Background

Australia boasts one of the most long-standing and vibrant community broadcasting sectors in the world, emerging from grass-roots action in the early 1970s to become an important and distinctive part of the Australian media landscape. Community broadcasting plays a vital role as a unique sector operating together with commercial and public broadcasters such as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).

Legislated under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, and guided by the Codes of Practice, community broadcast stations are operated as independent not-for-profit organisations which actively encourage access and participation by members of their communities in all aspects of broadcast operations; emphasise the provision of access to groups that are inadequately served by mainstream media; enhance the diversity of programming choices and viewpoints available to their audiences; and support and develop local and Australian arts, music and culture.

The community broadcasting sector has experienced rapid growth since its inception in the early 1970s and in 2008 consists of 353 licensed community radio stations including the Remote Indigenous Services (RIBS), as well as 50 aspirant groups holding temporary radio licences. The majority of radio stations are general in nature, catering to the diverse needs and specialist interest groups present in local communities. Other stations have been established to cater to the needs of specific interest groups: there are 34 religious, 19 Indigenous, 15 Radio for the Print Handicapped (RPH), 7 ethnic, 8 youth, 5 seniors/mature age and 4 fine music stations. There are also a small number of stations representing gay and lesbian, specialist music, and arts communities. The sector also extends to television with five community television stations and 78 RIBS television licensees.

Community radio stations operate in towns and cities across Australia with the largest proportion located in regional areas (41%), a further 26% in rural areas and 33% across metropolitan and suburban locations (CBD 2007).