Croydon Radio say that they “have made the decision to seek new premises with room for development, rather than continue to invest in our current modest space”, as they prepare to leave Matthew’s Yard, off Surrey Street, the home for their studios for the past four years.

Croydon Radio has been off-air before. No one is saying how long it might be before they resume live programmes

Tracey Rabbetts, the station’s co-founder, has put her name to a lengthy statement posted on the channel’s website, in which she said, “The plan is for the new premises to house us for the next four years and beyond – and give us room to grow and expand into other broadcast and media areas.”

The statement by Rabbetts failed to name where the new premises might be, nor when Croydon Radio’s live programming is expected to resume.

“After four years at Matthew’s Yard, we’ve outgrown our modest space and made the difficult decision to move out and seek a new location for our studio.”

Any suspicion that Rabbetts and Tim Longhurst, the other co-founder, may have felt they deserved some form of preferential treatment over rent levels could be found in this reference to some of the set-up difficulties that Croydon Radio had to endure at the venue: “We’re proud to have been the first tenant and founding partner of Matthew’s Yard, sharing the vision of a community hub, choosing to invest in the venue and commission a custom space; all when it was still rubble and leaking water.”

The statement confirmed that the move had been forced by the rent hike. Rabbetts appeared to indicate that any hoped-for commercial revenue, from advertisers on Croydon Radio, had not materialised to a significant level in the past four years and the station remains solely funded by its founders.

Matthew’s Yard, they wrote, “understandably, needs to recoup some of their costs. Our rent is set to increase in September and as our station is entirely funded by the founders and receives no other support, we have made the decision to seek new premises with room for development, rather than continue to invest in our current modest space”.

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