Twitter (I say to them - it was like talking to a brick wall) they told me the reason they don't cover us isn't down to results, it's due to location. Pathetic
Radio Kent is just piss poor end of story and apart from one or two of the reporters... amateur from top to bottom and told us porkies when Matt Davison said at the start if you do well we will cover you... then changed their minds.
Surprisingly enough after talking to them on Twitter (I say to them - it was like talking to a brick wall) they told me the reason they don't cover us isn't down to results, it's due to location. Pathetic
So how do they justify Charlton and Blackheath rugby?
I would imagine that more people from Kent travel up to watch the rugby. Do many people with 5 miles listen to Radio Kent? I know when I lived in the area I would never think of listening to it, I always listened to London stations. I would think Radio Kent know they have a small audience in our area and therefore, in these difficult financial times, can not justify covering us.
I would imagine that more people from Kent travel up to watch the rugby. Do many people with 5 miles listen to Radio Kent? I know when I lived in the area I would never think of listening to it, I always listened to London stations. I would think Radio Kent know they have a small audience in our area and therefore, in these difficult financial times, can not justify covering us.
Then they should just say so instead of stone walling all the time.
