Nine Melbourne community digital radio services will face an uncertain future if the Federal Government fails to reverse a funding shortfall for community broadcasters in the upcoming budget.

The affected Melbourne stations today confirmed that without Communications Minster Stephen Conroy committing
adequate funds to the Digital Radio Project, they will be at risk of not having a digital service in the future.

Community digital radio services were launched nationally in 2011 and there are currently 37 metro-wide digital radio services in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

However, Federal Government funding cuts in the last budget have resulted in a $1.4 million shortfall which, unless reversed in the upcoming May budget, will see many digital stations axed.

Triple R, which has 14,000 subscribers and 329,000 listeners each week, and Light Melbourne which has 364,000 listeners to its FM service weekly and 158,000 listeners to its digital channel per month, are just two of the stations that could lose their digital service.

Triple R Station Manager Dave Houchin said community stations are entitled to affordable access to digital radio alongside the national and commercial broadcasting sectors.

“Community radio plays an extremely important role across the country, and Melbourne is no exception. There are nine digital radio services here that have become an engrained part of the city’s culture and we can’t afford to lose them, Mr Houchin said.

General Manager of SYN Media, Tahlia Azaria, says digital radio has so far enabled the station to expand on the training and broadcast opportunities it provides young people each year and loss of the digital service would be a backwards step.

“Before digital radio we worked with 1000 young people each year, and the past 18 months has been spent generating over $100,000 in funding to get our studios ready for digital broadcasting so we can work with even more. Minister Conroy must commit to funding the shortfall in the next budget or community digital radio services will start disappearing, and all the work we did and the new studios we now have will have been for nothing,” Ms Azaria said.

Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) President and General Manager of PBS Adrian Basso said the Government’s funding shortfall for community digital services would be disastrous for media diversity, specialist programming and local and Australian content.

“Community radio provides a voice to such a broad range of people and interests in our communities that are not always represented by mainstream media outlets. It will be a sad day if digital radio loses the diversity and unique services that community radio brings to the media landscape,” Mr Basso said.

For more information on digital radio and to join the Commit to Community Radio campaign go to
www.committocommunityradio.org.au