Kalamunda Community Radio (KCR), which broadcasts in the Perth Hills, has moved to 88.9 on the FM dial after the Australian Communications and Media Authority re-distributed a number of frequencies.Â
ABC Radio Perth will move to KCR’s old frequency on 102.5, while NewsRadio and Radio National will also move from AM to FM.
Despite having to make the switch, Roger Jennings, chair of KCR, said there were advantage to moving down the dial into the 80s.
As a community station, he said KCR broadcast on lower power and was only allowed to broadcast to its defined license area.
Roger Jennings says community radio can broadcast hyper-local stories bigger stations can’t cover. (ABC News: Pip Waller)
“[At 102.5] we were actually stuck in the middle of a large number of very powerful stations and that made us difficult to find,” Mr Jennings said.
“Auto-tuning radios in cars, and so on, just skips over us.
“Down in the 88.9 area, we’re more likely to be found by car radios and things like that, we think.”
Hyper-local radio
KCR, which is entirely staffed by volunteers and runs on grants and sponsorship, provides a unique radio service that focuses closely on its immediate surrounds.
“[Community radio] is important because it’s doing those things that commercial and ABC don’t do,” Mr Jennings said.
“They’re not advertising the fact that there’ll be the Kalamunda show or that some important event is taking place in Kalamunda or that there’s some issues in the area that need to be addressed.
“That’s not something that you can expect a broadcaster that covers the whole of the metropolitan area to cover.
“It fills a gap that way.”
Kalamunda Community Radio station’s broadcast area covers the Perth Hills. (ABC News: Pip Waller)
The station also offers its volunteer presenters the chance to explore their own musical interests and share them with others, resulting in singular radio broadcasts.
For Mr Jennings, his Sunday evening program is all about classical music composed in the 20th century.
“I play complete works and there aren’t other stations around doing that. Even the ABC is not really doing quite that,” he said.
“I’ve always had a very great interest in 20th-century classical music and I’ve got a very large repertoire, and I try to play pieces that people will enjoy, composers that people know in the 20th century, but also some more unusual pieces that never get played on the radio.”
Records on a shelf at Kalamunda Community Radio. (ABC News: Pip Waller)
For other presenters, it’s a wide range — from rock, soul and easy listening to Australian, Americana, classical music and folk.
“We have about 30 presenters in total, and you have to be very dedicated because you’ve got to be there every week,” Mr Jennings said.
“You can’t just say, ‘oh sorry, we may go on holiday’ … you can’t say, ‘oh I’m going to have a few weeks off at the moment’ — because the program will disappear.
“You’ve got to have dedicated people, and they’ve got to have sufficient music of the type they want to play because we don’t actually provide them with the music.”Broadcasting from the cells
When it was founded in 2000, KCR broadcast from the old Kalamunda Police station, with the studios located in the cells.
Later, they were able to move to purpose-built studios in the Gooseberry Hill Community Centre.
While the cells had character, they were “a bit claustrophobic”, Mr Jennings said.
“I mean, it was nice and soundproof and quite suitable for a studio because you don’t get interference, but it was a bit claustrophobic, I think.
“We have now got some very nice studios which the state government were kind enough to provide funding towards, and we built them ourselves.”
Volunteer presenters play music of their choice at Kalamunda Community Radio. (ABC News: Pip Waller)
New home, same station
KCR has already made the switch to its new frequency at 88.9FM and is hoping its loyal listeners will follow it.
Mr Jennings said that while surveys were prohibitively expensive, they could get some idea of listenership from their social media feed and from online listening.
“We have quite a few listeners nowadays on the internet, and around the world in fact,” he said.
“I think we just want to consolidate where we are, get people to realise what our new frequency is and make sure we have plenty of presenters.”
ABC Radio Perth will move to 102.5 FM, Radio National to 103.3 FM and ABC NewsRadio to 104.1 FM from February 23.