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In one aspect
Leuven (also known as Louvain) is a major city since
it holds the largest concentration of students in the
land. There are over 20.000 university students here. Apart
from that there is a large population of high school
and technical school students as well of which we have
no exact numbers.
With such a potential of listeners
it's no wonder that the station was the first ever free
radio station to see the light of day in Belgium. But
old age doesn't mean oldfashioned. On the contrary.
In its whole existence Radio Scorpio hasn't aired commercials
once in order to maintain its independency. The only
revenues to keep the station running come from the popular
Radio Scorpio dance parties, one of the reasons why
the station had very little money during the most years
of it's existence. This was no problem, really. The
program makers and contributors are all volunteers and
the studio still got it's regular check up by a technician
(who also was a volunteer).
The downfall
Problems arose when Radio Scorpio was suddenly told
to leave the premises where it had been located all
along. The building was owned by the university, and
they had decided to give it to the cultural organisation
'Stuc'. Problems really started there and then. Scorpio
had no money to tear down and move the huge antenna.
It also didn't have the money to rent a part of a building
elsewhere and many people began to lose heart, after
many years of unpayed service.
The last straw
Finally, a benefit concert was organised by just a handful
of the remaining Scorpio crew (thanks Leen and Gudrun!).
It had to be done in a hurry but fortunately altruistic
bands and artists weren't too hard to find. Our eterrnal
thanks therefore go to CHARLIE DON'T SURF, JAUNE TOUJOURS,
MR. DE BELDER (actor), STUDIO KAFKA, LUC DEVOS, AMBER#2,
TRYPTICH, ZULMA LIVE (literary), FIN D'ESPOIR (performance
by Nix, brt and Foob), DIDI DE PARIS (columnist), THE
BOERENZONEN OP SPEED, DE BOSSEN, BUSCEMI, THE LOWLAND
FOUNDATION, THE RIOT SQUAD, KILLA TACTICS and THE TRANSFORMERS.
A problem arose. The week the posters
were printed and the date became really fixed, the organisers
heard that at the same time a megafestival with some
really big names would take place less than a kilometer
from the Scorpio benefit. Finally, over the whole day
only about 250 people showed up at the benefit. The
bands played their hearts out nonetheless. And their
support was not in vein because the local media showed
up anyway and the cry for help was finally out there.
As a result new volunteers showed up, promising a new
start. They organised new dance parties and took care
of putting the station onto a new road (thanks Eppo
and the new team!).
A fresh start
Since the day the plug was pulled, a few weeks after
the benefit, over two years had passed. Solving technical
problems, raising funds and finding new partners (thanks
LOCO!), as well as a new location and new permissions
proved a daunting task.
But finally the permits were in and
the scorpion rose from it's ashes on februari 18th 2002.
A few years later, the studio relocated once more.
Visit
Scorpio's website
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