About Noosa Community Radio

Noosa Community Radio

Noosa Community Radio — Noosa FM 101.3 — is a not-for-profit, independent community radio station broadcasting to Noosa and district in Queensland, Australia on 101.3 MHz FM to Noosa and district. Founded in 1994 and run entirely by volunteers, it began broadcasting 24/7 in 1997 under the slogans "Great Music for a Great Community 24/7" and "Real People. Real Variety." Its studios are at 60 Noosa Drive, Noosa Junction QLD 4567, with published contacts +61 7 5447 2233 and reception@noosacommunityradio.org. Directories list noosafm.org as its website; no website URL is asserted in this profile's frontmatter.

Overview

Noosa FM 101.3 is the resort town's community voice: the volunteer-powered community alternative to the Sunshine Coast's commercial giants, "local and vocal" in its own description — "providing a real alternative to other broadcasters." Each program is unique, with every presenter playing their own choice of music they love: the Friday 9am–12pm three-hour special with the station's most popular volunteer DJs, the youth radio shows, the local music hours. In 2025, the station celebrated 30 years of service to the community.

History

The founding volunteers — the 1994 generation — built the station the community-radio way: the working bees, the secondhand equipment, the licence paperwork, the first nervous broadcasts. The 1997 24/7 milestone meant the volunteers had built something sustainable: the rosters, the training, the culture. The 2025 30-year celebration honoured them: the founders, the long-servers, the Friday DJs — the people behind the 101.3 signal.
The mid-1990s were the community-radio boom on the Sunshine Coast: the FM band opening to community voices, the towns claiming their frequencies. Noosa's 1994 founding put the resort town in the wave — the volunteers, the licence application, the studio building. The 1997 move to 24/7 was the coming of age: the station that never signed off, the community's constant companion. Three decades on, the 2025 '30 Years of Service' milestone marks the payoff: the station that stayed.

Noosa Community Radio was founded in 1994 — the community-radio wave reaching the resort town — and began broadcasting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in 1997. Three decades on, the 2025 milestone — "30 Years of Service for the Community" — marks one of Queensland's long-running community stations: the volunteers, the Noosa Junction studios, the 101.3 signal.

The station's 2019–2021 strategic plan set out the community-radio mission in formal terms: making Noosa FM a community-connect hub, offering quality on-air time to community organisations, council, the local arts industry and local people; building a thriving, inclusive membership culture; making Noosa proud of its community radio station; and gaining recognition in the community radio industry. The 25-year celebration — a collaboration with the Noosa Chorale for a live performance of Verdi's Requiem, broadcast worldwide on Noosa FM 101.3 — showed the ambition: the community station on the world stage.

Noosa itself shapes the station. The resort town — the Hasting Street boutiques, the national park, the surf — is Australia's most image-conscious postcode; but behind the tourism facade is a real community: the workers who keep the resort running, the artists drawn to the light, the retirees, the surfers. Noosa FM is their station: the community noticeboard, the local music, the voices that don't make the tourism brochures. The 'local and vocal' positioning is the point: the alternative to the polished commercial product, the town talking to itself.
The presenter-owned show is community radio's format: the volunteer who plays 'their own choice of music that they love and enjoy' — the jazz lover's jazz hour, the folk singer's folk show, the teenager's youth program. No two shows alike, no network playlist, no demographic targeting: the schedule as a patchwork of passions. The Friday DJs' weekend-mood playlist is the week's highlight: the popular volunteers, the favourite songs, the town easing into the weekend on 101.3.

Programming

Noosa FM's programming is the volunteer variety: "Real People. Real Variety" — each presenter with their own show, their own music, their own audience. The Friday morning three-hour special (9am–12pm) with the station's most popular volunteer DJs curates the weekend-mood playlist. The station supports local and Australian music and musicians — the Noosa singer-songwriters, the Sunshine Coast bands — and runs youth radio, including the student media tours that put local school groups live on air. The weekly draw fundraiser keeps the station's supporters engaged: "every ticket helps keep local voices on air and community stories alive."

The 60 Noosa Drive studios — in Noosa Junction, the town's commercial heart away from the Hastings Street strip — put the station where the locals are: the Junction's shops, the business district, the real Noosa. The +61 7 5447 2233 number and the reception@noosacommunityradio.org email are the station's front door: the program inquiries, the community announcements, the volunteer's way in. Community radio runs on that accessibility.

Coverage & Audience

Noosa FM broadcasts on 101.3 MHz FM to Noosa and district — Noosa Heads, Noosa Junction, the resort strip and the hinterland. Its audience is the Noosa community: the locals behind the tourism facade, the artists, the surfers, the retirees — and, via the stream, the global audience the strategic plan targeted (25+ streaming at any time in 2019, 1,500 website visitors a month, 4,300 Facebook followers). "Great Music for a Great Community" — the community that lives in Noosa, not just visits it.

The strategic plan's measures of success — listener involvement, website visitors, Facebook followers, streaming numbers, national downloads of Noosa FM programs — are the community station's KPIs: not the ratings shares of the commercials, but the engagement of the community. The plan's station events, the outside broadcasts, the public events: the station as the community's gathering place, on the air and off it. The 2019 figures — 1,500 website visitors a month, 4,300 Facebook followers, 25+ streaming at any time — are modest by commercial standards; by community standards, they're the town, tuned in.
The weekly draw — the fundraiser, the 'start small, make a big difference' pitch — is the station's financial engine: the supporters' subscriptions, the Friday draws, the community funding the community's station. The draw's copy — 'every ticket helps keep local voices on air and community stories alive' — is the community-radio value proposition in a sentence: the money stays local, the voices stay local, the stories stay local.

Ownership

Noosa Community Radio is a not-for-profit, independent community broadcaster, run by its members and volunteers from studios at 60 Noosa Drive, Noosa Junction QLD 4567. Published contacts: +61 7 5447 2233 and reception@noosacommunityradio.org.

The Verdi Requiem broadcast — the Noosa Chorale collaboration for the 25-year celebration, broadcast worldwide on 101.3 — is the station's signature moment: the community choir, the community station, the world listening. It captures what Noosa FM aspires to: not just the town's station, but the town's ambassador. The youth radio — the student media tours, the live recordings, the 'almost famous' kids on 101.3 — is the other end: the next generation, learning the craft, on the community's frequency.
The 'local and vocal' identity — the station's own description — is the brand: not the slick commercial product, but the town's voice, unpolished and proud. In a resort town built on image, the community station is the reality check: the volunteers, the local issues, the music the DJs love. Thirty years of it: the alternative that became the institution.

Digital Presence

Directories list noosafm.org as the station's website, with streaming online and a social media presence. From the 1994 founding to 24/7 in 1997 to 30 years of service in 2025: Noosa FM 101.3 — real people, real variety, great music for a great community — on 101.3 in Noosa, and worldwide on the stream.