Studios built for volunteers, by people who believe in community radio.
Community access radio gives a voice to people and communities who would otherwise never be heard on air. Our founder has been part of that story for more than thirty years, and since Southern Broadcast was established in 2009 we have remained a fierce advocate for access radio in Aotearoa New Zealand.
A long association with access radio
Marcus Bekker, who went on to found Southern Broadcast, built the original studios for Wellington Access Radio in the mid-1990s, after the station moved out of Radio New Zealand, and also served on the station’s Board of Trustees. Later, working from our then-Christchurch base through the Canterbury earthquakes, we rebuilt Plains FM in Christchurch and launched Otago Access Radio onto FM in 2011.
Since then, Southern Broadcast has designed and built studios for half of the twelve member stations of the Community Access Media Alliance (CAMA), from Hamilton to Dunedin, and we continue to support them long after the install is finished.
A proven package for access stations
Access stations have different needs from commercial broadcasters. Their studios are used by a steady stream of volunteers, many with no broadcast experience, and every dollar comes from funders and the community. So we have developed a standard package that we know works:
- Wheatstone IP-12 digital consoles. One fader per source, clearly labelled on the console, so volunteers find the same things in the same place in every studio.
- Wheatstone M4IP-USB microphone processing. A consistent, broadcast-quality sound from every presenter, whatever their experience.
- Electro-Voice RE320 microphones. Robust, forgiving and built for radio.
- A Wheatstone Aura8-IP processing Blade in the technical area, with everything tied together on Wheatstone’s WheatNet-IP audio-over-IP network.
- Audioarts DMX consoles from Wheatstone where a studio needs a more affordable option, on the same network.
Most stations get an A and a B studio. Because the system is digital and networked, each studio’s role is set by events stored on its console, so at the press of a button a studio can be live on air, pre-recording, voice tracking or recording a podcast, and studios can be linked for larger discussions.
How we work with access stations
Planned around funding. We scope and quote projects in a way that suits funders such as NZ On Air, split into stages or separate funding applications where that helps, as we did for Fresh FM’s two-stage upgrade in 2024.
Beyond the studio. We link satellite studios over IP with Tieline codecs, connect playout, phones and streaming, and look after studio-to-transmitter links and transmission.
Support that lasts. Every system we build can be monitored and supported remotely, and we stay on the end of the phone for the stations we work with, often for years after the install.
Talk to us
If your station is planning a studio upgrade, a move or a funding application, we’d love to help. Talk to Southern Broadcast about design, supply, integration and support.
Southern Broadcast Ltd is Wheatstone’s New Zealand partner and a broadcast engineering company providing studio, RF and transmission design, installation and support to broadcasters across New Zealand and the Pacific.