News - March 2008

CB Magazine.
Here in the UK, there is no longer a dedicated CB magazine.
The magazine that was available for many years was bought and sold by several companies, with the more recent owners changing it beyond recognition. As the amount of CB content fell, so the name also changed. Eventually it got to the point where CB related content was rare, and Citizens Band was dropped from the name.
The rot really started to set in when the magazine became the plaything of Radio Amateurs, who soon changed the editor to a Radio Amateur rather than a CB enthusiast. It was only a matter of time before they started replacing CB related content with Amateur radio content.

The end of CB magazine.
Over time, the CB content was replaced with anything remotely related to radio or communications - broadcast radio, DAB, TV, military, wartime, radar, air shows Internet... even 'Man Overboard' warning systems.
The latest stage was where the remaining magazine, no longer of interest to many people, was then merged with other magazines to create what we believe is an extremely wide ranging and poorly targeted magazine. It seems like just another Amateur Radio magazine, as if there are not already enough, but watered down to try to boost the market.

Lessons from business.
Unfortunately, no product or business can be all things to all people. Attempts to cover all areas only leads to a lack of identification - and the product ends up as nothing to anyone.
The Radio User magazine now seems to cover just about anything they think will fill a few pages. For many people, this wide range of content means that very little will be of interest to them. At the price, you should expect to get more than one or two pages of interest thrown into a pile of unrelated content and adverts.
Come on, how many CB users have interest in those topics (and more), or enough interest in CB to wade through over 80 pages of unrelated topics and adverts in the hope that this issue will have a couple of pages of CB content?
One year subscription could buy you a decent book on the subject, possibly more. In fact, it could nearly buy you a new radio.

CB is Citizens Band.
CB is simply a way for members of the public to communicate. It is not Amateur, broadcast, military, flying, sailing or world-war related.
Is it just me who fails to see why CB should be lumped in with such topics? Am I missing something, like can general average citizens use all those other bands and services... are these all citizens' bands for the public to chat on? Or maybe, just because someone likes to chat, it will mean that they will have interest in all these topics - even if they cannot legally use them.

Bring back a true citizens' magazine.
We believe that it is time to bring back the magazine dedicated to communications between normal, average citizens. The type of communications that we, the public, can use without exams, special licences or even going to war.
It is unlikely that there would be enough news and topics to cover CB alone, but it is surely possible to cover a better range of topics - topics more related to the basic concept of CB, public communications.