PBA-FM

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PBA-FM 89.7

Broadcast area	Adelaide, South Australia
Slogan	Community First
First air date	1983
Frequency	89.7 MHz FM
Format	All Musical Genres, Talk Radio
Owner	Community Based
Website	www.pbafm.org.au

PBA-FM 89.7 (Callsign 5PBA) is a community radio station in Adelaide, South Australia, and broadcasts to the Northern Suburbs.

1 History
2 Format
3 Technology
4 Staff
5 External Links
6 See Also

[edit] History

PBA-FM was established in 1979 as a community radio station broadcasting on 89.7 MHz across the Northern Suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia.

The station was originally a portion of the University Of South Australia Salisbury campus, in a ground known as Foundation Studios (Defunct). Although established in 1979, broadcasting did not commence until January 1983.

Only a few years after the station had begun broadcasting, in 1989, Foundation Studios was closed. The remaining Community Print building moved off campus, and the remaining buildings became small halls used occasionally for community workshops and projects. The last of Foundation Studios was demolished in February 2005.

The same effect started applying to the main studio. In 2005 plans began to relocate the station to the former Country Fire Service station in Salisbury after development group Lifestyles SA offered to purchase the land for a housing development. A floorplan of the new station has been set, and the station will move in to the former CFS building, starting in 2007.

[edit] Format

PBA-FM airs over 60 diverse programs going to air each week, including several multicultural shows and non English speaking programs. The station also allows the general public to broadcast a show in one of the station time slots for a small fee.

Announcers are free to choose the music that they present, and there are no restrictions on the types of music playable, as long as the music is non-explicit. Each night specialist programs broadcast a specific genre of music, ranging from Classical, World, Rock & Roll, Jazz, Country and Rhythm & Blues.

During the night the station airs the show "Music Throughout The Night", which is a random compilation of songs from several different artists and genres.

[edit] Technology

PBA-FM has two production studios, a digital production suite and an outside broadcast unit.

The production studios are identical in terms of technology, and includes Soundcraft RM100 broadcast consoles, digital cart software, dual Sony Slimline CDP11 CD players, 1/4 Analog reel, cassette deck, Satellite feeds and Stanton Turntables.

The station control room hosts the broadcast hardware, including transmitter consoles and microwave transmission units. On air feeds are processed by an Orban Optimod and is connected to the transmission site at Para Hills, in Adelaide, South Australia.

The Digital Production Suite centres around a Pro Tools Workstation PC with dual LCD displays, Tannoy Monitors and CD/DVD Authoring Tools. The outside broadcast unit uses almost similar technologies to the main studios, with the exception of Behringer broadcast consoles rather than Soundcraft units.

[edit] Staff

PBA-FM is staffed by a team of over 150 volunteers. All contribute to the station by working on a regular basis in various areas including on-air presentation, program production, administration, technical, research, library, training and promotions.