I was reading up on the Isle of Wight Act (it's about fesitvals) as part of responding on VZI about something called Dub Island when one of the links took me to the Solent.tv website. Just in case it's not still up (in which case it'll be self-explanatory exactly what it is) - Solent.tv was a local TV station broadcasting to the IOW and surrounding areas. Sadly the idiots running the parent companies managed to run them into the ground and the whole lot fell apart at the end of May 2007.
I found this company going into administration very sad. I've been involved on the periphery of Solent.tv pretty much since it's inception - I drove the Head of Production there around the IOW so he could film the round the Island race before the station was on air. Shortly after that he became one of my lodgers. I then got involved with the 'Island Broadband' project - we did roadshows and there were information shorts on the station about broadband at a time when it was a relative mystery and not available in such a ubiquitous manner as it is today. A while after that one of the editors became my other lodger.
Both of these guys were exceptionally dedicated and professional people, who worked incredibly hard and produced genuinely professional television that they were very proud of. When they lost their jobs I lost a tennant and a close friend lost his raison d'etre - annoying and sad respectively.
Probably the saddest thing about stumbling across the solent.tv website randomly and so many months after it was shut down in such an abrupt and stupid manner is how professional and positive it still looks, with various programmes on there still available to watch and my friends waving nervously in the final news show. What a waste and what an insult to such a dedicated team - I take my hats off to you guys and still feel sick to the pit of my stomach towards the idiots who robbed the IOW of such a fantastic media flagship.
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