College media set to evolve after closure: university stations face financial troubles after SBN, which backed them, suffers losses of 4.5m [pounds sterling].(Media)

Well-rested students will begin to head back to their universities over the coming month, but will find that college radio has not had fun over the summer holiday.

Student Broadcast Network, the Campus Media-owned company, which struggled for years to turn student radio into a viable commercial medium, went into liquidation last month. A first creditors' meeting took place last Thursday and the station has wound down its programming in favour of a temporary stream of back-to-back music.

The record companies and pluggers who feed music into student radio stations say the loss of the service is a disaster. Although it did not control the stations itself, SBN provided student broadcasters with content, advertising revenue and financial support, and was recognised to have genuine promotional value for music.

A recent tie-up with Emap Radio's salesforce failed to reap the expected return and cast doubt on the power of student radio as an ad channel; Campus Media says SBN's cumulative losses stood at 4.5m [pounds sterling] at the end of last mouth.

In its efforts to turn student radio into a commercial medium, SBN built a reputation for generosity but also helped to boost the fortunes of the UK's student radio sector. "Some of these stations are fantastic--they have amazing setups, weekly meetings and heads of music and it's all very democratic," says EMI college and sales promotion manager Dolly Clew.

SBN's subscriber stations will almost certainly carry on broadcasting; indeed, many have their own relationships with the plugging community, but all will miss SBN's patronage.

"SBN subsidised a lot of the stations, so they are not going to have that financial backing, or else they are going to have to find it from somewhere else," says Caroline Moore, Hart Media's head of promotions.