Dargaville's community radio station Big River FM is still struggling to keep its head above the water financially.

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Dargaville's community radio station Big River FM is still struggling
to keep its head above the water financially.

A special meeting of the Northern Wairoa Community Radio Trust, which
oversees the running of the station and interested members of the
community, was held on Tuesday, January 22, to hammer out a plan to
get the station back on its feet and make it a viable business.

The meeting heard that recently, the cash-strapped station has not
been able to pay a manager and that its news link had been
discontinued. However the Dargaville and Districts News understands
that since the meeting, it was found that the news link was lost
because of technical problems and not the lack of revenue.

After the meeting, outgoing chairman, John Carter, told the Dargaville
and Districts News that the station had maxed out its overdraft of
$10,000 and it still had outstanding debtor revenue owing to it of
$8000.

He told the gathering he had agreed to be in the chair for six months
and he would not be continuing in that role after the meeting.

However, among the gathering of about 60 people, many believed the
station was salvageable and could thrive given the right 'mix' of
people and talents to make it happen.

Businessman John McDonald, who has also offered his services free for
a month, presented revenue generating ideas including, increasing the
station's advertising income, going for sponsorship, community groups
paying $20 to run their events on the radio, and co-ordinating large
fundraising events. Another idea mooted was to hire out the station's
sound proof room to bands in which to produce their music.

Advertising sales manager Mike Collins told the group sales revenue
for October and November was better than it had been. However, he says
getting over the public's perception about the station was difficult.

"There are a lot of businesses in town that see the station as a
charity," he says.

Mr Collins also says businesses saw the advertising they were buying
as donations to the station, rather than a business proposition.

He says there were also workload issues between sales and production
work, for one sales person to handle.

Bill Hilliam, former owner of what is now Farmlands rural supply
store, says the new owners of the business had not been approached to
advertise with the station.

"That's three months of advertising lost. That's why you have no
money," he told the gathering.

Another member stood up and said the intercom unit outside the radio
station door had not been working for some time and when he called in
to pay his membership fee, he was unable to attract anyone's attention
to come to the station door.

Board member Jack McKerchar says the station has a cash flow issue
that could be rectified with good ideas and the production work to be
separated from the sales, so the sales person could get out on the
road more.

He says the quickest way to meet the immediate shortfall was
attracting debentures to use as working capital until Mr McDonald's
ideas came to fruition.

"The station cannot afford to pay a manager right now but with a
little more effort, it will come out of this and go on to last
forever," Mr McKerchar says.

He says the board needs to assume more of a management role until it
could pay someone to be accountable.

Mr Carter says a debenture system where people make contributions to
be paid back once the station becomes financially stable, was
something to definitely consider. He says an amount of $5000 was
needed immediately to cover wages.

Three members, two from the board and one interested business person
put up $2500 at the meeting.

Three new people were elected to the board, Mitch King, Des Fatt and
Ngawini Hall, to fill three resignations. Mrs Hall has since been
elected as the new chairperson