1 February 1998 Dear Martin, I know it will come as no surprise to you to learn that resentment towards Radio Nottingham amongst Notts fans is escalating rapidly. At the Pie we are picking up strong signals through talking to fellow fans and through our rather powerful internet network that the fans have had enough. I understand that thought is being given towards a campaign of letters toMPs and to the BBC Complaints Department in London. We certainly intend to feature the issue rather prominently in the next edition, which should be out at the end of February. Darren Jones of Sutton has sent us the enclosed copy of a letter you wrote to him back in October, which we are planning to publish in our next edition,. Having re-read your letter following the Mansfield game I am starting to feel that your words have a rather hollow ring to them. I was disappointed, but not surprised, to learn that you chose to cover the Forest v Oxford game on Saturday. Yet the Notts v Mansfield game was a local derby featuring two out of the three teams in your region. Notts are on a record-breaking run, top of the table and Mansfield looked to be staging a recovery. You say that the Mansfield chairman lets you cover Stags games free of charge so I fail to see any reason whatsoever why you could not have done full match commentary. To add insult to injury the game was a sell out and I have heard reports of several hundred Notts, and Mansfield fans who were locked outside. Yet the Forest game was far from being a sell out, and it was at home, so any Forest fans who wanted to could attend. I must also take issue with your point about your competition. You are a BBC station, not a commercial outfit, and your role is to serve the local community. The community is NOT being served by you broadcasting the same match as GEM AM. What is the point in giving a minority of the listening public (Forest fans) a chance to listen to the same game as another station whilst ignoring other minority groups (Notts fans, Country and Western fans if you like, etc. etc.)? It is clearly nonsense for you to suggest that the majority of your listeners are Forest fans (apart from the time when you are actually broadcasting a Forest game of course!). A fairly high proportion of the community are not football fans at all, and of those that are, in your catchment area I doubt that 50% are Forest fans.  This particularly applies to those that don't attend matches as there will be a fair sprinkling of Man Utd, Liverpool and other "bandwagon" fans and the number of non-attending Notts fans is not inconsiderable. Another point I must raise with you is regarding the fees you quote for broadcasting games and the fact that Mr Davey, wrongly in my opinion, will not waive or reduce them. The bone of contention is not about Notts HOME games. We believe that the only fair way is for AWAY games to be broadcast as fans often can't travel. Have you tried negotiating with the away clubs concerned, rather than with Notts? As an indication of the depth of feeling about this, the Pie is prepared to pay the  broadcast fees for you to cover a Saturday Notts away game during February or March. The only proviso being that this must be a Saturday when Forest are playing at home. The Pie is by no means wealthy and this would clean out our reserves of cash held to meet potential disasters like not having enough to pay the printers, but it would be worth it. Perhaps you would let me know if you would be interested in taking up this offer. Yours sincerely Steve Westby Co-editor

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Last Update 8 February 1998

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