{"id":792205,"date":"2026-07-10T21:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T21:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/792205\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T21:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T21:55:13","slug":"sydney-community-radio-in-a-world-of-ai-slop-young-sydneysiders-are-turning-to-unlikely-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/792205\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney community radio: In a world of AI slop, young Sydneysiders are turning to unlikely source"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Inside Sydney community station FBi Radio\u2019s Redfern headquarters, there is a room full of shelves packed with CDs, and the walls are covered in posters of bands, gigs and former FBi crew. The receptionist is rocking a voluminous mullet and patchwork tattoos, taking calls on a landline.<\/p>\n

In booths, equally edgy-looking presenters are talking on air or preparing to interview musicians to satisfy the station\u2019s aim of playing 50 per cent Australian music, half of that from Sydney.<\/p>\n

Although the airwaves dominated by mainstream FM music and AM talkback stations, Sydney community radio stations such as FBi and SURG FM are achieving something any station would envy \u2013 attracting loyal young listeners.<\/p>\n

\"RememberRemember these? Some of the rows of CDs at FBi. Audrey Richardson\"TommyTommy Boutros (left) and Jasmine Telfer inside FBi Radio\u2019s station in Redfern.Audrey Richardson<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we do here at FBi is something that no other community radio station does, and that is that we tailor our content specifically to the youth audiences, and we make sure that certain percentages of our music come from local areas,\u201d FBi\u2019s music and programming director Tommy Boutros, says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have our finger on the pulse,\u201d FBi\u2019s office and volunteer manager Jasmine Telfer adds. She and Boutros are two of five paid employees at FBi, while about 300 people volunteer at the station. \u201cPretend it\u2019s like a race \u2013 we\u2019ve always had that head-start \u2026 when we look back on artists, or even the city library, you pick up a CD, like, \u2018Oh my god, they\u2019re huge now, and they started here\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The list of names that were first played on FBi airwaves includes Flume, Genesis Owusu, The Kid Laroi, Courtney Barnett, Sampa The Great, Julia Jacklin and The Presets.<\/p>\n

An FBi audience report examining the second half of the 2024 calendar year revealed the station experienced 14.3 per cent growth in weekly listeners, going from 140,000 to 160,000 in six months. (Commercial radio stations have ratings compiled by media measurement company GfK over eight surveys a year, while community radio has to gather its own.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

More than a third of that growth came from young people aged 15 to 24, while the number of overall first-time listeners to the station increased by more than 11 per cent.<\/p>\n

Youth audience growth at FBi isn\u2019t an anomaly \u2013 young people already make up a large slice of community radio listeners. Experts say it\u2019s a move towards embracing the careful curation of tastemakers while rejecting repetitive AI and algorithms.<\/p>\n

\"AA polaroid wall inside FBi Radio headquarters.Audrey Richardson<\/p>\n

According to 2023 data from the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia released in a May report, young people aged between 15 and 39 comprise 46 per cent of community radio listeners. Listeners aged 15 to 24 were also the most likely to discover an Australian artist from community radio.<\/p>\n

CBAA\u2019s music director Andrew Khedoori says community radio has always been popular as a local connector, but the report suggests listeners have now begun tuning to it to discover new music. \u201cStreaming has been this infinite library and [was] really attractive to people for a long time, but I just think that there\u2019s this little turning of the tide at the moment,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really far down the line in the digital era, and now we\u2019re just in this sort of phase of pollution \u2026 people want to feel a little bit more grounded; they want to have a more authentic experience and connection with culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CalistaCalista Burrowes (left) and Lucy Horton in SURG FM\u2019s station, inside the University of Sydney.Audrey Richardson<\/p>\n

Over at the University of Sydney, Lucy Horton leads the photographer and I down three flights of stairs beneath Holme Building to where SURG FM operates. We enter a small, windowless room tinted in lavender lighting where Calista Burrowes is wrangling a Spotify playlist while the station is on university break.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of Sydney-based artists on our playlist \u2013 a lot of local, smaller groups, bands, solo acts. I\u2019ve got Smusko, Lily B on here, but we also have a mixture of older, global music as well because we know people tend to enjoy that; we have a lot of, I guess, old heads at the studio,\u201d Burrowes says.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe walls inside SURG FM\u2019s station.Audrey Richardson<\/p>\n

To keep the station popular for those who don\u2019t tune in live, Horton says SURG has begun hosting more live performances and is re-uploading mixes on SoundCloud<\/a>. Burrowes adds: \u201cThat\u2019s how we seem to cultivate our audience. We can\u2019t know for sure how many people at a time are listening, but we try and do our best to market ourselves to ensure that we do have a supporter base.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of the reason Beat Kitchen Records\u2019 Fernando Benavides has decided to launch his own community digital station, Centre Point Radio. Starting in October, Benavides\u2019 station will be a monthly radio show running across multiple days, inviting local artists to perform in a space in Parramatta.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re making it a non-profit; none of us is really making money here. It\u2019s volunteering, but I\u2019ve also had a lot of people, friends, homies, who are down to get a part of it because they also recognise the value of community radio \u2013 even though it\u2019s not for making money, it creates so much culture,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"FernandoFernando Benavides at Centre Point Radio, Marrickville.Wolter Peeters<\/p>\n

The reason young people are moving to community radio is that they desire community and a reason to slow down, Benavides says.<\/p>\n

\u201cConnection in a time of social media exhaustion is super important because if it\u2019s radio, if it\u2019s live music, if it\u2019s making a T-shirt, if it\u2019s whatever, it\u2019s connection at the end of the day \u2026 that\u2019s why platforms like Nothing On In Sydney<\/a> work so well \u2013 people are looking for that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Want to read more about Sydney\u2019s live music scene? We\u2019ve got you!