RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

unemployed and had limited formal education . The governing board, in contrast, was largely composed of persons who had moved of the town later in life and enjoyed a higher social status than the volunteers . These differences contributed to distrust between station volunteers and governing board members . For the image of a station it is sometimes advantageous that a governing board has members with social standing and political and organizational background . But this reguires that care be taken to ensure that the relationship to the rest of the station organization and members does not diminish . For example , a member of the governing board in Gouda is at the same time owner of the cable сотрапу . This combination of functions is not apparently problematic for the local station; on the contrary it seems to provide advantages , in part resulting from the small and well integrated organizational structure . Conflicts also emergeđ between station volunteers , often based on differences between divisions or working groups within the station. This was particularly evident between volunteers associated with radio and those involved with television . Distribution of the limited finanćial resources between the two media exaberated the conflict and led to premature separation between the two units . In Meppel and Groningen the internal differences between the radio and television units eventually led to organizational crises anđ the neeđ to revamp the organizational structures . During this reorganizational perlod the volunteers associated with the television unit in Groningen were so dissatisfied that they decided to cease all programming activity . Also in other locations the television and radio units tended to operate separately which contributed to difficulties , particularly regarding cooperation in program production . Stations generally impose implicit if not explicit selection criteria for station volunteers . Such criteria result in restrictions on the creed popular when local stations emerged in the 19705; of, by and for the community. No station studied in this research adheres in an absolutist manner to this creed. An important aspect in this regarđ is the dominant 'culture' of the station which is in тапу places self-selecting . In Groningen, for example , the left-wing student population is highly represented . This tends to inhibit involvement of other , non-student residents in station activities . In other places , such as Gouda and Weert , the stations have become well-known by informal ехсПапде between small circles of residents . Persons outside these circles fail to receive the information and are

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