Client: Brian FM Ltd
Location: Regional New Zealand, North and South Islands
Timeline: 2012 onwards
Services: Site finding, coverage prediction, transmission system and antenna design, equipment supply, ongoing engineering support

An independent station that breaks the rules

Brian FM launched in Blenheim in 2012 with a simple idea from its owners, Andrew and Vicky Jeffries: a wide mix of music around the clock, with no DJs, no listener requests and no conventional advertising. Its tagline sums it up: playing what we feel like. Classic rock sits alongside reggae, punk, soul and anything else that fits the mood, and the station is carried by a handful of sponsors rather than ad breaks.

The name is personal too. “Brian” is made up from the names of Andrew and Vicky’s sons, Blair and Ryan. Behind the fun is serious radio experience: Andrew started out in radio in Whanganui and worked for London stations including Capital Radio and Kiss 100. In the United States he was Program Director of 104.3 MYfm in Los Angeles, and then Executive Vice President of Programming for iHeartMedia’s stations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, San Diego, Denver, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Austin and San Antonio.

Listeners have loved it. From a single frequency in Blenheim, Brian FM has grown into one of New Zealand’s best-known independent radio stations, broadcasting in more than 12 regions across both islands.

A partnership that goes back a long way

Marcus Bekker and Andrew first worked together in 1993, building a new radio station in Hawke’s Bay called The Alligator. When Andrew and Vicky launched Brian FM nearly twenty years later, Southern Broadcast became its engineering partner, and we have been involved at every stage of the network’s growth since.

It has always been a hands-on partnership. Putting Brian FM on air in Wānaka, for example, was a South Island road trip with Andrew and Vicky Jeffries.

Marcus, Vicky and Andrew Jeffries at Lake Pukaki, on a road trip to put Brian FM on air in Wānaka

Engineering the expansion

Growing a regional FM network means finding transmitter sites that can reach small towns spread across hills, valleys and coastlines, often in places that are hard to get to. For each new market we handle the engineering from start to finish:

Site finding: identifying hilltops and existing transmission sites that can see the communities Brian FM wants to reach.
Coverage prediction: modelling each site’s coverage before anything is built, so the network grows where listeners are.
System and antenna design: designing the transmitters, antenna systems and programme links for each site.
Equipment supply: Southern Broadcast is Brian FM’s main equipment supplier.

Rigging the antennas at Cromwell, above Lake Dunstan

The site at the top of Mt Hutt: a hostile spot, often above the cloud and often covered in snow

Small stations, big landscapes

Much of New Zealand is hard country for FM radio. A single big transmitter rarely reaches every town in a region, so Brian FM’s coverage is built from a mix of main sites and smaller transmitters that fill in the valleys and coastal towns the main signal can’t reach.

Some sites are shared towers operated by the big national networks. Others are new poles on farmland or bare rocky summits that we reach by four-wheel drive. Every one has to get the programme in, using a combination of microwave links, off-air reception and studio-to-transmitter (STL) links, and a clean signal out to the town below.

FM antennas and microwave links at Wither Hills, serving Blenheim

Fitting the antennas at Gawler Downs, Mid Canterbury

Installing a microwave link in Central Otago

Across the South Island and beyond

In Marlborough alone, the network now reaches Blenheim, Picton, Havelock, Seddon and the Awatere Valley, Ward, French Pass and Kaikōura. From there it has spread through Nelson, Christchurch, the West Coast, Canterbury, Otago and Southland, and into the North Island in Taranaki, Whanganui and the Wairarapa.

The transmission site above Oamaru, looking down the coast

A Southern Broadcast-supplied transmitter on air

Rigging work on a shared tower in Marlborough

More than music

Brian FM is Marlborough’s official civil defence emergency station, and emergency override systems across the network let the authorities take over a station to broadcast vital information. Southern Broadcast has been involved in building these systems, including the override at Kaikōura, and that role was put to the test after the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake, when Brian FM helped keep isolated communities informed.

The result

Brian FM has grown from one small station in Blenheim into a network serving communities across New Zealand, many of them towns that larger networks don’t reach. For Southern Broadcast it has been one of our longest-running and most rewarding projects, built on a friendship of more than 30 years.

Brian FM Mt Hutt on a car radio display: Playing what we feel like — On air from Mt Hutt: “Playing what we feel like”

Southern Broadcast Ltd is a broadcast engineering company providing studio, RF and transmission design, installation and support to broadcasters across New Zealand and the Pacific.

Planning a new station or expanding your coverage? Talk to Southern Broadcast about site finding, coverage and transmission design.

Brian FM: Building an Independent Regional FM Network