The South Australian Community Broadcasting Association’s Active Radio Network is still running despite SACBA’s decision to cease funding it two years ago. At the SACBA conference this weekend, Kym Green explained how the selling arm of the SA community broadcasters group has been able to become self funding and still remain successful in leveraging advertising agency money into community stations as sponsorship.

Green decided to continue running the Active Radio Network through his own consultancy company after the funding dried up, because he believed in the concept and thought the enterprise could become self funding, as it has.

South Australian stations, which are leading the way in this type of collective sponsorship marketing, were invited to sign up with the representative group, and most have.

$156,2000 in revenue flowed to those stations in the past year through the selling group, which now runs out of Green House Media. 59% of revenue flowed to regional markets, while 41% went to metro community stations.

Green told delegates 54% of that figure was government money, and 68% was booked through agencies. He is expecting major campaigns for drink driving and speed to be placed on SA community stations as a result of his work raising awareness of community stations as a way to reach new audiences.

“They buy us because we are easy to buy through the Active Radio Network,” he told delegates.

“The CBAA survey has been an excellent tool for South Australian community broadcasters to take their message to buyers, because the first thing advertisers ask is ‘how many listeners have you got.’

“We are being taken seriously by advertisers and clients because we are getting results. We don’t beg them to sponsor us, we just ask them to let us know what campaigns are coming along so that we have the opportunity to pitch for a share of them.”