{"id":48668,"date":"2026-07-11T22:19:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T22:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/48668\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T22:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T22:19:18","slug":"online-radio-stations-rise-in-popularity-as-sydney-creatives-turn-to-new-platforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/48668\/","title":{"rendered":"Online radio stations rise in popularity as Sydney creatives turn to new platforms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Growing up in Sydney’s west, there was something Fernando Benavides always felt he was missing.<\/p>\n

Like many others, he had to move closer to the city in search of it.<\/p>\n

“You don’t have that access, whether it’s transport, or music venues or bars \u2026 you’re isolated,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We lack the kind of spaces where people can just go hang out and enjoy culture, enjoy music, enjoy company, enjoy connection.”<\/p>\n

Centre Point Radio, the artist and musician’s latest creative pursuit, was set up to nurture a side of the city that he felt had been neglected.<\/p>\n

With expressions of interest flowing in from hopeful hosts, and a launch date hovering somewhere later in the year, Centre Point Radio will join hundreds of other independent radio stations, which broadcast purely via an online platform.<\/p>\n

\"Close<\/p>\n

Fernando Benavides noticed a lack of creative spaces in Western Sydney. (ABC News: Rhiannon Soliman-Marron)<\/p>\n

Unlike ‘terrestrial’ stations, which transmit over AM or FM airwaves via radio towers, online radio is a more DIY approach \u2014 broadcasting over the internet and able to be accessed from anywhere.<\/p>\n

But despite existing in the digital realm, a growing number of online stations are spreading beyond it.<\/p>\n

When Centre Point Radio puts out its first transmission, it will come from a studio in Marrickville, in Sydney’s inner west.<\/p>\n

But once it is fully up and running, Mr Benavides has his sights set closer to home.<\/p>\n

“The longer-term goal is to have it in Parramatta, hopefully by early next year,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There’ll be events, there’ll be fundraisers and there’ll be mutual aid \u2026 I think that would be very integral in changing the landscape of what happens locally,”<\/p>\n

“Because from there, ideally, more [music] venues pop up, or more record stores pop up.”<\/p>\n

Uniting the underground music scene\"A<\/p>\n

Aakanksha Sidhu co-founded Trust.FM in Canberra.\u00a0 (ABC News: Chris Walsh, Phoebe Watkins)<\/p>\n

In late June, artist manager Aakanksha Sidhu and DJ Jordan Harrison founded Trust.FM, which is based in a not-for-profit cafe and club space in Canberra.<\/p>\n

Ms Sidhu said the station, which broadcasts 24 hours a day, was born out of a desire to unite the city’s underground music scene.<\/p>\n

“We have a very broad and inclusive understanding of what underground music or culture is. It’s a range of music, from punk to electronic music, to deconstructed club and EDM \u2026 there’s also a rigorous ethos for non-commercial music,” she said.<\/p>\n

“In a world of streaming and the ability to consume essentially any kind of music that you ever want, I think people need a space to go and feel like they can meet other human beings who are creative with them.”<\/p>\n

Trust.FM’s online format also means artists in any place \u2014 and at any skill level \u2014 can host a program.<\/p>\n

“You can go live from the studio or from your home, because there’s a set-up to do so,” Ms Sidhu said.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

Trust.FM is based in a not-for-profit caf\u00e9 and club space in Canberra. (ABC News: Chris Walsh, Phoebe Watkins)<\/p>\n

“You could be doing a pre-recorded set which is simple enough to record beforehand and you upload it into your slot, you can also plug in a playlist if you’re still learning how to put your set together.<\/p>\n

“The idea is to keep building it, and replace playlists with curated hosts as we go.”<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

Anyone from anywhere can host a program because it is entirely based online.\u00a0 (ABC News: Chris Walsh, Phoebe Watkins)<\/p>\n

Online radio more popular than ever before<\/p>\n

Susan Forde teaches media and journalism at Griffith University and has studied community radio for the past 25 years.<\/p>\n

Professor Forde said the ability to market on social media, combined with the public’s increasing appetite for on-demand content, has helped non-traditional radio stations thrive.<\/p>\n

“[Online radio stations] are undoubtedly more successful now than they’ve ever been before,” she said.<\/p>\n

“People are looking more and more for content that they don’t listen to in a linear way.”<\/p>\n

Community over money<\/p>\n

The person behind the microphone, Professor Forde said, is what continues to set the medium apart from streaming services.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Susan Forde has studied community radio for the past 25 years.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“They might talk about a gig they’ve attended, they might talk about a new artist that’s coming up, they might give you some background to that artist, they might intersperse the content with an interview,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s so different to Spotify getting AI to select 400 songs from a particular genre, and just playing them from beginning to end.”<\/p>\n

Mr Benavides said it was that human touch he hoped his listeners would get hooked on.<\/p>\n

“Historically, radio hosts or DJs were the ones that were the catalyst for people finding out about different artists, different genres, different styles of music,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So we’re just trying to make our way back to that.<\/p>\n

“We’re not doing this to make money. We’re doing this purely out of the fact that we know we have a community.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growing up in Sydney’s west, there was something Fernando Benavides always felt he was missing. Like many others,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[35484,5061,35478,35479,35482,35485,35480,6272,17453,596,35481,12269,35486,247,12638,35483],"class_list":["post-48668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-artist-manager-aakanksha-sidhu","tag-arts","tag-broadcasting","tag-centre-point-radio","tag-cpr","tag-dj-jordan-harrison","tag-fernando-benavides","tag-griffith-university","tag-marrickville","tag-nsw","tag-online-radio-stations-sydney","tag-radio","tag-susan-forde","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-inner-west","tag-trust-fm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}