Diverse
Community radio is a key protector of media diversity and creativity, produced by people across the broadest spectrum of Australian communities – if you can think of it, it’s likely you can find it somewhere on Australian community radio.
Community radio stations offer an enormous range of music genres and styles. While the popular, rock/pop, easy listening and country genres are well covered, stations also produce a broad range of specialist music programs: blues, nostalgia, hip hop/electronica, world, classical, folk, ethnic, metal, avante-garde, stage and screen, big band, surf punk, emo, industrial, goth-a-billy, trance music and many others.
The sector is Australia’s largest language laboratory, broadcasting in over 100 different languages that provide community connection and support for Indigenous, migrant and refugee communities, supporting cultural and linguistic diversity. More than 2,349 hours of ethnic programs and 1,411 hours of Indigenous programs are produced by the sector every week (CBD 2007).
The Indigenous community radio network encompasses 19 full-time and 12 aspirant stations. In addition to these full-time Indigenous services, 46% of all stations include Indigenous programs as part of their regular schedules (CBD 2007).
The sector provides information and entertainment services for people who are vision impaired or unable to read print through Radio for the Print Handicapped (RPH) services. While many generalist stations include RPH programming in their schedules, the sector has 15 dedicated RPH stations. A total of 1,594 hours of RPH programming is broadcast every week by community radio stations across Australia (CBD 2007).
For Indigenous, ethnic and radio for the print handicapped individuals and groups, the local community broadcaster can play a vital part of their participation in the local community and society. It is a source of news, information and culture that in many cases is not available elsewhere.
The sector provides for otherwise unmet audience needs. Our stations serve both general and particular audiences to an extent that could never be matched by commercial or national broadcasting. Some stations address specific community interests such as ethnic, Indigenous, print handicapped, youth, senior citizens, arts, fine music or religious programming. Others cater for the wide spectrum of the community, blending music, news and public affairs (for example) with programs for farmers, local cultural groups or music enthusiasts.