Croydon Radio’s “live programming” is set to go off-air for the second time in six months.
Station founder Tim Longhurst (pink shirt) at the controls for an early Croydon Radio show. They are looking for new studios for a second time in six months
The community-run digital station was forced out of its original studios off Surrey Street by a 150 per cent hike in rents by landlords Matthew’s Yard last year.
More recently, they have been using premises at Airport House on the Purley Way, but that temporary arrangement finishes at the end of this month.
Long-term plans to move to a new studio, in South End, have fallen through, leaving the station’s managers scrabbling around looking for alternative accommodation with barely three weeks’ notice.
Tim Longhurst and Tracey Rabbetts, who founded the station in 2012, today published an appeal for a new home.
“Airport House has been a great temporary location for us whilst we made preparations for moving to new, High Street premises,” they wrote on the station’s website.
“We had planned to occupy a former shop space in South End for the next five years which we hoped would give us the necessary room to create two studios, an office and training facilities for our volunteers.
“Sadly, our plans for this new location have not come to fruition and at the end of February, we will find ourselves without a home.
“We are now resuming the search for accommodation and are again seeking a venue that we hope can house our studio and 80 volunteers.” Though presumably, not all the volunteers at the same time…
“Croydon Radio will pause live shows from the end of February whilst we seek a new base in Croydon that meets our particular needs. We will resume live shows again when we are confident of having found a base that can house us for the coming years.”
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