After a meeting with the administrators on Friday morning World Audio/Radio Two CEO Andrew Thompson called remaining staff together at 2.30pm to inform them that they were all out of work.
He said that some funding had been secured to enable Radio Two to continue as a virtual “jukebox”.
The playout, though, would not be coming from the Homebush centre but from an unnamed location (believed to be Satellite Music Australia, which is one of the companies owed money by World Audio).
Staff were told their entitlements would be covered by the Government’s General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme (GEERS) but they will have to come to work next week up until Friday April 7 to be eligible.
Thompson blamed the same government for the failure of Radio Two by not allocating them a digital radio licence even though they had been involved in the Melbourne digital tests.
Mikey Robins and Ian Rogerson have agreed to present their final breakfast show live on Monday 7 – 10am to be able to officially say goodbye (hear an audio grab of the last shift below). Program feed will then become fully automated.
The company has so far spent about $14.5 million of investors funds in building its business. Shares were first issued at 20 cents, and when suspended from trading two weeks ago traded at 2 cents per share.
In the final pages of the company’s 30 June 2005 financial statement, the auditors said:
“Attention is drawn to the following matters… the company is in a start up phase and as such… does not yet have established levels of revenue sufficient to cover operating costs. While the company currently has adequate funding to meet its obligations, in the absence of increased revenue the company may be dependant on negotiating further funding within the next year to provide sufficient funds until operations are cash positive.
“Accordingly, as a result of the matters noted above, there is inherent uncertainty whether WorldAudio Limited will be able to continue as a going concern for the next year…”
For audio of one of the last segments of the Radio 2 Breakfast show click below (3Mb wav).