'Community Radio Services Will Go Off Air' If Funding Is Not Restored

Australian community radio stations are in serious jeopardy of being shut down altogether if funding is not restored following this month's Federal Budget cuts, Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) CEO Jon Bisset says. 

It was recently announced that community radio funding will be cut by $1.4 million from 1 July (from $3.68 million in 2015/16), despite garnering five million listeners across 450 stations across the country each week.

Speaking to theMusic today, Bisset said, "Essentially what we’re asking the government to do…is to continue funding at that current level of $3.68 million per year in an ongoing way".

Bisset claims that Australian community radio will experience a "significant cut" if its funding takes such a hit. 

"It will limit the number of stations we can have on air," he says.

"At the moment, there’s 37 community radio stations on digital in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane and we will have to reduce those services. We can’t reduce individual services…you can only switch entire cities off because of the way the infrastructure works.

"We would have to make some decisions about essentially switching cities off which is particularly concerning given the planned reforms from media ownership at the moment, which are likely to result in a much less diverse media landscape and less opportunities for community voices to be heard."

A petition has since launched calling for community support on the issue and has so far garnered over 26,000 signatures with a target of 30,000.

Bisset and the CBAA are calling on the government to address the issue or some "very tough decisions" will have to be made on their part. 

"We’re going to need to start talking about where we make those cuts [if funding isn't restored]," Bisset says.

"It’s not as easy as cutting back, it will mean services go off air."

The campaign can be found here, on Facebook, Twitter and across the internet via #keepcommunityradio.