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What is community radio?
A photo of a studio at Radio Adelaide. Image courtesy of Radio Adelaide.
The word 'community' can mean many different things. In terms of community radio, 'community' means people who listen to the same kind of music, who live in the same area, who have the same cultural background or who have the same educational needs.
Community radio offers the listening public access to a more diverse range of music, information, news and views than would otherwise be available from commercial or government-based stations. It also provides communities with locally-produced content that is immediately relevant to their daily lives. It allows individuals and community groups to participate in producing their own programs and to maintain their local culture. It also fulfils an important role in providing basic media training for over 7,000 Australians annually. Community radio encourages participation in all aspects of running a radio station from scheduling and producing programs to administration and fundraising.
Community radio stations are non-profit, which means that any money they make from the service they provide goes back into the station. Community radio stations receive government funding through the Community Broadcasting Foundation, which was established in 1984 as an independent, non-profit funding body for community broadcasting in Australia.
Community radio stations are limited in how they can use advertising or sponsorship to raise funds and all stations must follow a standard Code of Practice. The Code guides all Australian community stations in their operations and helps them maintain a community focus.
Many community stations rely on subscribers to help raise money to pay for their day-to-day expenses. A subscriber is a person or an organisation that donates money toward the station's running costs.
The people who work in community radio stations are mostly volunteers. This means that they don't get paid for what they do. They work in radio for other reasons: because they believe that the information that they present is important; because they want to develop the skills associated with radio production; or just because working in radio is fun.
Different types of community broadcasters are represented by different national peak bodies. The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) represents general community radio and television broadcasters, the National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters' Council (NEMBC) represents ethnic community broadcasters, the Australian Indigenous Communications Association (AICA) represents Indigenous community broadcasters, and RPH Australia represents Radio for the Print Handicapped (RPH) broadcasters.
The history of community radio
Radio has been in Australia since the early twentieth century, but until the 1970s all radio stations were either commercial organisations or run by the Government.
In the 1960s, Australia's social, political and cultural landscape began to change and people wanted the Australian media, in turn, to reflect these changes. Many specialist groups, including ethnic and Indigenous communities, political activists, students, academics and classical music consumers, began to lobby for their own radio broadcasting licences. This community radio movement was an important force in the birth of community radio and remains a vibrant force in the Australian media today.
In the 1970s, the Australian Government made a number of community broadcasting licences available, establishing what it called the 'third tier' of radio. This meant that now there was a third kind of radio station operating in Australia as well as the existing commercial and government-funded stations.
5UV, or Radio Adelaide as it is now known, was Australia's first community station. It was established in 1972 and continues to broadcast today.
Prior to 2005 the issuing of broadcasting licences was the responsibility of the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA), which was established in 1992 to deal with issues associated with radio and television. On 1 July 2005, the ABA and the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) merged to become the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
ACMA regulates the way Australian radio stations behave and decides who qualifies for the various kinds of broadcasting licences. For a radio station to qualify for a community licence it must address a perceived need within the community and it also must be a strictly non-profit organisation. Community radio licences are made available in different areas of Australia, depending on the needs of those areas as determined by ACMA.
The purpose of community radio
CAAMA Radio logo. Image courtesy of the CAAMA Radio.
Community radio stations provide a voice for communities to address issues relevant to their local areas and their lives. The stations also provide training opportunities so that people can learn what is involved in all aspects of radio production.
Most community radio stations define themselves as 'generalist', which means that they play a wide range of music and information programs.
Some community radio stations, however, have a more specialised audience. Indigenous stations such as CAAMA (Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association) Radio in central Australia aim to promote Aboriginal culture and to educate the wider community. Stations like 2000FM in New South Wales present programs in languages other than English.
2XX Community Radio Station, Canberra. Renaldo Portillo from El Salvador presenting the Latin American program. Image courtesy of National Library of Australia: an12942889-71.
There are also community stations that specialise in one type of music. 4MBS in Queensland specialises in classical and jazz music, and Fresh FM in South Australia specialises in electronic music.
Some stations specialise in other areas. Melbourne's JOY FM, for example, is a gay and lesbian station, and RPH Australia (Radio for the Print Handicapped) provides newspaper and magazine reading services for blind people and people with reading difficulties through its network of radio stations throughout Australia.
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Useful links
- CBAA - Community Broadcasting Association of Australia
- NEMBC - National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters' Council
- CBF - Community Broadcasting Foundation
- CBOnline - Community Broadcasting Online
- Australian Communications and Media Authority
- Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy: Community Radio
- AMRAP - Australian Music Radio Airplay Project
History of community radio
Community radio station links
- Links to CBAA member stations
- Triple R FM, Melbourne, Victoria
- ArtSound FM, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
- 2NSB, Sydney, New South Wales
- RTR-FM, Perth, Western Australia
- PBA-FM, Adelaide, South Australia
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Last updated: 11th December 2007
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