CMJ Announces New International Reporters In Australia And New Zealand
Jun 29, 2010
Story by: Lisa Hresko
For over 30 years CMJ has been the go-to place for US and Canadian college and community stations to promote themselves
on a national and international scale. Now we at CMJ are very excited to welcome new reporters from across the globe.
Australia's RTRFM (Perth) and New Zealand stations 95bFM (Auckland), RDU (Christchurch), Radio One (Dunedin) and Radio
Active (Wellington) are CMJ's first intercontinental-continental reporters. Although these student and community
stations differ slightly from their North American counterparts, all share a desire to champion up-and coming music and
showcase the music of their local scenes to an expanding audience. "Student radio in our country is a bit different
[than] college radio in America," says Brendan Smyth of NZ On Air, the agency that worked with CMJ to include New
Zealand's student stations as reporters. "But it's the same in one important respect... a love of exciting new and
adventurous music."
"We are a station that celebrates diversity and are committed to discovering and nurturing new music, talent and ideas,"
says Manu Taylor, head of radio at new reporting station 95bFM in Auckland. "The music we play is a direct reflection of
our culture—dominated by local New Zealand artists alongside the greatest that the world has to offer... We are keen to
share our musical discoveries and successes with our contemporaries at CMJ."
"[Our] tag is 'The Sound Alternative,' and as an embodiment of that, the station prides itself on offering an eclectic,
exciting and cutting-edge alternative to both commercial radio and to community radio with a more specialist focus,"
says RTRFM music director Adam Trainer. "We hope that our inclusion on the CMJ charts will enable the station to expand
its listenership and its visibility internationally. As we place a strong emphasis on local music, we're also hopeful
that this may increase the profile of Western Australian music and turn new audiences onto the great sounds that are
coming out of our state."
And from the south of New Zealand's South Island, Radio One Station manager Lesley Paris says, "This is very cool for
our stations to be contributing to CMJ. Our playlists' mix of international and [local] artists will be useful for
overseas music fans and industry folk to put our artists in context when we have Bang Bang Eche, the Naked And Famous,
Lawrence Arabia and Die! Die! Die! alongside LCD Soundsystem, Liars or the Arcade Fire. It's hugely important to our
network to champion alternative NZ music, so working with CMJ is going to be a great way for us to effectively develop
this internationally."
95bFM (Auckland, NZ)
Radio Active (Wellington, NZ)
RDU98.5FM (Christchurch, NZ)
Radio One (Dunedin, NZ)
RTRFM (Perth, Australia)
ENDS