South Australian regional community radio station 5TCB closed down last Friday after 25 years of operation. The station, located in Bordertown close to the Victorian border, fell victim to overstretching itself without the population or revenue base to support it.
Recently elected Chairman Barrie Hayman has told radioinfo it was a sad day when the station turned off its transmitter: “Former chair Beryl Watson was the last on air, then we turned it off. ”
Hayman, who was previously a successful chairperson at Victorian community station 3RPC, stepped into the role of 5TCB Chairman just three weeks ago after a board spill with the hope of helping the station get over its difficulties, only to find it was too late. The results of an audit revealed the station was likely to be trading while insolvent, and, after legal advice, the board decided the station needed to close.
The rot set in some years before, as revealed in station licencing documents filed with ACMA.
After a phase of expansion, which included the installation of multi-media production studios, expansion of staff, and additional FM transmitters around the region, the former general manager Geoff Williams alluded to the coming financial crunch in previous AGM minutes attached to the 2007 annual report:
“It is now time to be realistic. We have no national advertising like the commercial stations. We have a disproportionately small market for our community establishment. We have no university or ethnic group as a supporting body like many commercial stations.”
The documents also show that the station’s 2006 financial results were unaudited and that the treasurer was absent from the meeting. The report notes: “Auditors Murray Nankivell & Associates have not yet completed the audit.”
Barrie Hayman blames previous boards for not taking enough notice of the financials of the association.
In 2007 a previous board finally twigged that costs were too high and that bills were not being paid on time. They approached the council for a bailout, which agreed to forgo its share of rental on the partly-owned council property. A deal was struck and the board hired new staff, thinking that they could trade out of their difficulties.
They couldn’t. Costs were still too high for revenue earned.
Hayman expects debts to be between $200,000 to $400,000 after the administrators wind up their activities. He expects the assets of the station will have to be sold to pay debt unless some kind of rich benefactor turns up out of the blue.
Now that the station has closed down, ACMA can take back the licence after 14 days of being off air.
If that happens there are two options: the region will be without a community radio station, or another aspirant group can request to use the frequency, most likely initially as a TCBL (temporary community broadcast licence).
Hayman has told radioinfo that at a town hall meeting during this week there was enough interest from townspeople to form another group that may request to use the licence. If ACMA accepts a submission from a new group, and that group can somehow acquire the assets of the former station, the region may yet hear community radio on air again.
Members of the recently elected new 5TBC board will not be eligible to stand for office as they will have been involved with a bankrupt entity.
Meanwhile, ACMA is seeking comment on new draft guidelines for TCBLs. Once finalised, the draft guidelines will replace the current Guide to the Allocation of Temporary Community Broadcasting Licences (Radio) published in December 2007.
Proposed changes to the current guidelines include a new section on varying temporary community broadcasting licences; and the removal of the formula for apportioning broadcast time between two or more temporary community broadcasting licence holders sharing a frequency in the same licence area.
Details of the new TCBL guidelines are at www.acma.gov.au/webwr/_assets/main/lib310667/draft_tcbl_guidelines.pdf.
radioinfo will keep following this story and give regular updates as new developments emerge.