Whether you work in audio, or music, you will most likely remember the first time you ever heard your voice, or creation, on the radio. It was that moment for songwriter Malcolm McDonough (pictured) that led to his own creation, Aussie Airwaves, free to access and totally from his own spare time, to make it easier for Australian music artists to be found, and heard.

Malcolm said:

“I’d heard about our local radio station from one of my kids being on their schools program and saw that they had a program just focused on new Australian music. I sent my composition in and they played it.

It was such a big buzz and a great validation. So I thought there must be some other shows like this around Australia. How do I find them?”

That wasn’t easy to do. The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) does a wonderful job showcasing its stations all over the country with a map you can navigate from Radio Norfolk off the east coast to VKW off the west, but that doesn’t tell you whether your new country/pop/indigenous language/hardcore song belongs there, or even if it has a specialist Australian music show.

So Malcolm decided to create his own map of discovery, with the philosophy that ‘a tree thrives best in a healthy forest.’

Aussie Airwaves was born, with a little help from AI and a whole lot of enthusiasm and commitment from Malcolm to listen to these programs and reach out for further information where necessary.

You can search by genre and focus area location, plus find out what stations are currently playing an Aus music show. 3pm on a Friday afternoon is below:

Malcolm’s website could have been more timely, with a Monash and Griffith Universities‘ report released last month quantifying the economic, social, and cultural heavy lifting done by Australia’s community radio music stations to uncover, nurture and build grassroots Australian talent:

The research found that community radio stations were still a key source of local music discovery and spending. In 2023, 30% of weekly listeners (1.6 million Australians) discovered a local or emerging artist by listening to community radio. 28% looked up an artist on digital platforms like Spotify after hearing them on community radio, while 19% then recommended an artist to friends or shared them online. More than 1.3 million listeners went on to buy merchandise, music or gig tickets.

But the problem for so many music artists, trying to find that breakthrough, is who to contact, and where?

Aussie Airwaves has made that so much easier. It already features more than 100 programs and community radio stations, spanning all eight states and territories and updates every hour to show listeners exactly which community radio shows are playing only Australian music right now, sending digital audiences directly to local human curators.

Because it uses digital tools to shield and sustain traditional broadcasting rather than replace it, the project was recently featured on a UNESCO webcast for World Radio Day.

However, Malcolm needs your help as the website moves out of beta mode on June 26. If you have a community radio show that only plays Australian music, please add it to the Aussie Airwaves list. If it is there, reach out to update host or hosts, genre and show blurb if there isn’t those details already.

You can do that here: http://docs.google.com/forms/d/15-FxxfVngLBCGu6D5POqyd5E80oQJ8tixGBOxhdfNTk/edit

To the Australian music industry, use this list to research where your work will fit and reach out to the respective stations and programs.

Below is also the link to Malcolm’s co-composition, also released on June 26, called It Won’t Belong, sung by West End star Lydia Griffiths.

https://amrap.org.au/track/lydia-griffiths-it-wont-belong-it-wont-belong

Every little bit helps to nurture the grassroots of Australian music and build that forest.

Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo. Email: [email protected]. You can subscribe to this publication for just $199 per annum (less for community stations, students and pensioners) and support local media. Celebrate Radioinfo in its 30th year.