These Rules and Guidelines are gathered from State and Commercial Radio stations in the UK (OFCOM) and United States of America (FCC) and adapted for use with Veterans Radio Net (VRN) where required.

VRN Rules

1. Under the terms of our license there are to be no paid-for commercials, to be broadcast on VRN. (this is a condition of the PRS / PPL licences)
   
   
2. Payment (pay for play) is strictly not allowed to promote songs.
   
   
3. Presenters must maintain a log of music played during their shows, (this can be achieved by keeping their history either in RadioDJ, Mixxx or other broadcasting programs, this is for reporting to PRS / PPL) I will ask for these figures approx once every 6 months.
   
   
4. VRN is not a charity but it is allowed to collect donations purely for the maintenance of the station (Server costs, Web hosting, Licence Fees and other agreed costs for promoting VRN)
   
   
5. Presenters are to make an announcement at least 3 times every hour with a “Station Ident”, this can either be by your own voice or a jingle (I suggest scheduling in at 10 minutes past the hour, half past the hour and 10 minutes to the hour, this fits in well if you are going to play the news at 30 minutes past the hour)
   
   
6. Copyright rules must be adhered to when it comes to playing tunes on the radio. You are allowed to play material that you have purchased as the PRS / PPL licence covers this for the radio station to broadcast and any official supported events for VRN. The VRN License does not cover you for other public events or parties, you will need to make your own arrangements to licence, separate from VRN’s licence.
   
   
7. Copyright also covers the format for Charts, for example you can not use the Radio 1 charts of 19** verbatim as the theme for a show as their playlists are copyrighted documents.  This Copyright also extends to compilation albums such as the ’Now That's What I Call Music' series ot albums. By all means use the tunes taken from that album but you can not play a show citing their playlist.
   
   
8. VRN is officially a UK based radio station with it’s target audience UK based, this means that although presenters can be based outside of the UK they are to adhere to the licence conditions applicable within the United Kingdom.
   

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VRN GUIDELINES

1. Unless circumstances arise or if previously arranged all shows will start and finish on the hour. The Oncoming presenter will start his/her show on the hour according to the internet time on your computer. The off-going presenter will finish their show at **:59:59 which will free up the server for the next presenter to start their show without a period of “dead air”. Do not rely on waiting for the off going presenter to stop talking, as there will always be a delay between the broadcast stream and the output from the players (usual delay times can vary between 20 seconds to 1 minute).This is normal and can be different every day.
   
   
2. Do not play one artist or group back to back more than once in any given hour and no more than 3 times in any given hour, this is to stop shows getting 'swamped' with requests for the same artist/group. If there is some reason you want to perform a themed show where this is in conflict with the repeat rule, alert Remy or another member of Admin in plenty of time before the show and must only be done very occasionally.
   
   
3. When playing tunes you must ensure that the metadata does not contain any copyrighted details such as “YouTube Video” “Vimeo.com”,“Converted by YouTube2MP3” or any other such identifying copyright branding, metadata should only contain the “Presenters Name or show name followed by the artist and songtitle” in the format of "Fred Blogs's Show ~ $artist - $track" (Syntax may vary with the different broadcasting programs)
   
   
4. If you want to present a show ensure that you have entered it into the schedule. Most presenters have a regular slot but if there is an empty slot (not due to a presenter being unable to do his/her scheduled show) and you are able to fill it, then you do not need admins permission, (if the slot is due to a cancelled show see item 8 in the VRN Shows, Scheduling and Chatroom section below) but add it into the schedule a.s.a.p. to avoid missing out, the schedule is available to all presenters via this link:
   
   (www.veteransradionet.co.uk/bookings)
   
   
5. If you are new to the schedule booking form, there is a short video tutorial on the same page. Please note if two or more presenters would like the slot the priority goes to whoever books first on the schedule. When you book a show you are able to amend that booking for up to one hour after posting it but after the hour it will automatically become locked and only an admin can change or delete it.
   
   
6. When you are presenting a show you are responsible for ensuring the behaviour on the Chatango chatboard ensuring that participants are 'behaving' themselves. If you feel that the content or the chatters are getting out of hand please contact Admin immediately via Teams. Please always remember that the Chatango chatboard is a public forum and anyone with a Chatango login from other boards can log into the our VRN chat.
   
   
7. When playing tunes please avoid songs with explicit lyrics in them. Some songs do contain mildly offensive words (classic examples being “The Beautiful South -Don't Marry Her” or “Radiohead - Creep”) There will be a radio edit but it is not the end of the world if an offensive version is accidentally played, but if you do please remove it from your library a.s.a.p.
   
   
8. It has been policy for many years that songs by convicted paedophiles are not played at all on VRN, this includes artists like Gary Glitter, Jonathan King, Ian Watkins from the Lostprophets or Rolf Harris please note this list is not exhaustive.
   
   
9. Please do not rely on using the “autodj” function in many of the broadcast software packages. By all means use it if you need to take an urgent call or comfort break, but our listeners like to hear a 'live presenter', (we did have a case many years ago where a presenter used the autodj on a regular basis to play while he went out on other business, the resulted in well over 30 minutes of music with no interaction with the listeners)
   
   
10. When asked for a request from a listener please give it priority to play it as soon as you can fit it in, but it is up to you if you feel the song is not part of your current theme or otherwise inappropriate.
    
    
11. VRN is mainly a veterans based radio station so if you can introduce some Forces related News which you can gather from some of these organisations
    
    (https://www.forcesnews.com/news)
    (https://www.army.mod.uk/news-and-events/)
    (https://ukforcesnews.co.uk/)

it would be appreciated if you can use some of the information gathered from the sources above, although not essential in your show programming

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VRN Shows, Scheduling and Chatroom

1. The broadcast day can be split into two time periods.
   8:00 until 20:00 (daytime), and from 20:00 until 8:00, Mon to Friday (evening/nighttime).
   
   
2. During the daytime period, presenters should aim to facilitate the stations listeners with tunes they might request. Fun,themed shows are also welcome during this period.
   
   
3. During the evening/nighttime period, presenters are most welcome to broadcast specialist shows, such as, Country, Rock etc. Saturday and Sundays also fall into this bracket.
   
   
4. If you are scheduling a specialist show, please make sure you detail the show in the schedule with your name.
   
   
5. Shows should normally be no longer than two hours’ duration. However, if you are broadcasting a specialist show and need more show time; (with admins approval), this can be extended to a max of three hours.
   
   
6. If for some reason a presenter is unable to present his scheduled show and this then leaves a two-hour gap, it is acceptable for the presenter immediately preceding the gap to extend his show by one hour and the presenter immediately following to start his show one hour early, therefore closing up the vacant gap.
   
   
7. Notwithstanding the above, all presenters should try to engage with, and involve the station’s listeners during their broadcasts.
   
   
8. If (for any reason) you are unable to commit to your scheduled show, please follow the guidelines below.
   Send a quick Teams message to Remy or Carol. This is just to make the management aware.
   Announce your absence on the presenters Teams page, with time/date etc.
   Remove your details from the slot on the schedule. Check that the slot is now clear.
   Await discussion amongst presenters, giving everyone a chance to step in if absence is in advance ie not same day, please allow time for those maybe working to have read the presenters Teams page before stepping in.
   It is preferred that a presenter not already broadcasting during the daytime period, steps up.
   The schedule can now be updated by the new presenter.
   If a slot remains empty, Otto will automatically kick in (we will monitor this)
   Otto should not to be treated as the enemy! If all the above can be followed, we should be able, to enable live presentations, between the hours of 08:00 and 23:59. Outside of these hours, Otto, is a bonus to listeners. We do need more presenters, but currently no one is waiting in the wings to join us.
   
   
9. The chat room, is a public page and can be seen by everyone, no one has to sign in to view its contents. This makes it the front page of what VRN is all about. Although most of the comments and chatter is jovial, and happy, at times there can also be some negativity. In the past, due to adverse comments etc. some listeners have left VRN. As a presenter and VRN member, please also be thoughtful of the content of your show at all times, especially recorded humour; and if you are taking requests during your show then attempt to play all of the listener’s requests unless it contains unacceptable language. You might not like the artist/song they have chosen, but the person requesting does. They (the listeners), are why, you are doing, what you do!
   
   
10. Remember posting of web links are disabled but always alert Admin if porn links appear so they can be removed.
     
11. If you do come across any bad-mannered shenanigans, on the chatty page, then please report it to Admin asap.
    
    
12.  No VRN admin content, such as presenter absence, or any tech issues should be discussed openly by presenters, live on air, or on the chat board. Doing this, comes across as, ‘VRN being unprofessional!’ Discussions of this kind will be removed by admin once they are aware, and presenter/s reminded of such.
    
    
13. To increase the listener numbers of VRN, don’t forget to spread the word, either vocally, by social media or by any method you wish.
    
    

Remember,

“It’s Our Time, Our Place and Our Voice, at VRN!”

Thank you all for reading. If anyone would like clarification or to discuss the guideline contents, please contact Admin (Carol Savigar) on Teams direct and not directly on the Teams Presenters Chat page. Enough time has been used up discussing this previously on the presenter’s page.