About Sonshine

Sonshine

Sonshine — on air as 98five Sonshine FM — is Perth's Christian community radio station, broadcasting contemporary Christian and mainstream adult-contemporary music with a positive, family-friendly ethos on 98.5 FM. On air since Australia Day 1988, it is one of the country's leading community broadcasters: a non-profit station, owned by Good News Broadcasters Inc., that pairs current hits with music from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, Christian and community news, and programs built around faith, family and local life.

Overview

Sonshine's format is contemporary Christian music at its core, wrapped in an adult-contemporary presentation designed to be welcoming well beyond the churchgoing audience. The playlist mixes Christian artists with mainstream acts — recent on-air logs show names like Lauren Daigle and Chris Tomlin alongside Dean Lewis, Guy Sebastian, Kelly Clarkson and Billy Joel — spanning current hits and favourites from the 80s, 90s and 2000s. Around the music the station carries Christian and community news, interviews with community guests, and shows and segments addressing faith, family, relationships and local issues. The station describes its mission in values terms: a belief that media influences community values, and a responsibility to present positive values and offer hope. It is, in its own words, unashamedly a Christian radio station — but one programmed for the whole family, with clean, contemporary music as the entry point. The station streams live through its website and mobile apps, and broadcasts digitally alongside its FM service.

History

Sonshine went to air on 26 January 1988 — Australia Day — with the callsign 6SON, entering a Perth radio market that was then dominated by commercial AM and FM music stations and the ABC. The late 1980s were a formative period for Australian community broadcasting: the sector was maturing from its experimental 1970s origins into a permanent third tier of the system, and religious and ethnic community stations were among its most energetic growth areas. Sonshine's founders saw a gap for a professionally presented, family-friendly Christian station that could stand alongside the commercial stations in production quality while offering something they did not: explicitly positive, hope-centred programming.

The station established itself through the 1990s and 2000s as a fixture of Perth's Christian community and a significant community broadcaster in its own right. Its studios in Como became a familiar address for church and community groups, and its presenters — a mix of paid staff and volunteers — built the personal, companionable style that characterises successful community radio. Christian community radio grew into a substantial national sector in this period: stations like Sydney's Hope 103.2, Melbourne's Light FM and Brisbane's family stations built large audiences by combining professional presentation with an explicitly values-driven mission, and Sonshine was Western Australia's flagship in that movement. The sector's success rested on a simple insight — that a significant audience wanted contemporary radio without the cynicism — and Sonshine executed it with a consistency that kept listeners loyal across decades and across changes in the wider radio market. The station's reach extended beyond its own programming through community initiatives: in 2011, for example, Perth's Catholic Archbishop recorded a six-part "Words of Jesus" series at the Sonshine studios for broadcast across the station, illustrating how the station serves as a platform for the broader Christian community rather than a single denomination. Demand for the station's format has at times outstripped its licensed area: in 2016–2017 a community committee in Busselton, in WA's South West, petitioned ACMA for a retransmission of Sonshine into the Geographe region, gathering hundreds of supporters — a measure of the loyalty the station inspires, even though the licence application was ultimately denied.

Programming

The Sonshine schedule blends music, talk and community service. Daytime programming is music-led: contemporary Christian hits and mainstream adult-contemporary favourites, presented with a warm, encouraging tone and regular community information. Specialist programs address faith, family and relationships, with interviews featuring community guests, church leaders and representatives of local charities. The station actively supports local charities and community initiatives — promoting services such as Lifeline, The Fathering Project and YouthCare among others — and encourages listeners to get involved in community events and partnerships. That community-service dimension is part of the licence bargain for community broadcasters, but Sonshine pursues it with particular energy: the station positions itself as a force for good in Perth, amplifying charitable causes and providing a platform for community voices. Seasonal programming, outside broadcasts and event partnerships extend the station's presence into the community it serves. The music policy deserves emphasis: by playing current mainstream hits alongside Christian artists, the station avoids the ghettoisation that can afflict religious broadcasting, instead offering a genuinely competitive contemporary sound. A listener can hear the same chart songs their colleagues discuss at work, framed within a station identity built on hope and positivity — a combination that explains why the audience extends well beyond regular churchgoers to families who simply want uplifting radio.

Coverage and Audience

Sonshine broadcasts to the Perth metropolitan area on 98.5 FM at 15.994 kW from its transmitter site, with digital radio coverage and worldwide streaming through its website and iOS and Android apps. Its audience is Perth's Christian community and the broader family audience seeking positive, clean, contemporary radio — listeners who want music they can share with children and grandchildren without reaching for the dial. The station's appeal crosses denominational lines, serving Catholic, Anglican, Pentecostal and other Christian listeners alongside non-churchgoing families drawn by the music and the values. Community radio audiences are measured differently from commercial ones, but Sonshine's longevity — approaching four decades on air — and its recognition as one of Australia's leading community broadcasters speak to a durable and devoted listenership. The Busselton retransmission campaign demonstrated that the demand extends well beyond the metropolitan licence area.

Ownership

Sonshine is a non-profit community broadcaster owned by Good News Broadcasters Inc., the incorporated association that holds the licence and governs the station. The community-ownership model is fundamental to its identity: the station exists to serve its community of interest — Perth's Christian community and the family audience — rather than to generate returns for shareholders. Funding comes from the standard community-radio mix of listener donations and subscriptions, sponsorships from values-aligned businesses, and fundraising, with a professional management team overseeing operations and a large volunteer contribution to programming and station life. The station is licensed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) as a community broadcaster, operating under the community broadcasting codes of practice.

Digital Presence

Sonshine streams live through its website at sonshine.com.au and through its iOS and Android apps, making the full 98.5 schedule available to listeners beyond the FM footprint — including former Perth residents, the WA diaspora and anyone seeking Christian community radio. The station also broadcasts on digital radio, extending its reach within the metropolitan area. Its social media channels distribute program highlights, community news and event information, fostering the sense of community that is the station's stock in trade. The apps, in particular, matter to the station's younger family audience, for whom the phone is the primary radio. For a broadcaster founded on the conviction that media shapes values, the digital platforms are mission-critical: they carry the station's positive message to audiences the FM signal cannot reach, and they provide the interactive connection — requests, messages, community engagement — that turns listeners into a community.