PBA-FM

PBA-FM 89.7

Broadcast area	Adelaide, South Australia
Slogan	Community First
Frequency	89.7 MHz FM
First air date	1983
Format	All Musical Genres, Talk radio
Owner	Community Based
Website	www.pbafm.org.au

PBA-FM 89.7 (call sign: 5PBA) is a community radio station in Adelaide, South Australia, and broadcasts to the Northern Suburbs.

History

PBA-FM commenced streaming live online in April 2010, go to http://www.pbafm.org.au/stream to listen.

PBA-FM was established in 1979 as a community radio station broadcasting on 89.7 MHz across the Northern Suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia.

The station was originally a portion of the Salisbury Teachers College which later became the South Australian College of Advanced Education and then the University of South Australia Salisbury campus, along with Foundation Studios (Defunct). Although established in 1979, broadcasting did not commence until January 1983.

Only a few years after the station had begun broadcasting, (and due to mismanagement), in 1989, Foundation Studios was closed. The remaining Community Print building moved off campus, and the remaining buildings became small halls used occasionally for community workshops and projects. The last of Foundation Studios was demolished in February 2005.

The same effect started applying to the main studio. In 2005 plans began to relocate the station to the former Country Fire Service station in Salisbury after development group Lifestyle SA purchased the former campus land for a housing development. The station relocated to the former CFS building, part of a new complex, on August 4th 2007.

Format

The programme guide is available at http://www.pbafm.org.au/guide

PBA-FM airs over 60 diverse programs going to air each week, including several multicultural shows and non English speaking programs. The station also allows the general public to broadcast a show in one of the station time slots for a small fee.

Announcers are free to choose the music that they present, and there are no restrictions on the types of music playable, as long as the music is non-explicit. Each night specialist programs broadcast a specific genre of music, ranging from Classical, World, Rock & Roll, Jazz, Country, Reggae and Rhythm & Blues.

During the night the station airs the show "Music Throughout The Night", which is a random compilation of songs from several different artists and genres.

Technology

PBA-FM has two on air studios, a digital production suite and an outside broadcast unit.

The two on air studios include Soundcraft RM100 broadcast consoles, virtual cart and audio recording software, Denon CD players, Technics SL1200 Turntables and Electrovoice RE27N/D microphones. A feed of the COMRADSAT service is available in each on air studio.

The station control room hosts various broadcast and monitoring equipment. On air audio is processed by an Orban Optimod before being relayed to the transmission site at Para Hills by a Microwave STL.

The Digital Production Suite centres around a Pro Tools Workstation PC with Tannoy Monitors and CD/DVD Authoring Tools.

The outside broadcast unit uses similar technologies to the main studios and Outside Broadcasts can be conducted using ISDN and IP codec technology.

Staff

PBA-FM is staffed by a team of over 150 volunteers. All contribute to the station by working on a regular basis in various areas including on-air presentation, program production, administration, technical, research, library, training and promotions.

External links

• PBA-FM 89.7
• Streaming live online
• Programme Guide
• Community Broadcasting Association of Australia

See also

• List of Australian radio stations