No merger for 2RPH

2RPH has rejected a takeover attempt by the national vision impaired broadcaster, Vision Australia. Chairperson Nic Svenson says the membership was concerned about the continued independence of the station if it was  taken over by the Victorian based organization. Vision Australia Network Manager Peter Butler has told radioinfo he does not believe that would be the case.

 

“2RPH would not lose its autonomy if we merged with them… a station needs to be local and localness is even more important for a community station to survive. Sydney radio is for Sydney people… not Melbourne people. How many examples have seen of commercial operators failing because they fell for the old relay into Melbourne or Melbourne into Sydney trick.”

 

An extraordinary general meeting of 2RPH last week confirmed that the station was not interested in a merger, and a number of board members resigned over the issue. Nic Svenson was elected Chairperson at the meeting. She told the Alternative Media Group’s magazine: “The [board] were afraid they would lose autonomy of a radio station they’d built up themselves.”

 

“We’re set up to serve the print handicapped, now that’s the blind and vision impaired, sure, but its also folks who can’t handle printed material, folks who’ve lost their arms, or people who can’t hold their head still, and people who can’t understand printed material, folks who come from a non-English speaking background… I think its something like a quarter of Australians have trouble reading the printed word,” she said.

 

Butler has told radioinfo he pointed out that the station needed help in production and it’s the production values that needed work to bring the station up to date in its delivery. “Nicci Lindemann, the manager, is understaffed and we can provide assistance in that area. We have a production manager who can help with station imaging, commercial and promo production. We have a full time broadcast engineer who has already been assisting Nicci with technical issues… We don’t believe 2RPH has the capacity to deliver adequate services into Newcastle and Wollongong…”

 

 

Vision Australia regards the Sydney target audience as the same as what they do in Melbourne: providing a reading service for the print disability community and also picking up an extra audience of the ‘eyes busy’ community. People like taxi drivers, truck drivers, couriers, sales reps and housewives who want the paper read to them as they don’t have the time to do it themselves.

 

“Based on our experience, we also feel that Sydney could improve its weekly audience size. If we have a weekly cume of 148,000 in Melbourne and they have 96,000 weekly cume in Sydney, I think there is room for audience growth for Sydney and we can help them in that area. Bigger audiences means better negotiation values with advertisers. More advertisers means more revenue which means better facilities in the station and secure financial resources to continue the service.

“That’s the exact reason why 5RPH Adelaide recently merged with us and we are enjoying a great working relationship with them,” says Butler.

 

Vision Australia is a large organisation with just over 700 employees around Australia. Its size is an important factor in being able to offer help to 2RPH.

“We have offices in Enfield, Newcastle and Wollongong, so those facilities would be there to help make their job easier. At a time when stations are combining under one corporate roof we can offer 2RPH a safe, financially secure place to continue broadcasting well into the future…not just for the next few years,” says Butler, who hopes that the station will one day feel more comfortable about working with the larger organisation.

 

2RPH can be heard in Sydney on 1224 AM Sydney East on 100.5 FM Newcastle/Lower Hunter on 100.5 FM on 2RPH Digital and Live Streaming via the Internet.