• RESULT: rec.radio.broadcasting will be removed

    From Tristan Miller@tmiller@big-8.org to news.announce.newgroups,rec.radio.broadcasting,news.groups.proposals on Sat Jan 18 15:34:09 2025
    From Newsgroup: news.announce.newgroups

    Result:

    rec.radio.broadcasting will be removed.

    The Last Call for Comments (LCC) on 2025-01-03 initiated a five-day
    period for final comments. Following this comment period, the Big-8
    Management Board has decided by a vote to remove the group rec.radio.broadcasting. The vote was 3 in favour of deletion and 1
    not voting.


    Newsgroups Line:

    rec.radio.broadcasting Discussion of global domestic broadcast radio. (Moderated)


    Distribution:
    news.announce.newgroups
    news.groups.proposals
    rec.radio.broadcasting


    Proponent: Tristan Miller <tmiller@big-8.org>


    Charter:

    Rec.radio.broadcasting (r.r.b) will be for discussion of a wide
    variety of subjects pertaining to the general arena of entertainment/information radio. While not specifically limited to
    North American broadcasting, r.r.b will avoid dealing with
    international (shortwave) broadcasts because this topic is already
    being handled in rec.radio.shortwave.

    Valid subjects for discussion might include (but not be limited to);

    1) Programming and formats
    2) Technical and engineering matters
    3) Concerns of smaller market stations
    4) Innovations and legislation affecting the medium
    (and those attempting to enter it)
    5) Radio's historical & cultural significance
    6) Radio news coverage and it's impact on our nation and our world.
    7) Audience input and ideas for improving the state of radio
    broadcasting.


    Since rec.radio.noncommercial is the only Usenet group pertaining to
    domestic broadcast radio, r.r.b would provide a forum for those
    individuals who's interest in the medium is not limited to the
    non-commercial arena. I believe this group would be of great interest
    to Usenet participants because ...

    1) Everybody listens to, and is affected by, radio broadcasting. It
    is the only mass media in which one can fully participate, while
    engaged in another activity.

    2) Colleges and universities currently train, and graduate, thousands
    of potential radio professionals every year. These individuals
    would be very likely to participate in such a forum to discuss and
    compare notes on their chosen field of endeavor.

    3) The face of radio is always changing. Satellite feeds, automation,
    and other influences are molding the future of the medium. This
    newsgroup would be a link between interested parties from all
    corners of the industry, keeping one-another up to date on the
    latest trends impacting radio broadcasting in America an beyond.


    Rationale for removal:

    On 2021-10-02 the remaining moderation team of rec.radio.broadcasting
    announced that the newsgroup would no longer be active due to low
    newsgroup activity and their belief that Usenet is obsolete. The
    announcement was posted to the newsgroup itself and to several related
    venues, including the Radio Discussions blog and several broadcast radio-related Facebook groups. None of the replies to this
    announcement suggested that any replacement moderators were likely to
    step forward. The moderation system was therefore shut down a few
    weeks after the announcement and no new articles have been approved
    since then.

    It was suggested that there be a two-year "cooling off" period before initiating any public discussion to formally remove the group from the
    Big-8 hierarchy via an rmgroup, in part to allow extra time for any
    replacement moderators to come forward. However, in the last two
    years, no prospective moderators have approached the the Big-8
    Management Board.

    Formally removing the group from the ISC active list will provide
    wider public notification that it is no longer active. This will
    reduce the chance of people inadvertently posting to the group (and
    possibly becoming confused about why their posts never pass
    moderation). It will also help ensure that the group is removed or
    marked as read-only by news servers and gateways.


    Discussion so far:

    In response to the first RFD, Steve Bonine expressed concern that
    removing the group would result in its historical posts being deleted
    from news servers, since he had never heard of admins reacting to
    rmgroups by marking groups as read-only. Tristan Miller and Jesse
    Rehmer gave examples of two news servers that do handle rmgroups in
    this way. Steve and Jesse indicated that such examples were rare.
    Marco Moock asked whether anyone had read or posted to the group in
    the past two years, and Tristan confirmed that there had been no
    successful posts.

    No comments were received in response to the second RFD.

    In response to the original Last Call for Comments on 2024-01-15, the
    Board received an e-mail from someone volunteering to take over as
    moderator for the group, and so the voting process was suspended. The
    Board's discussions with the prospective moderator have since fallen
    through.


    History of the Group:

    1992-02-24: 1st RFD (create)
    1992-03-30: 1st CFV
    1992-04-09: 2nd CFV
    1992-04-20: 3rd CFV
    1992-05-01: Result: rec.radio.broadcasting passes 234:34


    History of this RFD:

    2023-12-01: 1st RFD (remove)
    2023-12-22: 2nd RFD (remove)
    2024-01-15: Final RFD / Last Call for Comments
    2025-01-03: Final RFD / Last Call for Comments (redux)
    2025-01-18: Result:
    rec.radio.broadcasting to be deleted
    --
    Usenet Big-8 Management Board
    https://www.big-8.org/
    board@big-8.org

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