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Radio Hampshire off the air for good (From Daily Echo)
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Southampton's Radio Hampshire ceases broadcasting
10:10am Friday 29th May 2009 in News
By Dan Kerins, Digital Editor
Jimmy Case and Will Cope, who commentated on Saints games for Radio Hampshire
SOUTHAMPTON based Radio Hampshire went off the air permanently yesterday – to the surprise of both staff and listeners.
Staff at the station which broadcasts from St Mary’s Stadium were told the company had been shut down and would cease broadcasting immediately.
They were told in the late morning and by the afternoon the station was completely off the air.
The Daily Echo attempted to contact the studio, but the telephone number appeared to have been disconnected and director Jason Bryant was unavailable for comment.
Eyewitnesses reported people removing equipment from the station’s studio in Britannia Road, which are leased from the football club.
The station – formerly known as The Saint and SouthCity FM – had been organising the Heroes 2009 awards, which celebrated the efforts of ordinary people to improve their communities.
Now sponsors have been left wondering what has happened to the money, believed to be in thregion of £14,000.
The Daily Echo understands that the awards will no longer take place on June 9 as planned.
One sponsor, who did not wish to be named, said: “I know staff there had no idea that this was coming and neither did we. It’s been a huge shock to everyone.”
An insider told the Daily Echo that the station had been placed into administration with debts of £70,000. Staff had offered to work for free if a buyer could be found to run it as a going concern but the offer was turned down, it is thought.
The closure also raises question marks over the commentary of Saints games, as Radio Hampshire provided Southampton FC with online commentary of matches via the Saints TV website.
According to the latest Rajar figures from March, Radio Hampshire had a 1.3 per cent share of the local radio audience.
The station was formed after Saints bought SouthCity FM for £1m in 2004 and merged it with their in-house radio station The Saint, which at the time broadcast on Sky TV and DAB digital radio.
From then it was known as The Saint and was on the 107.8FM frequency and DAB across South Hampshire, however it struggled to make a profit and Saints’ relegation from the Premier League resulted in the club needing to save money where possible.
As a result, in July 2007 it was bought by Town & Country Broadcasting for about £100,000 and renamed Radio Hampshire, in an attempt to move it away from a being a football focused broadcaster.
It de-merged from Town & Country and bought Winchester’s Dream 107.2 in November last year and began broadcasting on that frequency too, until yesterday’s closure.
Comments(25)
Condor Man
says...
2:46pm Thu 28 May 09
Ciaran
says...
2:50pm Thu 28 May 09
Georgem wrote:I'm going to assume you're being faecitious rather than not understanding how radio works.
The station is still broadcasting music, although it is not known if this is an automatic recording or not
What's the alternative? That the bands are actually in the studio? That there are tiny musicians living in your radio?
Georgem
says...
2:55pm Thu 28 May 09
Ciaran wrote:Probably a good idea
Georgem wrote:I'm going to assume you're being faecitious rather than not understanding how radio works.
The station is still broadcasting music, although it is not known if this is an automatic recording or not
What's the alternative? That the bands are actually in the studio? That there are tiny musicians living in your radio?
Ciaran
says...
2:57pm Thu 28 May 09
Georgem wrote:Good. I don't want to have to explain how people are shrunk down to fit in your car radio.
Ciaran wrote:Probably a good idea
Georgem wrote:I'm going to assume you're being faecitious rather than not understanding how radio works.
The station is still broadcasting music, although it is not known if this is an automatic recording or not
What's the alternative? That the bands are actually in the studio? That there are tiny musicians living in your radio?
It might take a while.
bumblysaint
says...
3:00pm Thu 28 May 09
Dave.My problem with
Solent is, the match
can be going on, and
they're giving scores
of games that don't
interest you,talking up competitions etc,
and it sometimes seem you're missing
loads of play. Most
people just want the
action reported as it
happens.Saints are the team I want to hear about not Bashley,Waterloovill
e
or Man U,Liverpool, etc,I bet local radio
in Manchester,Liverpool
,
reports on our games.
Not.
Ocean Village resident
says...
3:02pm Thu 28 May 09
Georgem
says...
3:26pm Thu 28 May 09
Ciaran wrote:It's a lot like Wonkavision, I expect
Georgem wrote:Good. I don't want to have to explain how people are shrunk down to fit in your car radio.
Ciaran wrote:Probably a good idea
Georgem wrote:I'm going to assume you're being faecitious rather than not understanding how radio works.
The station is still broadcasting music, although it is not known if this is an automatic recording or not
What's the alternative? That the bands are actually in the studio? That there are tiny musicians living in your radio?
It might take a while.
richard sennatt no2
says...
3:37pm Thu 28 May 09
allsaintsnocurves
says...
3:44pm Thu 28 May 09
richard sennatt no2 wrote:Why is it all over when a radio station not owned by Saints goes out of business? They only broadcast from the stadium and used the facilities.
the club has gone to pot ,next the stadium then the car park ,maybe the pitch to wembley .this is totally outrageous its all over now
Rudd Gillett
says...
4:23pm Thu 28 May 09
geronimo
says...
4:42pm Thu 28 May 09
Happier days up in scouse land Jim.
Solent Lass
says...
5:09pm Thu 28 May 09
Le Tissier's Nose
says...
5:46pm Thu 28 May 09
Hmmmm....
Markmag
says...
6:56pm Thu 28 May 09
Rudd Gillett wrote:Shame they're all called Heart as of next month.
One Radio Station in Hampshire! The trouble is there are about 35 of them!
Radio Hampshire, a.k.a Dream, Win, Saint, Southcity and probably a few others I've forgotten, never set the world alight in any of its incarnations. But at least it was local. And didn't think broadcasting Toby Anstis and Jason Donovan from London is what people want to hear on their local radio station.
gorf
says...
8:03pm Thu 28 May 09
could have done with more up2date music though!
Well....suppose they can take all their old tapes and records back to where they got them from......oxfam!
S Pance
says...
8:49pm Thu 28 May 09
It's a pity that they couldn't raise sufficient advertising revenue to stay on air. Having said that, most of their listeners were sainst fans by virtue of their history.
With a rapid decline in saints fans it's only reasonable to assume their was a correspondingly rapid decline in listeners to the station.
When the latest RAJARs are published we'll know for sure but it seems saints decline is what ultimately brought them down.
Rockhopper
says...
10:54pm Thu 28 May 09
Stoker
says...
11:31pm Thu 28 May 09
Bassett Boy
says...
9:21am Fri 29 May 09
I think you'll find that we'll be relegated to the A.M. frequency for our matches, like Bourenmouth did when they were in the 1st Div, & if they get a buy-out we could very soon be the very poorest relations on the South Coast. Brighton having got an investor willing to put in £80m+. Skates having a billionaire new owner.....and we can't even attract a serious buyer for the whole club at less than the price of one resonably decent Premiership player.
I really don't think we realise how deep the sh!t is that we are in.....?
Boring but possibly prophetic: security word "sale-fast" I Wish!
saintpeter48
says...
10:55am Fri 29 May 09
memush
says...
7:21pm Fri 29 May 09
The Mad Dog
says...
10:24pm Fri 29 May 09
(Mark Dennis is a top bloke by the way)
marke1
says...
10:41pm Fri 29 May 09
Laughing
says...
11:18pm Mon 1 Jun 09
Georgem says...
2:38pm Thu 28 May 09
What's the alternative? That the bands are actually in the studio? That there are tiny musicians living in your radio?