July 23, 2026 · by David Gilbert · 3 min read · Radio & Broadcasting
By most conventional media logic, a small community radio station running on volunteers in a regional NSW town shouldn't really still exist in 2026. Streaming services, podcasts, and an essentially infinite supply of on-demand entertainment are all competing for the exact same attention a station like 92.3FM 2YYY is asking for. And yet here we are, still broadcasting, still volunteer-run, still going. I've thought a lot about why.
It's Not Competing on the Same Terms
I think the mistake is assuming community radio is competing directly with Spotify or a global podcast network for the same kind of attention. It isn't, really. Nobody tunes into 92.3FM expecting the production polish of a major studio or an infinite personalised catalogue. They're tuning in for something genuinely local — voices they might recognise from the shops, conversations about things actually happening in this actual town, a sense of place that no algorithm, however well-tuned, can authentically replicate for a specific small community.
What Streaming Genuinely Can't Replicate
A streaming platform can give you perfectly tailored content based on your exact preferences. It cannot give you a live, slightly imperfect, genuinely local broadcast where the presenter might mention your kid's footy team's result from Saturday, or interview your neighbour about the local show committee, or take a live call from someone down the road with a question about their internet connection. That specific, hyper-local texture is the actual product, and it's structurally impossible for a global platform to compete on it directly, no matter how good their algorithm gets.
The Volunteer Model Is a Feature, Not Just a Limitation
Running on volunteers rather than paid professional staff means lower costs, obviously, but it also means the people on air are genuinely embedded in the community rather than parachuted in. I'm not doing Tech Time because it's my job — I'm doing it because I live here, my business is here, and I actually care whether the segment is useful to actual listeners I might run into at the shops next week. That's a different, harder-to-fake kind of investment than a paid gig in a city studio for an audience the presenter will never personally meet.
Where the Real Challenges Actually Are
I won't pretend it's all rosy. Funding is a constant, genuine pressure, equipment ages and needs replacing on a shoestring budget, and finding new volunteers willing to commit time consistently gets harder as everyone's schedules get busier and more fragmented. The transmitter failure I've written about elsewhere is a good example — that kind of equipment risk is a real, ongoing concern for a station running on a tight budget rather than a broadcaster's deep pockets.
Why I Think It's Worth the Effort
Beyond my own enjoyment of it, I genuinely think small, local information and connection points matter more, not less, as everything else gets more global, more algorithmic, and more personalised in a way that quietly isolates people from their actual physical community. A local radio station is one of a shrinking number of things that's actually, specifically about the place you live, made by people who live there too.
What Keeps It Going
Mostly, honestly, stubbornness and genuine community goodwill — listeners who donate, sponsors who advertise because they actually believe in what the station does for the town, and a rotating cast of volunteers willing to keep showing up. It's not a glamorous business model. It's outlasted plenty of more glamorous ones, and I don't expect that to change anytime soon, provided enough of us keep showing up to keep it running.