Beach FM

Beach Radio was a radio station situated in the Artworks complex in Oneroa on Waiheke Island, New Zealand. It was last owned and operated by long-time Auckland radio personality Barry Jenkin who did a breakfast show on the station, and featured a number of community-based shows. The station was run solely by volunteers and broadcasts on 99.4 fm or on 107 fm for the Palm Beach and Onetangi areas.

The station is now defunct having lost its frequency in the tendering process in 2008. Some of the DJs from Beach FM have now started Waiheke Radio.

Features and Events

An Audio Island History

Island Life, a weekend news and events show on the Beach began to archive some of its broadcasts to ensure they're availability for years to come, thus creating an audio history of Waiheke. These recordings have been stored on-line at The Internet Archive [http://www.archive.org] , a project dedicated to 'building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form'. You can access the material The Beach has archived [http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=waiheke%20AND%20mediatype%3Aaudio%20AND%20collection%3Aopensource_audio here] .

Live On The Beach

Every May, to mark [http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/node/4506 NZ Music Month] , The Beach presented "Live On The Beach", a series featuring Waiheke musicians playing live in the studio. The series was started in 2003 and proved so popular it become an annual event. Throughout the history of Live On The Beach it tried to showcase musicians who don't get the opportunity to perform in front of an audience on the Island whether it be because of their age, or because they are playing music that doesn't fit the solo acoustic blues format favoured by many of the local venues. Most of these performances have been recorded, and many are now available to listen to on the internet or download.

Find more info and audio see The Beach Radio Blog at [http://waihekeradio.blogspot.com/2007/05/live-from-our-oneroa-studio.html here] and [http://waihekeradio.blogspot.com/2007/05/its-pat-on-back-time.html here] .

Alternatuis

In 2006 The Beach launched its very own music awards, The Alternatuis. Arising from concerns that mainstream NZ music awards had become predictable and lacking in adventurousness. The Alternatuis are given to NZ musicians that the radios' DJs feel deserve acclaim but aren't receiving it. The judging criteria for the awards are a strictly guarded secret but are rumoured to be completely subjective. Even the award categories change from year to year.

Winners of the 2006 Alternatuis, who didn't know until after the awards were made that they had been in the running, included Steve Abel, Dudley Benson, Chris Knox and The Mint Chicks. At least two of these artists subsequently placed Alternatui winner stickers on the front of their CD releases. Visit The Beach Radio Blog to find out about the [http://waihekeradio.blogspot.com/2006/10/in-my-humble-opinion_23.html 2006 winners] and [http://waihekeradio.blogspot.com/2006/10/id-like-to-thank-academy-my-family-and.html their reaction] .