Desperate Marketing?

As regular readers will know, I abandoned the RSGB very soon after joining it, back at the start of 2012.  I have to admit that my loose preconceptions of the society were not very good to start with, and only went down hill after I joined.  To me, the RSGB was more like a hangover from the 19th century English imperialist past than a modern representative society.

For a year or so now, I've been a subscriber to Practical Wireless, which has a much fresher, modern and dynamic feel to it, with no hand-bitingly dull accounts of committees for this, and committees for that (none of which seem to actually ever achieve anything of real improvement to the average operator).  

A screenshot from the dull introduction to a very dull RSGB presentation. 

 

A typical screenshot from OH8STN's Youtube channel, full of practical, enthusiastic content.

Over the past year, PW has attracted, according to its editor, about 135 new authors.  This remarkable fact itself suggests a lot more people are finding the RSGB unsatisfactory.  PW also pays decent, industry-standard rates to authors, whereas the RSGB pays rates that are, at best, insulting, and entirely unlikely to attract new, good authors.

So this month, I was surprised to find the RSGB had taken out a two-page spread within PW, attempting to tell the world of its good works in promoting amateur radio.  PW is not averse to taking a few pot shots at the RSGB when appropriate, so this really is quite unusual.  It would suggest that the RSGB has realised the heel-turning that is going on. 

The article, written by Heather Parsons, Communications Manager for the RSGB, makes much of the various 'Tonight@8' Youtube video presentations.  I had a look at all the videos listed in the article, and they make for very soporific viewing.  

A presentation about the Raspberry Pi begins with the speaker and his co-host trying to sort out some technical problems <drum fingers impatiently>.  The droning about the Pi then begins in earnest, never getting to anything like a OH8STN-type video, where the Pi is shown being connected up and used in the real world with cold numb fingers.  Instead, we get a Powerpoint presentation from the comfort of a study bedroom or similar.  Nothing too daring for the old knee joints at the RSGB...

This first video I watched (OK, I skipped most of it, it was that dull), started a trend through all the RSGB videos: that all presenters are really quite old.  There is nothing wrong with being old, not least as you may well have a lot of experience and ability, even with the latest gadgets.  But only showing old, and often very old, white, male faces on videos meant to appeal to modern UK population, is really not getting to grips with reality.  It's actually very sad, and something the RSGB seem to be incapable of improving.  

Was the video really a success?  I doubt it.  It didn't show users how to set up anything at all,  and had only been watched by 2631 people, and only 735 had bothered to thumb it up or down.  A second video about antennas had been watched, perhaps predictably, by nearly 4300 people, only 107 of which had given any feedback.  A third, about detecting VDSL RFI, had only been watched by 1158 people, with only 22 feedbacks given.  

Remember, these are global audience viewing numbers.  A recent OH8STN video about the Raspberry Pi attracted a whopping 57,000 views (and counting), which is not at all unusual for Julian's output.  I suppose if, like the RSGB's General Manager, Julian was paid what was, until very recently, over £60,000 a year to promote radio, he could do a hell of a lot better than the RSGB.  In fact, compared to the appeal of enthusiasts like Julian, the RSGB's videos are utterly irrelevant, and clearly of very little appeal.

The RSGB article moves on from videos and continues to try and persuade us all that it's a society worth joining.  But it persuades me not at all, other than it is increasingly out of touch with what will attract new, younger and less pure-white middle class people into the hobby.  

Whilst I take no pleasure at all in watching the RSGB die on its feet, die is what it will do, unless it sheds the 'London Wireless Society' attitude that pervades it, and addresses its failure to make radio appealing.  

Resting on the laurels of a very modest increase in taking radio exams when all of us had nothing to do over the past few months other than sit indoors and take an interest in something, is not likely to be very productive in the medium-to-long term.  Most of those exam-takers will now park themselves as Foundation licence holders, talk CB-type rubbish on 2m for the rest of their lives, and never actually progress thesmelves or radio at all.

As always, I'm very ready to see a step-change in how the RSGB approaches its work and how it aims to improve the lot of the average operator.  But I may well be dead before that happens.