Kev - what email address did you use ?

Cheers

Lou

Get on that bandwagon .. support your club ...

Dear Mr Oakes

We are sorry that you were not satisfied with our earlier response to your complaint and appreciate that you felt strongly enough to contact us again about the matter.

This is an automated email to confirm we received your complaint. Please do not reply to this email since it is generated from an unmonitored address. If you believe you have received this in error please contact us using our webform at www.bbc.co.uk/complaints and quoting any reference number we have provided.

In these circumstances we aim to investigate and reply to you normally within 20 working days (around four weeks) but we will contact you if we believe it may take longer. The time taken to reply at this stage depends on the detailed nature of the issues needing investigation, how many others need to be investigated and practical issues such as whether a production team is available or away on location.

In order to use the licence fee efficiently we may not investigate every issue if it does not suggest a substantive breach of guidelines, and may send the same reply to everyone if others have also complained about the same issues. This is in line with the full complaints procedure which you can read at:

downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/regulatory_framework/protocols/2012/complaints_fr_work_ed_complaints.pdf

We attach the text and reference number of your complaint below for your records:

Ridiculous that even when replying, it still takes 20 days to process the complaint. So when they send another unsatisfactory and vague response, you'll have to go through the whole process again.

It'll be next season before anything gets resolved.

As a dfc fan I will not be emailing etc but I hope you get want you want, you deserve it. Highest non league club in kent with a history. BBC are a joke. 

Lets have em then

It's fine to complain, and i really like your response, but i do believe there is a solution that is so much more simpler. I have worked with Kent media a lot, always find Radio Kent very good and easy to deal with, but the key is in the response - where resources allow. These guys have very limited resources (that is not to excuse why we have been ignored) but i believe the club should do what i do, write your own release with quotes and simply email it to the contact for them to use as their own. It is lazy journalism, but with such a huge area to cover with very few people, i can see why the team in the London borough of. . .gets left out. Turn it to our advantage - send our quotes immediately to BBC LONDON + KENT.

Eastbourne Wing wrote:

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It's fine to complain, and i really like your response, but i do believe there is a solution that is so much more simpler. I have worked with Kent media a lot, always find Radio Kent very good and easy to deal with, but the key is in the response - where resources allow. These guys have very limited resources (that is not to excuse why we have been ignored) but i believe the club should do what i do, write your own release with quotes and simply email it to the contact for them to use as their own. It is lazy journalism, but with such a huge area to cover with very few people, i can see why the team in the London borough of. . .gets left out. Turn it to our advantage - send our quotes immediately to BBC LONDON + KENT.

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I agree Radio Kent have limited resources - so share them around Kent clubs. Why cover one and not the other.

We are the highest place team in England that BBC Radio Kent can cover live.

 

I agree with things like press releases we are lacking but I very much doubt Dartford have to do anything to get live commentary and post match interviews. Radio Kent = Dartford lapdog

Look forward to it, your doing a great championing job!

Update for you ..

Once again, if you are a Welling fan, please do something to help your team and complain to the BBC.
Given the volume of time some people invest in voluntary works to help the club, the five minutes this takes isn't much to ask, and could help get us more people through the gate through better media coverage ... plus all those away games you can't make, you'll get some Jamie Day interviews afterwards!

......

Dear Mr Oakes,

Thanks for your follow up email.

BBC Sport has no plans to increase online coverage of Welling United.

We will continue to provide four-paragraph match reports of every Conference Premier and FA Cup fixture (from the first round) that the club plays, and write stories and features about the club that we deem to be newsworthy.

It should be noted that BBC Sport does not have the resource to send reporters to every football fixture across the country, so the vast majority of our reports of Championship and below matches are provided by the Press Association.

The coverage of Welling United by BBC Radio Kent and BBC London is a matter for them and should be taken up with the management of the two radio stations.

Kind regards,

BBC Sport

............

Thank you for your prompt reply.

Although I appreciate that Welling United in the grand scheme of what your department covers is a drop in the ocean, the coverage across our division is incredibly unbalanced.

Welling have played 24 league games this season, and three FA Cup games, reports of which are all on your website. 95% offer no comment from any member of Welling staff, management or players. 100% offer comment from the opposition. How is this acceptable?

To have matches that are covered from the angle of one team and not the other is ridiculous. Can you imagine a Match of the Day on a Saturday evening with only one manager being interviewed after each game? Hardly a fair representation of things is it?

I know BBC reporters do not grow on trees, especially for the lower levels of the game, but if there is something there representing the BBC and/or Press Association getting the quotes from one manager why can they not be instructed to get the views from both? It doesnt involve sending more people, or spending more money. It gives not only Welling the coverage they fairly deserve, but also offers a different perspective for the fans of the opposing team. It would avoid the rose-tinted spectacles most people seem to have when discussing their own team anyhow.

The BBC Kent/London debate has been discussed to death by many at our club over the years. BBC Kent consider Welling a London club and therefore do not cover us. A convenient excuse in my eyes given they cover Charlton and Blackheath Rugby club which are certainly not in Kent and are more North-Westerly into London than Welling are. BBC Kent tell us BBC London cover us, and as a result of the volume of teams in London, understandably Welling get little to no look in. Given this issue, you say, must be taken up with them directly, just who do I complain to when they both so obviously brush this issue under the carpet? I would have thought the BBC as a whole which I believed I was doing so in raising it with yourselves.

Thank you again for your time, but the issue still hasnt been addressed in my eyes. How can this be taken further by myself? Please provide contact details of the appropriate body. Alternatively, more balanced coverage with immediate effect would satisfy all, and as mentioned above, it doesnt involve more reporters or more money being spent, just application of some common sense.

I await your reply.


Thanks
Kevin Oakes

Dan from the BBC has mentioned three names on my list of who to contact. Pete Stevens I know very well and is a top bloke. He even said to me that he would love to cover Welling but hasn't got the staff due to coverage of league clubs. there are some very long winded rights issues about football league coverage that BBC supply. we all know how many clubs BBC London have on their patch so it has to be Kent who should be covering us. 

Andrew Nicholson aka Courtjester wrote:

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I find it hard to get as excited about this as some. Barnet don't get covered, it appears, by BBC Radio London either. Like it or not we are a London club and one of many.

---

 

Barnet fans might not be as bothered as us? If they are then they should be having the same argument with the BBC (BBC London and BBC Three Counties).

We are in a position (unlike Barnet) with a rival club in the same league, same county and only a few miles away from us getting coverage and we're not. The argument of London/Kent depends on where Radio Kent fancy commentating from. The Kent border stretches up to Blackheath rugby club, via Charlton and swerves Welling.

For the club:   Lack of coverage means lack of exposure to potential new fans, advertisers, investors etc. (and revenue)

For the fans: Post match interviews do not exist for our manager leading to unbalanced match reports and having no live radio/internet coverage means a lack of coverage for existing supporters at home and abroad, whereas other clubs get it.

 

With mainstream broadcasting budgets in decline, it might present opportunities for London Live (Evening Standard TV), ITV's first threat to local broadcasting since its introduction over 50 years ago. It starts in March and promises 5 hours of London news a day and reports from every London borough. This could make a huge impact in local sports coverage in the capital.

Ideal platform for Conference reporting of Welling (and Barnet) in my eyes. Fingers crossed

(Sky 117, Virgin 159).

Kevin wrote:

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Completely agree Gary, hence my complaint and persistence with it. Awaiting their latest reply.
Courtjester - I'm hardly excited by it, and there are a million other things I would rather do, but as Gary points out we suffer as a result of it so I'd urge you and anyone else with five minutes to try and help your club, and yourself, by improving our coverage.

---

 Maybe its my public sector mindset that makes me think you can't expect miracles from a public service which no doubt has a limited budget

Maybe we should offer them the goals from our TV coverage as I cant imagine their budget will be huge and they might be happy to have some highlights on the cheap

Wellington Boot wrote:

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Once we have the email of someone in authority @ BBC, please put it on here and we can all write! Numbers can make a difference.

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I'm reluctant to name names and give a specific email for I fear that individual would become a scapegoat.

Making some progress, I think.

 

Update ...

 

BBC to me ...

 

Hi Kevin,

 

Dan Johnson from BBC online passed your mail onto me and I just wanted to put in the station's view on Welling United.

 

Firstly, I should say I've just taken over the job of Sports Editor at BBC Radio Kent, so forgive me if I'm going over old ground.

 

I can tell you we have absolutely no bias against the club, all of us that work on RK are passionate about our sport, and we do our best to cover as much as we can given the time and resources we have.

 

BBC Local Radio had to make some hard decisions when we were asked to absorb 20 per cent cuts a couple of years ago and I'm afraid the budget for sport is no different to any other part of our output in that respect.

 

Unfortunately, because Welling is outside our transmission area as laid out by the BBC, we're not allowed to spend our budget covering it. In the same way that it would be BBC London who'd send a reporter to a big news story in the town - it also applies to sport.

 

I know that's a huge frustration for Wings fans who see their club doing so well and not getting the coverage other teams at their level do, and I'm sure that's shared by fans of Barnet and Macclesfield for instance.

 

It's true that we have Charlton commentary on medium wave because, like Welling, we know they have a number of supporters who feel they're part of the Kent football family. That commentary, as you probably know, is provided by BBC London and I can assure you that if they provided Welling commentaries we'd make a place on our output for it if we could.

 

We also cover Blackheath rugby, but again that's not something we pay for and in Graham Cox we have a reporter who gives us a fantastic overview of all our rugby clubs.

 

What I can tell you, is that we'll do our utmost to give Welling United the best coverage we can - like BBC London we regularly talk to Jamie Day on our Saturday Sport show and Welling news will be an important part of our now regular sport bulletins throughout the day.

 

I know this doesn't go as far as you and other Welling fans might want, and again as a football fan I understand your frustrations, but that's as far as my powers go.

 

If you have any more questions, please feel free to forward them to me and I'll answer them to the best of my ability. If you fancy chatting in person I'll be at the game tonight and I like to think I'm pretty approach (just look for the very tall bloke in the press box).

 

Thanks again for your mail,

 

Matt

 

.......

 

Me to BBC today ... 

 

I listened to the game on BBC Surrey while I was at work.

Seems that Jamie wasted no time in signing new players. Welcome to the team, Joe Clarke and Ross Beautyman who made their debuts yesterday!!!

My latest reply from BBC

Thanks for contacting us regarding BBC Radio Kent.
We understand you feel the station doesnt provide adequate commentary for Welling United matches.
We apologise for the delay in replying. We realise that our correspondents appreciate a quick response and were sorry that you had to wait on this occasion.
Whilst BBC Radio Kent provides some coverage of Welling, London 94.9 is responsible for covering the club as it is based in the Borough of Bexley, inside London 94.9s transmission service area.
Dartford, Dover and Ebsfleet are all within BBC Radio Kents transmission service area and are therefore more likely to receive coverage on the station.
We hope this allays your concerns. Feedback like your own helps to inform our discussion and decision making regarding future output and your comments were made available to programme makers, channel controllers and senior management at the time of contact.
Please again accept our apologies for the unfortunate delay and thanks for taking the time to contact us.

Reference CAS-2503988-GSP149

I don't consider Robin MacDonald's previous explanation adequate in any way. I know the facts re: Welling being covered in London as I mentioned myself in the complaint dialogue thus far. There have been numerous emails to me and this one is a massive step backwards from what I thought was progress being made.

I want someone to explain why a BBC reporter got quotes from the away side at our ground on Saturday but didn't have the sense to ask the opinion of the home manger whilst there too. Its happened in, quite literally, every game we have played this season, over 30. It is not a question of staffing, resources or money, there is someone there conducting interviews and collating opinion, yet it is only one sided. Why?

Welling play Gateshead Tues 21st. I don't expect BBC Radio London to send someone to Gateshead, that would be stupid given the cost and the audience Welling attract. However, I would expect the already present BBC reporter for Gateshead to ask for an opinion from both sides of the fence. It is common sense.

I look forward to a proper reply this time.

Kevin Oakes