A Good Start

Felixstowe Radio has made a good start, with visitor numbers rising rapidly every day as the site becomes known.
It's not intended that it should chase numbers or really be a vehicle for advertisers. That's what newspapers, radio and TV stations all over the world do - we plan to be rather different.
It's frustrating to see the media latch on to a story, with reporters rushing to the scene, clambering over each other to be the first to obtain the story. The reality is that they rarely do cover the real stories, or even talk to real people. They live in a sound bite world, where today's news will be history tomorrow. Only rarely do they seem to return, to cover the results of their headlines.
That may have some attributes, but we can easily tire of such frenetic activity, and too often we lose the point of the story altogether.
Felixstowe Radio has a different approach. The leader of the local council has already congratulated us on the design of the site, although he couldn't resist warning against bias. By that we supposed he meant he didn't want us to criticise his Council too much. He knows we are frustrated by their actions, and now we have the new newspaper, Inside Felixstowe, and Felixstowe TV in the town he sees too many stray bullets flying around.
The corporate owned and managed newspapers are under control, mainly from their advertisers who want to reach the maximum number of readers, so the papers tend towards a conventional approach, and they do that job very well. Advertisers can, of course, prevent or suppress stories that don't reflect too well upon their own activities.
Felixstowe Radio has no real desire to compete with such publications. Instead we will talk to local people, find out what is happening in their lives and play music and stories created locally.
This month we are featuring John Goodluck, a Suffolk Folk artist, who has been around for many years. We talk to a local poet, Wendy Mulford, to a local historian, Doreen Rayner, and allow Trevor Lockwood to rail on about the Crown Prosecution Service.
As we progress there are many other stories to be told. George Forsdike will talk about growing chrysanthemums, Ivy tells of her life in Felixstowe over eight decades, Nettie of her work rescuing small animals and much more.
So it will go on, giving local people a platform, full of local bias.
Lovely photo of the beach this morning.