Funding issues and equipment deficiencies have critically hindered the success of the Stanford Cardinal Broadcasting Network (SCBN). With students tuning out and programming lacking, Junior Ly Chheng, station manager, lamented the current state of the station compared to its “golden age” of the 1980s and 1990s.

Chheng explained that the current financial strife experienced by the station ranges from deficient funding for popular programs to a nearly obsolete equipment budget.

“The majority of our money has gone to the movies we show due to copyright issues,” he said. “This is all the ASSU would approve. Our equipment budget is next to nothing. We would need at least $10,000 for equipment alone to bring the station up to the caliber of other college stations. This would be used to buy more in-studio equipment so that students would be able to produce shows, like a more professional news program to help inform students on campus about what’s going on.”

Chheng singled out the budget crisis as the main reason for the station’s declining viewership.

“The ASSU has pointed out the lack of student interest in producing new shows as its reason for not giving the station a large equipment budget,” he said. “This, of course, has led to a vicious cycle in which the station does not receive money for the new equipment, preventing students from producing shows and thus leading us to once again not receive enough money from the ASSU.”

Junior Reena Magsarili, general manager of the station, agreed that the lack of sufficient production equipment is the root of the problem.

“It’s kind of a catch-22 situation,” she said. “If you have a lot of good equipment, you have a lot of good shows and the publicity pretty much follows from that. But in order to get good equipment, you have to demonstrate that there is interest in the station. You’re kind of trapped. So for publicity right now, we’re trying to improve the broadcast quality and programming quality. The knowledge about the station will develop from there.”

Students, however, gave a slightly different reason for the lack of popularity — insufficient publicity.

“It’s not very popular, in part because there’s so little advertising for it,” said junior Gabe Recchia. “The only reason I know they exist is because they gave a presentation once at Freshman Orientation. I don’t have a clue what their lineup is. If I knew, I might tune in.”

Junior Aaron Johnson also noted that students often choose popular programs instead, if they watch television at all.

“I think people are just really busy in general, so if they’re going to watch TV, they’re going to watch their favorite shows,” he said. “A program by students at Stanford isn’t going to be as entertaining as, say, 24.”

Despite financial setbacks, however, SCBN staff remained optimistic about its recent developments.

“One of the best things SCBN has been able to do this year is to introduce an actual programming schedule,” said James Lin, programming manager. “In the past, you never knew what was playing when. Now, every piece of programming is scheduled to a particular time. And since all of our programming airs multiple times, there will always be a convenient time for viewers to catch what they want to watch.”

Lin said that student feedback indicated high approval of the programming.

“I think people have been really receptive to the changes they’ve seen with SCBN over the past month,” he said. “They really like the programming schedule, and they’ve been happy with the variety of programming that has been airing. We are continuing to work on different ideas to make the station better, and we’re definitely listening to the feedback we’ve been getting from viewers.”

Located on Channel 5 on Stanford TV, a free channel, the completely student-run station focuses mostly on showing popular films, television shows and music videos. Viewers can vote on the station’s web site for movie choices and see the programming schedule.

“This year the station has seen amazing growth,” Chheng said. “It is clear to us that the station is growing in popularity with students, and more students are getting excited about it. Everyone at the station has worked hard to help improve our conditions and make due with our resources, but we are all very well aware that there is still a lot of work left to do if we want to bring the station up to the caliber of other colleges.”

The station also airs a roster of student interest shows. It broadcasts material about student activities including Taiko, DV8 and Stanford athletics. It also shows student produced films, like short films by the Stanford Film Society and documentaries made by current students and alumni.

One of SCBN’s major aims this year is to increase the amount of student programming.

“In terms of student-produced shows, we are very receptive to students who want to produce their own shows,” Chheng said. “For the most part, if a show is produced in conjunction with our station, using our equipment, we will broadcast the show.”

SCBN Executive Producer Alana Dong, a sophomore, noted that interest in student-produced programming has recently peaked.

“This year is very exciting for SCBN because there is a good slate of new student shows,” she said. “There is a new show by Shamika Goddard called ‘Skin Deep,’ which is a makeover reality show. Another show that’s in post-production is ‘Lagunita Beach,’ a mock teen-reality-drama. There’s also been talk about a sketch comedy show in the works.”

Other projects in development include Stanford Cribs, modeled on the MTV show and The New Love Links, a Stanford dating game.

The current student-run programs include Cardinal Sports Talk, a show that regularly features athletes on campus. Other student programming includes Stanford Spotlight, which relates news about students, events, and trends on campus. Last spring, the program won the Alumni Association’s Pierce Memorial Award for a creative student-initiated project that serves the campus community. It is Stanford’s first news show in eight years and first ever entertainment news variety show.

Describing why she started producing, Dong also paid homage to the station’s overarching reason for existence: “I thought there were too many cool things and amazing people around campus not to know about them.”