Radio Adelaide, the first community broadcaster in Australia marks 40 years

A radio station marks 40 years of community broadcasting, as the sector grows to hundreds of such stations.

Radio Adelaide was established by the University of Adelaide in June 1972 for educational broadcasts.

Station manager Dianne Janes said it now provided a broad range of specialist programs, embracing everything from ethnic issues to alternative music.

She said funding was always a challenge and the generosity of listeners was vital, but she expected the station to keep growing.

"[I] think we'll get separate digital programming within the next couple of years and to really ramp up our online presence a bit more and try and inject some funds into that area ... [to] enable people to access programming from all around the world," she said.

The University said the radio station was the first community broadcaster in Australia when it was launched.

It said the late Kenneth Stirling, an Adelaide University graduate, gave a then-anonymous donation of $100,000 to the university and it was used to start what became known in the early years as Radio 5UV.

Over the years, the radio station became a springboard for many who moved on the ABC, including Richard Morecroft, Keith Conlon, Julia Lester, Sue Howard and Tim Potter.

Community Broadcasting Association president Adrian Basso said federal funding needed to increase from $15 million to $30 million to adequately support the 350 or so community stations now across Australia.

"In all this debate about mainstream media and discussions about Fairfax and Murdoch, I think we're a more important media outlet than ever," he said.

(Source : ABC Radio Australia)