Student radio faces cash crisis

Southampton University's station will look for new financial backing

Up to 50 student radio stations in the UK are facing uncertainty after learning their main programme provider is to go into liquidation.

Parent company Campus Media plc ceased funding the Student Broadcast Network (SBN) last month and liquidation proceedings for SBN have commenced.

"Student stations are looking over a big precipice," said Student Radio Association secretary Matt Treacy.

"About 80% of the stations we represent relied solely on SBN," he added.

SBN provided programmes and advertising for student stations around the UK. It also broadcast as a stand-alone station on digital radio in London and Essex.

Union help

The company is still broadcasting an automated music and news service, although it is unclear how long this will continue.

Mr Treacy, who is also the manager at Southampton University's Surge radio station, said lots of student stations would be speaking to their student unions to see if they could meet their costs.

SBN was available on digital radio in parts of the south-east

Student Radio Association chair Talia Kraines said she encouraged this approach.

"The SRA would like to see some student stations talking to their unions to turn a bad situation into a good situation by becoming free from external powers," she told BBC News Online.

Question mark

"We will be here to support student stations if they need us," she added.

Nathan Whitaker, manager at the University of Surrey station GU2 in Guildford, said the news had come as a surprise.

"It came as a bit of a shock but we were always quite concerned about a company that was offering this much money and such a good service - it sounded too good to be true."

Mr Whitaker said they may take up a service offered by a new company called SH Media which should begin in October or November.

"But we are going to try and go it alone for the first term by finding sponsors and doing our own local advertising. It takes a lot of time to pursue though."

Possible shortfall

Mr Treacy also confirmed that some other companies had offered to step in and replace SBN.

"These sustainer services could provide music and news but most of them won't provide the same kind of regular income as SBN," he said.

Mr Treacy said Surge's entire income year had come from SBN, as was the case with about 80% of the 50 student stations who had contracts with the company.

Campus Media said in a statement earlier this month that SBN's accumulated losses amounted to £4.5m in its latest audited accounts from July 2003.

"Over £500,000 of these losses resulted from direct payments to university radio stations over the last four years to assist the development of their radio services," the statement read.

Ms Kraines said the SRA would be looking to continue compiling a student radio chart as it "recognised the importance of student radio in the growth of new music throughout the UK".

There are about 80 student radio stations in total in the UK.