The University of Adelaide has revealed its plan for the future of Radio Adelaide, with Australia’s first community radio station to team up with one of Adelaide’s fastest-growing stations.
Today the University announced it had signed an agreement with youth-oriented broadcaster Fresh 92.7 to help Radio Adelaide reorganise into an independent non-for-profit, and would contribute an undisclosed amount to support the move. The news ends months of uncertainty following a period of community consultation in December and a campaign to ‘save’ the station. Later that month, Vice-Chanceller Warren Bebbington announced the University was in talks with several “organisations with the capacity to take a financial interest in the station”.
Under the new deal, Fresh will take the older station under its wing until a new organisation is registered. As part of the arrangement, the station will continue to provide practical training components for the University’s Bachelor of Media program.
“The media training provided to our Media students and the community will continue, and likely expand,” Bebbington said of the new arrangement.
“The University will provide funds to assist with the transition, but I would hope this leads to a revival of community sponsorship and subscription support for the station,” Bebbington said, echoing previous comments lamenting Radio Adelaide’s smaller subscriber base relative to other community stations.
Radio Adelaide’s soon-to-be-demolished North Terrace home
One of the biggest questions hanging over the station was one of location. With its current home on North Terrace set for demolition, the station community were concerned at the lack of a new home and an ever-shrinking time frame to make the move. Today’s statement confirms the station will, at least temporarily, relocate to Fresh 92.7’s studios in Adelaide’s East End before both move to a new site.
It’s unclear how much of Radio Adelaide’s current facilities and capacity will be retained in the shift, or just how the new roommates will gel. While Fresh 92.7 has been able to court a formidable audience and supporter base with its youth-friendly, largely EDM oriented music programming, Radio Adelaide’s schedule has tended to be much more eclectic, with a mix of ethnically diverse programming, access groups, education and arts coverage.
According to Radio Adelaide manager Deborah Welch in December that diversity, quite central to the station’s current identity, has made it hard to attract huge subscriber numbers like Fresh, with much of its income drawn instead from educational services. “We have an obligation to pursue that educational focus and diverse access for people, and as a result our programming is not maximised for sponsorship income,” she told ripitup.com.au in December. Station management could not be reached for comment at time of publication.
Fresh management however have emphasised that neither station’s programming will be affected by the changes.
There is one caveat however. Any deal does require approval from national broadcasting ACMA before Radio Adelaide’s broadcasting licence, currently held by the University, can be transferred to Fresh 92.7 or a new body.
At any rate, it’s certainly an interesting time for South Australian community broadcasting.
UPDATE: Radio Adelaide has since published the following tweet expressing surprise at the news, described as a ‘takeover’. It certainly raises more questions about how smooth any transition will be, and whether opposition from the station community could affect any ACMA decision. More to follow.
We’re shocked by @fresh927‘s proposed takeover of Radio Adelaide. Proposal is sketchy. The station community will consider and comment ASAP.
— Radio Adelaide (@radioadelaide) February 19, 2016
Note: The author is a University of Adelaide graduate and former Radio Adelaide presenter and volunteer
Related news:
University to shake up Radio Adelaide ownership, community ‘sidelined’
Radio Adelaide fights to secure future
Fresh 92.7 to countdown listener-voted Top 92 this weekend
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