Should VUWSA cease to fund the Victoria Broadcasting Club (the current student radio station) from 2014?
What is the VBC?
The VBC, or the Victoria Broadcasting Club, is Victoria University’s very own student radio station. Tucked away in the Student Union Building, behind The Hunter Lounge and right next door to Salient, the VBC has been in operation since it was first established in 2007.
If you are lucky enough to live within the area that the VBC broadcasts to (pretty much just Kelburn, but sometimes Newtown if you’re lucky), you can tune in on 88.3FM—otherwise head to tunein.com/radio/VBC-883-s87209/ to stream online. Check out page 47 for the VBC show roster, plus details on how to get your very own radio show.
Who pays for it?
You do! Every year, when you pay the University exorbitant amounts of money (read: get StudyLink to pay for you), part of your fees is the Student Services Levy. This charge, which cost you $676 this year, is used by the University to fund things that make your time here (outside of lectures) better. Things like Student Health Services, the Rec Centre, Salient, and—you guessed it—the VBC. Every year, VUWSA negotiates with the University as to how much of this Levy will go towards funding student media; in 2013 the student-media grant was $160,000. $130,000
went towards producing Salient; the rest was used to operate the VBC. This money pays for a part-time Station Manager, who is responsible for training new hosts and managing the show roster, and the station’s broadcasting fees.
What happens if we all vote to cease funding?
Under the VUWSA Constitution, the VUWSA Exec cannot be bound by a referendum that requires them to make financial decisions.
However, if an overwhelming majority of members vote in favour of cutting off funding to the VBC in this referendum, it would be savvy for VUWSA to at least investigate the issue—y’know, for the purposes of democracy and all that jazz.
It is possible that the VBC could be run much more economically—put volunteer students in charge instead of a paid manager; cut the radio broadcasting and only stream the station online. However, without these broadcasting facilities, the VBC’s scope to grow is somewhat limited—its online stream only supports 250 individual connections at any one time. This may not be that great an issue, though—after all, the highest number of listeners the VBC has attracted at one time within the last year is a mere 33.
If you’ve ever been into the VBC, you’ll understand that the radio station is in a bit of a sad state: equipment is old or broken; the radio won’t stream on the University’s internet; a part-time Station Manager doesn’t have sufficient resources to fully train all new staff, and no one buys advertising time. Without a dedicated group of students who derive pleasure from broadcasting their own voice to ~0 listeners (results may vary), there would be absolutely nothing—and no one—to keep the radio station existing at all.
Aside from the Station Manager, there is no one within the University who takes responsibility for the VBC. The University defers to VUWSA, who—until recently—has deferred to the VBC Trust. The Trust, which once ‘owned’ the VBC, was found earlier this year to have been deregistered; has more liabilities than assets to its name (shhh, don’t tell the IRD), and is notoriously difficult to get in touch with.
The reluctance of anyone to take responsibility for the management, or not, as the case may be, of the VBC cannot go unconsidered in looking at the success, or failure, of the student radio station’s ability to serve students. Without any committees or formal settings for the performance of the station to be discussed, it has flailed and wasted time and money it could have used adapting how it engaged with students. However, with the changes to the Publications Committee made at VUWSA’s AGM where this referendum motion was born, the VUWSA Executive can now theoretically delegate any forms of student media—whether it be radio, or a Tumblr of gifs—to fall under the control of the Committee. It is hoped that this will lead to a more collaborative strategic approach to student media as a whole, if both the VBC and Salient are addressed in the same meetings. Ultimately, any decision on the VBC’s future lies at the discretion of the Executive.
Within VUWSA, feelings towards the VBC are mixed. At the beginning of the year, President Rory McCourt toyed with the idea of canning the station completely, or seeking to hand the contract to operate the station over to someone else. Due to more pressing issues taking priority, however, neither of these avenues were investigated this year. Looking ahead to 2014, it seems that (if elected), VUWSA Vice-President (Academic) and presidential candidate Sonya Clark would more likely be pro-VBC than her predecessor, having been a host of the Breakfast Show in 2011. Her commitment to fixing VUWSA’s dire financial situation may affect this loyalty, however.
In terms of what this means for where your money’s going, the contracts for the services VUWSA provides are re-negotiated with the University every year, and it is unclear exactly how and when this process takes place, and whether the same funding will be allocated year after year. If VUWSA were to cease funding the VBC, this could mean that that money could be redirected to other media projects, such as Salient, or that the contract would simply be reduced in value to reflect the VBC’s absence.
What is everyone else doing?
Looking to other student radio stations around the country, the VBC certainly sticks out as the poor cousin. Earlier this year, Radio Control, Massey University’s student radio station, received $60,000 in funding from the NZ On Air scheme, while Otago University’s Radio One received $45,000 from their students’ association as a birthday present. In Auckland, the hugely popular bfm, born from a University of Auckland capping stunt, is New Zealand’s longest-standing independent radio station.
Given the current state of the VBC, and the fact that it has never really ‘taken off’ like its counterparts, perhaps it is high time VUWSA cut its ties with the VBC, and began to focus time and resources on other avenues of student media—such as TV and web—instead. On the other hand, perhaps focussing solely on the commercial viability and success of the radio station is a focus on the wrong thing. If a radio show takes place and nobody hears it, does it mean it was of no value to the students who broadcast it? After all, without the pressure of having to impress scores of listeners, the VBC is the perfect place to gain technical broadcasting skills; perfect your DJ set, or just something to feel a part of outside the daily grind of going to and from your lectures.