Nan:2023-12-22-2nd-rfd-rec.radio.broadcasting

From: Tristan Miller <tmiller@big-8.org>
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups.proposals
Subject: RFD: Remove rec.radio.broadcasting
Followup-To: news.groups.proposals
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2023 17:24:35 +0100
Message-ID: <um4d88$iaf$1@reader1.panix.com>
Archive-Name: rec.radio.broadcasting

This is a formal Request for Discussion (RFD) to remove the moderated
newsgroup rec.radio.broadcasting.


Newsgroups Line:

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


Distribution:
	news.announce.newgroups
	news.groups.proposals


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:

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.

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


Procedure:

Those who wish to comment on this request to remove this newsgroup
should subscribe to news:news.groups.proposals and participate in the
relevant threads in that newsgroup.

To this end, the followup header of this RFD has been set to
news.groups.proposals.

All discussion of active proposals should be posted to
news.groups.proposals.

If desired by the readership of closely affected groups, the
discussion may be crossposted to those groups, but care must be taken
to ensure that all discussion appears in news.groups.proposals as
well.

For more information on the newsgroup removal process, please see
http://www.big-8.org/wiki/Removing_newsgroups


History of this RFD:

2023-12-01: 1st RFD (remove)
2023-12-22: 2nd RFD (remove)

-- 
Usenet Big-8 Management Board
https://www.big-8.org/
board@big-8.org