90% of radio stations in the red

SURABAYA: Ninety percent of private radio stations are considered unfit to operate as they are unprofitable, a communications expert said on Monday.

Hinca I.P. Pandjaitan, an executive director of the Indonesia Media Policy and Law Center (IMPLC), said these radio stations continued suffering financial losses, thereby forcing their owners to use their private funds to keep them on the air.

Speaking during discussions with the Ministry of Communications and the Association of Indonesian Private Radio Stations (PRRSNI), Hinca said the radio stations were languishing in the red because of unprofessional management and the inability of advertising revenues to cover operating costs.

"Several radio stations, for example, have advertising rates of only between Rp 2,500 (US$0.24) and Rp 3,000 per second, even though ideally the charges should be between Rp 30,000 and Rp 60,000. How could they make profit?," Hinca said as quoted by Antara.

There are currently 779 private radio stations registered with PRRSNI.

Commenting on the statement, PRRSNI's chairman Soetoyo Soekomihardjo said his organization had yet to collect data on its members' operations and admitted that it had never conducted any research on the issue.

"If ninety percent of the private radio stations in Indonesia are said to be unfit to operate, it could well be true. But we've never looked into the issue," Soetoyo remarked. -- Antara