The following was written some time ago. I'm updating this page in July 2017, SIX YEARS after I left TMCR, because the idiots running that station illegally are STILL throwing my name around with false information... I hear that they are telling people I was paid to be station manager and run the operation - yes, if you read below you will see what was already detailed - using grant funding or MY OWN MONEY. I was NEVER paid by TMCR iteself out of their funds as they simply didn't have any while I was there. I was expected to do more than a full time job and did so for no pay at all for quite some time. When I got small pots of money to support a salary it was often only part-time. It had always been agreed that the role would be a paid one, if anything they let ME down by not supporting funding bids. I reserve the right to defend myself and make the facts known, not supporting the tittle-tattle that these idiots are spreading.

--------------- Here's what I originally put on this page in July 2014, at that time due to the falsehoods that were being spread ----------------

TMCR FM was a community radio station for the north-east of Doncaster, taking in Thorne, Moorends, Stainforth, Hatfield, Dunscroft, Dunsville and surrounding areas.

The story starts in late 2004, when someone telephoned Trust AM's studio and asked if there was anyone who could offer some advice on setting up a radio station. At the time I was doing the specification of new equipment for the Doncaster studio of Trust AM, as part of a lottery grant application. I was based in Doncaster and was therefore the neaest to Thorne, where the enquiry came from.

I attended a meeting in January 2005, where I found out that Ofcom were inviting applications from community groups to set up small "community radio" stations. I said I was interested in helping with this and was then approached by Doncaster Council to be the 'Community Radio Project Officer', a paid role that was set up to make the project happen. There was some funding available at the time so grants were applied for, equipment bought, premises rented, licenses obtained and we made our first broadcasts in July/August of 2005, a 4 week run covering the annual Thorne Festival weekend.

Everything needed to be done from scratch. The new group, under the title 'Thorne-Moorends Community Radio Management Team, had nothing. There were a couple of people involved who had been DJ's, one or two had done some radio before. We pulled in help from hospital and other radio stations so there was a team of presenters available during the 28 day run. All the equipment was new, we had computers to play music from, particularly through the night when there wasn't anyone in the studio. I spent many hours, not just my contracted 37 a week, sorting all of that out.

The name TMCR was originally Thorne-Moorends Community Radio. It was one of about a dozen that had been suggested as part of a market research survery we did at the time, with the help of pupils from the (then) Thorne Grammer School. The committee were asked to pick their choice from a shortlist of 4 names, they picked TMCR. We started to use the name, in long and short format, and by the time the festival weekend came around, we had already been broadcasting two weeks.

Until that time we had had a lot of support from Doncaster MBC's Neighbourhood Management team. That summer saw a major shake-up of staff and everyone we had worked with went off to new posts elsewhere, some not even in Doncaster Council. The salary for my job was stopped, despite original assurances that this would be for at least 2 years (from Feb 05). The management team managed to get a small pot of funding to keep my job going through the winter, but that ended in January 2006.

Over the next 3 years I found a couple of small pots of funding that supported the radio group. We moved from the original shop to a community centre, some of the funding went on bills, I was paid part time for a short while. In the main I used what money I had myself. Savings, pension fund and whatever I had to support myself through some quite tough times. At some points I could not run the car, I just didn't have anything for petrol. Even catching the bus was an expense I could not always manage.

We got the news in December 2007 that Ofcom had granted a license to TMCR, but by now our original main funding stream (Doncaster MBC) were no longer supporting the area. We struggled to raise the money to launch the station, and only just made it before the license would have been revoked. We had 2 years from the award to start broadcasting, or lose the license.

Thanks to a couple of small pots of funding, we got on the air in December 2009. We had virtually no advertisers, the funding we had applied for had to be used to the best of our requirements, which meant some changes to plans had to be made. I was paid a part-time wage for a (more than) full time job. This was only for the first 3 months, after that I cashed in a pension plan and took no salary from the station for over 3 months, despite being there full time. I put some of this money into supporting the station as well. I bought all manner of things out of my own pocket throughout my time there. I claimed some back from time to time, as station income allowed.

Every time I made an expenses claim it was subject to scrutiny by the chairman. Although he didn't have a clue what was happening half the time, he wanted to know what I had spent every penny on. I wasn't claiming everything I had spent, many the time I paid for a set of keys to be made, and didn't claim. I was buying the tea, sugar, milk, soft drinks, biscuits and more. I spent thousands of my own money supporting that place, and never got any thanks for that. Instead there were accusations made that I was 'fiddling', trying to take money from the group. This was despite full documentation, receipts and everything being provided for the items I did claim back.

I was an employee of the group. I did virtually everything to set it up and run it, yet there was this constant lack of trust. I was a director too - but there was always the one person insisting he was in charge, when he was only the chair of the committee, a director with the equal the status of two others. Over time he brought mates in, people who were prepared to abuse trust and lie to support wild allegations that were made against me. Some of this was documented at www.tmcrfm.co.uk in October 2012, it is no longer there.

The bad feeling and accusations made me ill, I suffer with lung problems as it is. I was off for a while with a bad chest infection, during which time the 'management' decided to change passwords and other access that had allowed me to work from home, to restart the station if it went off air, to load new songs and more. Word came through that I was not to go anywhere near the studio, then accusations of cancelling contracts were made. I was supposed to have tried to cut the phone off, I was supposed to have cancelled sport reports. I think it has become clear to some of the people that had been there at the time that this was not of my doing, as I clearly stated at the time. I did check for myself, the sports reports were still being received AFTER passwords had been changed on the email account and computer systems. Had any attempt been made to disconnect the telephone service I would have had a call to query this on my home phone. If anything, I was pestered by BT about non-payment of bills several months later, showing that the original security and access was still in place.

I was summoned to attend meetings to discuss my position. The first was hijacked by two people claiming to be acting directors, there's no such thing, so no official business could be conducted under those circumstances. In April 2012 I was called to what appeared to be a puiblic meeting. As far as I am concerned, company business can only be conducted by the board of directors. I was sat in a room full of outsiders, many of who appear to have been press ganged into attending just to support the waffle that was brought up by at least two people who were not directors and had no authority to conduct such discussions.

The possibility of my remaining part of the group was brought up and the treasurer was the one who said that he opposed this as he claimed my focus was only on the money - what total rot, after all the time spent building and supporting the group for no pay - and he knew that. He is one of several people who now hide behind an alias, why can't they use their own names if they are legit? It smacks of pirate radio, but that's up to Ofcom to decide. I collected some of my property at the time, but had to leave lots behind, despute assurances that the remainder would be brought to me, it was all binned or stolen by the people concerned. From what I did collect, packets of cup-a-soup had been tampered with and rat poison added. Bottles of soft drink had been opened, the smell alone told me not to drink any of it. Petty.

It is my opinion that they are operating outside the terms of their license in several ways. It is not for me to correct them, but they do not have a 'competant person' as required under the terms of the license. Someone who knows about the transmission equipment and the provisions of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code. Do they even know where the document is, let alone has anyone bothered to read it to undestand what they are doing wrong ?

TMCR had potential. They've allowed it to drop into the gutter with their bad management, lack of knowledge, lack of concern and being oblivious to the requirements of their license. There was a big break in broadcasting where non-stop music was played because nobody had a clue what they were doing. They did not understand the computer system at all. They wasted a lot of money buying another broadcast system that they didn't know how to use.

I don't listen any more. The whole thing made me sick - really. They've pushed out people who were able to do the job, who could handle the studio and could set up a PA event. What's left is nothing short of a shambles. My opinion, to which I am entitled.

I took time to check with Companies house and discovered that NONE of the people calling themselves directors had been elected correctly, procedures had not been followed, one even gave a false name. All gave an invalid address. Companies House have failed to take any action but I will happily stand by the facts, all 'directors' since June 2012 have been illegal. The 'company' is no longer legal. The bank account held in the comapny name is being used fraudulently.

I now have a distinct lack of respect for Ofcom, PRS, PPL, Companies House and HSBC Bank, all have continued to allow this fraudulent activity to take place. At the time I used the word 'mutiny' to indicate that the crew had risen against the captain, and what a surprise, they are now illegal pirates! If anyone wishes to dispute this then please ask your solicitor to contact me.

The person behind all the hassle I went through claimed he was the 'boss', despite being an equal status director. He later resigned his original post as director and put himself back in under a false name, a variation of his own, which was later 'corrected' when I complained to Companies House about it. That is why I can say in all honesty that there are no legal directors left and that all operations since June 2012 have been illegal.

He was the one who brought in a convicted paedophile and allowed that person to enter a room in the community centre where young girls were having dance classes. He was the person who allowed young girls into the office and let them play on the computer, accessing their facebook accounts and who knows what. They were not members, they could have brought in virus-ridden material or broken a vital peice of equipment - yet he told ME off for saying they should not have been on there. He had no right at all to let non-members in, let alone play with the office computer. He regularly allowed groups of young ladies into the studio to watch him do his show, something he would have complained about if anyone else did it.

He was the one who took the PA equipment out and brought it back with a blown amplifier, because he didn't know what he was doing to connect it all after failing to take part in training sessions. He didn't want to know about procedures and rules, which apply to all radio stations. There are licenses in place that have conditions. Of course, they didn't apply to him. He brought his own CD's in, totally against rules set up to protect the station from illegal copies downloaded from the Internet, re-makes or songs that were clearly not the originals. Not only that, he allowed his mates to bring in copied discs and downloaded material. I took great care to ensure that we had a collection of proper CD's, all indexed. All the songs on the computer systems had been obtained from legal sources, I spent many hours editing and sorting those out.

Along with his 'mates' he turned the place into a Kindergarten, a play room for them only. They upset and alienated many people who had given up hours and hours of volunteer time. They put material out on the air which was unedited, some presenters even playing tracks directly from YouTube, breaking all sorts of copyright laws. The crude jokes he made on air lost a lot of listeners. He was subjected to a programme review, where many points were made about his poor presentation and not doing as he should. This followed a complaint from a member of the public who had contacted the station to say that they could not hear what was being said as the presenter, 'mr chairman', was talking over the music all the time and not even turning it down. He brought this up on the air and was far from sympathetic to the problem. He was then upset that I had taklen the time to review his show, which I did in my own time, even providing him with recordings of what he had said during that programme. He has not changed, if anything he's got worse.

I totally blame him for my being ill at the time, brought on by the stress he caused. He went out of his way to be awkward and disrespected the 'rules' that he should have been following to set an example to others. I was told that it would cost me many thousands of pounds to bring a court case against them for their actions, and failing to run a limited company properly. I could not afford that. I am saddened tha Ofcom did not see fit to follow up the many allegations made against those running the station at that time. Companies House also failed to uphold the law, saying that they did not have the resources.

(c) 2000 - Gordon Sharpe/Donweb

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