FBi station is an independent, not-for-profit community radio in Sydney, Australia. FBi places a heavy emphasis on local alternative music: it has a policy that at least 50 per cent of its music content is to be Australian, of which at least half comes from Sydney musicians. FBi began 'test broadcasting' as an 'aspirant broadcaster' in 1995 following the then-Keating government's decision to allocate the last three FM licences in Sydney. The election of John Howard delayed the process as the coalition government focussed on radio licences for country towns. After making a series of short-term broadcasts over eight years, FBi Radio beat 16 other aspirant broadcasters to be granted a permanent licence by the Australian Broadcasting Authority in 2002. Popular dance / hip hop aspirant station DEX FM were unsuccessful and FBi President Cassandra Wilkinson invited DEX founder George Crones to join the FBi board and merge the two stations. A failed takeover attempt by one of the losing bidders for the permanent licence, Wild FM pushed FBi's full-time 24/7 broadcast to August 2003. The station went to air with program director Meagan Loader and station manager Christina Alvarez in charge with Australia's youngest Music Director Dan Zilber calling the tunes. In November 2006, FBi's 'Sunset' program won the Best Radio Show award at the national Australian Dance Music Awards. In September 2007, the Australian Labor Party chose FBi as the platform to announce its electoral commitment to resume funding for the Australian Music Radio Airplay Project. In 2009, FBi asked listeners to ask Richard Branson to donate $1 million to the station, with the person getting his attention being promised $50k if he came through with the goods.... A young Australian woman swam to his house on Necker Island to inform him of the campaign and Branson called the station to chat on air to broadcaster Alison Petrowski. While Branson did not pay up the $1M he did donate prizes to the Save FBi campaign which raised nearly half a million dollars to save the station from the global financial crisis which had significantly impacted revenues and membership. During mid-2014, FBi Radio officially launched FBi Click - a second station dedicated to dance and electronic music. FBi Click broadcast on DAB+ in Sydney and via online stream at fbiradio.com/click. A number of Sydney dance music promoters and collectives presented shows on the station; including Picnic, Motorik, Purple Sneakers, THUMP by Vice and others. On 5 June 2017 FBi Click was discontinued, although many of the programs were merged back into the main FBI station's programming. The rationale for the change was that listeners wanted to hear the main FBi station on DAB+.
Reach and format
FBi is Sydney's only independent youth radio station, broadcasting across the city with a signal strength as large as its commercial rivals - reaching Gosford, the Blue Mountains and Wollongong. A ratings survey conducted by McNair in 2019 showed that FBi's audience was 580,000 per month. Its music policy is 50% Australian, half of that from Sydney. The eclectic music mix that results is different from anything available through commercial music stations in Sydney.
FBi Radio is predominantly a volunteer-based organization, augmented by a small core staff. All on-air presenters and producers are volunteers. It is a non-profit organisation with Deductible Gift Recipient status.
