Tomorrow night at 8 it will be Tonight @ 8, and time for another in the series of monthly (summer and Christmas holidays excepted) webinars from the Radio Society of Great Britain. These presentations on a variety of topics are live-streamed on the Society's YouTube channel and also on a British Amateur Television Club (BATC) channel. They last for around an hour, and at the end, viewers are invited to ask questions online of the presenter(s). The entire televisual extravaganza is moderated by David G7URP. The Society has built up an extensive archive of Tonight @ 8 episodes going back five years, and this can be accessed via YouTube and links on the RSGB website.
Are you OK? I hope you didn't hurt yourself when you fell off your chair. Yes, you read correctly; the Society is down wiv da kids at last! OK, perhaps I'm being a teensy bit unfair to them - though as an auld yin, I won't stop being pissed off at the Subscription fee almost doubling in price in the last couple of years. The RSGB has had an online presence for quite some time, from their website in its various iterations, to Facebook (hisssss) and X(itter) (booooo!), and a YouTube channel full of recordings of RSGB Convention lectures, training videos, membership information and historical footage. Live public engagement, however, is an altogether different kettle of Fish.
As in every other aspect of life, the pandemic lockdowns closed radio clubs and resulted in rallies, conventions and Field Days being cancelled. Sadly, some clubs and events, and radio amateurs, didn't make it, but out of adversity came a new era of engagement and interaction by any means. Clubs (and individuals) took to social media to conduct meetings, give lectures, pass on their skills, recruit new members or simply to meet, free of the restrictions of terrible band conditions, Planning laws, interference from ignorant neighbours and, of course, social distancing. However, as people began to emerge from that long period of isolation and, if they were still able, return to their normal work and social lives, some of this zeal faded to leave a few snapshots of a short time when radio amateurs again demonstrated that no distance was too large to bridge. Ironically, the pandemic gave the RSGB a much-needed kick up the backside.
As well as Tonight @ 8 which, in spite of appearances to the contrary, is not a spin-off of Most Haunted
the Society now conducts its AGM on YouTube, where you can even combine hobbies.
During the pandemic, many Convention lectures were also live-streamed, but as the event is a source of revenue for the Society, access to live-streaming of that part of the Convention is now available by ticket only (unfortunately from Eventbrite).
Five years on from Bozo's short-sighted and catastrophic "Freedom Day", and from the day a couple of months earlier on which the RSGB decided to boldly go (sic) to seek out new life, new civilisations and split infinitives on teh interwebz, it's now possible and even acceptable to participate in the social side of radio in your pyjamas or in the bath, or, in light of News which has just reached me about TOTA - in advance of tomorrow night's discussion on UKBOTA (UK Bunkers on the Air) - in or even on the toilet. I bet that you thought this was just a wistful reminiscence about the pandemic, didn't you?
No comments:
Post a Comment