New Sydney community station FBi is securing funding to get its operation up and running by the ABA’s due date. AMT has received leaked details of the station’s proposed promotional deal with various record companies.

While such deals are now governed by the ABA’s new ‘profit making guidelines for community stations’ and may be able to legitimately run if they do not breach the guidelines, this was a contentious area for other unsuccessful licence applicants and FBi will have to tread carefully. If the station succeeds in getting a successful deal, which does not breach the guidelines, it will have found a formula which may work for other community stations around the country. Selected details of the proposal (which has not yet been ratified by FBi’s members) are below:

1. The proposed deal between [two Record company names] and Free Broadcast Incorporated (FBI) involves the licensing of the FBI brand by FBI to [record companies] for use in dance music CD releases for a six year period.

2. During this period, FBI shall release no other dance music CD except those released through [record companies] under the proposed agreement (ie. exclusive agreement with regards dance music releases).

3. Dance music will be clearly and broadly defined so as to avoid any confusion about what constitutes a dance music CD. It should include hip hop and R’n’B as well as other electronic genres.

4. FBI will have a significant commitment to all forms of dance music in its programming, though [record company] will have no influence over the programming of FBI.

5. There will be between 2 – 4 CDs released each year for the duration of the proposed deal …

7. Each CD release will have an on-air promotion campaign lasting a minimum of four weeks. During this time FBI will provide on air support of music that appears on CDs and will also support related product.

8. This support will take the form of inclusion on play lists and live announcer mentions as well as a sponsorship package detailed below. On-air support of music that appears on the CDs and related product may also continue before and after the campaign.

9. The sponsorship package will involve up to $[amount] worth of on-air sponsorship spots per release. FBI will meet any associated GST costs relating to this on-air sponsorship.

12. [record companies] will provide an advance recouperable from royalties of $[amount] (plus GST) to FBI…