About 4NAG 91.3 FM Keppel FM

4NAG 91.3 FM Keppel FM

Overview

Keppel FM, call sign 4NAG, is a community radio station broadcasting on 91.3 FM from Yeppoon, on Queensland's Capricorn Coast. The station describes itself with the slogan "Your Voice on the Capricorn Coast", a positioning that sums up its role as a locally produced, volunteer-driven voice for Yeppoon and the surrounding Livingstone Shire communities. It is operated by the NAG Radio Broadcasting Association Inc, the incorporated community association that holds the station's community broadcasting licence.

The station's programming is made up predominantly of live and pre-recorded local shows presented by a team of volunteer announcers drawn from the local community, varying in age and cultural background. Rather than networking a metropolitan feed, Keppel FM fills its schedule with presenters from the coast itself, covering music across several decades and genres, local news, community information and specialist interest programs. Its studios are located at the Yeppoon Community Centre on John Street, in the heart of the town it serves.

Keppel FM is one of a small group of local media outlets based on the Capricorn Coast, a region otherwise largely served by media from nearby Rockhampton. In that context, the station provides a distinctly local alternative: a broadcast service in which the people on air are neighbours of the people listening, and where local events, local music and local concerns take priority over content produced elsewhere.

History

The station's origins date to 1998, when it was founded as Radio NAG. The unusual name was an homage to its three founders — Nick Saunders, Andre Soarez and Graham Channells — whose initials formed the acronym NAG. According to the station's history, the three men first discussed the viability of establishing a community radio station in Yeppoon during a game of darts.

Radio NAG commenced transmission on 20 August 1999, broadcasting on 91.3 FM from a room at Yeppoon State High School. With the help of Livingstone Shire Council, the station soon afterwards established permanent studios at the Yeppoon Community Centre in John Street, where it remains based. The council connection has been a recurring feature of the station's story: local government support helped the young station secure a stable home, and the association between the station and civic life on the Capricorn Coast has continued ever since.

In 2014, the station relaunched, adopting its official call sign, 4NAG, as its on-air brand. The change was unveiled at the station's annual open day that year, when Livingstone Shire mayor Bill Ludwig and television personality Peter Byrne cut a ceremonial ribbon alongside Cherie Furness, president of Capricorn Coast Community Radio, and the station presented a revamped programming line-up.

Further recognition followed. During National Volunteer Week in 2016, it was revealed that 4NAG would be one of thirty-six Central Queensland community organisations to share in $150,000 of federal government funding, with the station receiving $5,000. The same year, the station was nominated in the Excellence in Ethnic and Multicultural Engagement category at the CBAA Community Radio Awards, although the award itself went to Brisbane station 4EB.

In 2019 the station rebranded again, taking the name Keppel FM — stylised as KeppelFM. A station spokesperson explained at the time that the new name was chosen to be more recognisable and to have a closer association with the Capricorn Coast, particularly as online streaming was bringing the station a wider audience. An open day was held on 26 October 2019 to celebrate the new identity. At that point the station had fifteen on-air presenters. The Keppel name ties the station to Keppel Bay and the Keppel Islands, the defining geographic features of the coastline it serves.

Programming and Content

Keppel FM's schedule is built around local presenters hosting their own specialist programs, and the station's website showcases the range of volunteers currently on air. Music programming spans multiple eras and styles. Chris McGetrick presents Seismic 60s and Living in the 70s Oz Rock Evolution, celebrating the best of the 1960s, 1970s and Australian rock. Robyn Campbell hosts Rock On, alongside The Spectator and CQ News, combining rock music with local news coverage. Brent Evans presents Tunes for Tuesday and Thank God It's Friday, an easy-listening start to those mornings, and joins Annie for Capricorn Sunshine, a midweek morning program.

Specialist shows give the schedule its community texture. Max Murphy's Hot Potato Show is an hour of contemporary Irish music. Eddie and Michelle present Simply Divine on Sunday mornings, described as "the Good Gospel in word and music". Phil Walters hosts Livingstone Life, an easy-listening program with a round-up of what is happening around the coast, repeated several times across the week. The Yeppoon Little Theatre contributes Script in Hand, an hour of short radio plays performed by members of the local theatre group — an example of the station opening its airwaves to other community organisations.

News and information are woven through the week. Melinda Gleeson presents CQ & Future Magazines, five-minute snippets of news played on the hour frequently throughout weekday mornings, keeping listeners in touch with Central Queensland news. The combination of music-led programs, local news snippets, theatre, gospel and community round-ups reflects the classic community radio model: a broad, locally made schedule that aims to have something for different parts of the community at different times of the day.

Audience and Reach

Keppel FM broadcasts on 91.3 FM to Yeppoon and communities along the Capricorn Coast in Central Queensland, within the Livingstone Shire. Its audience is, by design, the local population of the coast — residents who might otherwise rely on Rockhampton-based media for their radio services. The station's identity is bound to the geography of the area: Yeppoon is the main town of the Capricorn Coast, a coastal strip of towns and settlements for which the station provides a shared local voice.

No published ratings or audited audience figures exist for the station, which is typical for a small community broadcaster, and none are claimed here. What can be said is that the station has sustained a volunteer presenter base — fifteen on-air presenters at the time of its 2019 rebrand — and a program schedule spanning the full week, indicating an established local listenership. Testimonials published on the station's website include one from Livingstone Shire Councillor Andrea Friend, who describes Keppel FM as "our voice here on the Capricorn Coast", and from local tradespeople who listen while working on job sites around the region.

Online streaming has extended the station's reach beyond its FM footprint. The station itself noted, when it rebranded in 2019, that streaming was finding it a wider audience — former residents, visitors and others with a connection to the Capricorn Coast can listen from anywhere, even though the station's editorial focus remains firmly local.

Digital Presence

Keppel FM maintains its website at keppelfm.org.au, which presents its presenters and programs, community news, events information and sponsor acknowledgements. The site promotes streaming of the station around the clock, with a listen-live player allowing the broadcast to be heard online 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The station also encourages listeners to find it through the Community Radio Plus app, the community broadcasting sector's smartphone app, which makes the station easy to locate and hear on a phone. A Facebook presence supplements the website, with the station directing listeners to its page to catch up on station news and community happenings. Together, the website, streaming player, app availability and social media give the station a digital footprint well beyond what its FM signal alone would suggest, while keeping the emphasis on local content and local people.

Ownership and Organisation

Keppel FM is owned and operated by the NAG Radio Broadcasting Association Inc, the incorporated association named as licensee in the Australian Communications and Media Authority's community radio broadcasting licence records, which record the service as having commenced on 20 August 1999. The association retains the original NAG name from the station's founding, even though the on-air brand has evolved from Radio NAG to 4NAG and then to Keppel FM.

Like most Australian community radio stations, Keppel FM is a volunteer organisation. Its programs are presented by volunteer announcers, and its operations depend on community support, including local sponsorship. The station's website invites local businesses to become sponsors, promoting sponsorship announcements aired five times a day, and lists sponsors including local cafés, automotive businesses, an optometrist, a sporting goods store, home care services and a community bank. This sponsorship base, together with grants such as the federal funding received in 2016, supports the station's not-for-profit operations.

The station has been known by association names reflecting its community role — at the time of the 2014 relaunch, Cherie Furness was president of Capricorn Coast Community Radio — and its long relationship with Livingstone Shire Council, which assisted with its permanent studio premises at the Yeppoon Community Centre, underlines its standing as a community institution rather than a commercial enterprise.

Contact and Availability

Keppel FM broadcasts on 91.3 FM across Yeppoon and the Capricorn Coast, Queensland. The station's studios are at the Yeppoon Community Centre, and its published address is 78 John Street, Yeppoon, Queensland 4703.

Listeners can stream the station live, 24 hours a day, through the player linked from its website at keppelfm.org.au, and can also find Keppel FM through the free Community Radio Plus app. The website carries the station's program information, presenter profiles, community what's-on coverage and sponsor details, and the station maintains a Facebook page for updates. Community members interested in volunteering, presenting or sponsoring can reach the station through the contact details published on its website.