A wide ranging survey of the community radio sector has found that the sector employs 880 paid staff across the country and has 20,500 volunteers.
The community radio sector earned income totaling $46.6 million, with sponsorship providing around one third of that income, and other revenue sources being grants, program fees, fundraising activities and donations. 92% of all stations have fee paying subscribers, a total of 113,400 people across the country.
The Community Broadcasting sector, in conjunction with ACMA and the Department of Communications, conducted the research through the CB Online network during 2002-3. ACMA this week released a report about the research into the different services and operations of over two hundred and sixty
community radio stations across Australia.
The report, titled Survey of the Community Radio Broadcasting Sector 2002-03,
includes information on programming, program sources, music genres, numbers
of staff, volunteers, subscribers, income and expenditure, broken down by
station category and location.
The survey found that music was the mainstay of many community stations, being about 70% of total programming. There were a wide variety of music styles on
offer including classical, hip hop, electronica, jazz, and
ethnic music, as well as more popular styles such as rock/pop, easy
listening, and country music.
Most stations exceeded the sectors’ 25% Australian music target, with Indigenous stations broadcasting the most Australian music (51%).
Ethnic and Print Handicapped stations had the highest amount of spoken word programming.
Most programs were put together locally by individual community radio
stations. On average, three-quarters of all programs across Australia were
made at the station, with the remaining quarter drawn from satellite services. The community sector’s ComRadSat supplied 12% on networked programming, other Australian program providers (such as the Indigenous satellite NIRS and the RPH satellite service) made up 19% of programming, and 6% of network programming was sourced from overseas.
Community participation in station operations was most evident in the
ethnic, youth, and fine music sub-sectors with high levels of both
volunteers and subscribers.
Religious stations undertook the most audience research.
Average income was $177,805 per station and, as expected, non-profit
community radio services spend almost all of their income on operational
requirements.