About Rim FM

Rim FM

Rim FM is a community radio station broadcasting to the Scenic Rim region of Queensland on 100.1 MHz FM from Boonah. Operating under the callsign 4RIM, it is a not-for-profit, volunteer-run station offering a wide range of music — from old-time favourites to recent releases — with hourly news updates and local community programming, and streaming worldwide. It is licensed to the Scenic Rim Broadcasting Association Inc., which won the permanent community licence for Boonah in November 2002 after a community campaign for a local voice.

Overview

Rim FM transmits on 100.1 MHz FM to the Scenic Rim — the local government region south-west of Brisbane encompassing Boonah, Beaudesert, Tamborine Mountain, Canungra, Rathdowney and the Fassifern Valley. The format is community variety: classic rock, talk and news, with music spanning old-time favourites to recent releases, hourly news updates and local community programming. The station's motto in practice is "for the community, by the community": it is run by members of the local community who have dedicated themselves to bringing a local radio service to the district — presenters, producers and supporters who give their time because the station is theirs. Its published contacts are PO Box 243, Boonah QLD 4310, phone (07) 5463 1228, and it maintains a social presence as @rimfm100.1.

Because the inventory flags the station's domain as unverified, no website URL is asserted in this profile's frontmatter; rimfm.org is the widely listed web address.

History

Rim FM exists because the Scenic Rim decided it needed its own voice. In 2000, Boonah Shire Council told the Local Government Association of Queensland's submission to the federal radio inquiry that current radio services within the shire were poor: most FM signals were weak if received at all, and of the services available, most were metropolitan-based and provided no local service. A local community group — the Scenic Rim Broadcasting Association Inc. — was working towards establishing a community-based radio station, but was experiencing difficulty obtaining a licence application and a frequency through the Australian Broadcasting Authority. The council argued the advantages of a local station would be immense: an opportunity for residents, local organisations and businesses to provide information on community events, advertising and local news bulletins. It asked for better accessibility to funding for local community groups and for the ABA's processes to recognise communities like Boonah's — concerns the council noted applied to shires across Queensland, not just the far north and west.

The campaign succeeded. On 27 November 2002, the ABA allocated a new permanent community licence for Boonah to the Scenic Rim Broadcasting Association Inc. — Rim FM, broadcasting on 100.1 FM. The station has served the Boonah RA1 licence area ever since, listed in ACMA records as the Scenic Rim Broadcasting Association's 4RIM service. In March 2026, the station celebrated its 25th anniversary with a community event at the Council Courtyard on High Street, Boonah — a quarter-century that stretches back to test broadcasts around 2001, before the permanent licence was granted. For a volunteer station born of a council complaint about poor reception, twenty-five years of continuous service is a vindication of the 2000 campaign's central claim: that the Scenic Rim needed, and would sustain, its own voice.

The campaign that created Rim FM is worth remembering in detail, because it is the story of dozens of Australian community stations. A shire council, hearing from residents that they could not hear themselves on the radio, took the complaint to the Local Government Association, which took it to a federal parliamentary inquiry. The association that wanted the licence struggled with the ABA's processes. And then — licence granted, frequency assigned, volunteers trained, transmitter switched on — a community had its station. Twenty-five years later, the anniversary crowd in the Boonah Council Courtyard was the living proof that the 2000 submission's "immense advantages" were real.

The Scenic Rim the station serves is a region of striking contrasts: more than 4,200 square kilometres of ancient mountains, World Heritage-listed rainforest, national parks, productive farmland and historic towns and villages — from the rich farming country of the Fassifern Valley to the tourist villages of Tamborine Mountain and Canungra, the former shire towns of Boonah and Beaudesert, and the rugged McPherson Range along the New South Wales border. It is close enough to Brisbane to receive metropolitan signals — weakly — but distinct enough in identity to need its own. Rim FM fills exactly the gap the council identified in 2000: local news bulletins, community events and local voices where Brisbane stations provide none. The region's calendar gives the station plenty to talk about: the Scenic Rim Trail music festival, the Tamborine Mountain Scarecrow Festival, Christmas street parades in Boonah and Kalbar, and the year-round rhythm of agricultural shows, markets and community fundraisers.

Programming

Rim FM's programming is the classic community-radio mix: a wide range of music from old-time favourites to recent releases, hourly news updates and local community programming. The genre tags attached to the station — classic rock, talk, news — reflect a schedule built around volunteer presenters' passions and the community's needs. Local programming means local information: the community events, school news, rural notices and district happenings that metropolitan stations never carry. The station has also supported independent Australian musicians: its music programmers have given airplay to emerging artists, making new releases available to fellow broadcasters and rotating them through mixed music programming when no presenter is live — the quiet, practical work of community radio as a launchpad.

Coverage & Audience

The station broadcasts to the Scenic Rim region on 100.1 FM and streams worldwide. Its audience is the Scenic Rim community itself: farming families, small-town residents, tourism workers and the growing population of lifestyle migrants drawn to the region's villages. For these listeners, Rim FM is the only radio service that treats the Scenic Rim as home rather than as the fuzzy edge of Brisbane's coverage. The worldwide stream extends that home to former residents and visitors — the district's diaspora, and the tourists who discovered the region's wineries, farmstays and rainforest trails and want to stay connected.

Ownership

Rim FM is owned and operated by the Scenic Rim Broadcasting Association Inc., a not-for-profit community organisation. It is run by volunteers from the local community — the same community-group model that campaigned for the licence in the first place. That continuity matters: the people who fought the ABA for a frequency are the institutional ancestors of the people behind the microphones today. The station belongs to a sector that celebrated fifty years of licensed community radio in Australia in 2024 — Australia was the first country to license community radio, and the sector now numbers 358 not-for-profit, community-owned, volunteer-operated stations with almost five million listeners. Rim FM is a textbook example of why the sector exists: a community that commercial radio ignored and the ABC served only weakly, building its own station with its own hands.

Digital Presence

The station streams its 100.1 FM service worldwide in addition to the broadcast signal and is listed across radio directories and streaming aggregators. Its published contact channels — the Boonah post box, phone and social media — keep it accessible to listeners, prospective volunteers and community groups. Because the domain is unverified, no website is asserted here. From a council complaint about poor reception in 2000 to a permanent community licence in 2002 and a 25th anniversary in 2026, Rim FM is the Scenic Rim's answer to its own question: a station for the community, by the community, on 100.1.