Student station 95bFM has struggled to survive since its first broadcast in 1969 – but its history of hardship also makes it ideally placed to innovate.
2024 was a rough year for media in Aotearoa. Redundancy after redundancy shrank an already diminished industry even further.
For some, it’s like watching a car fire. But for independent student radio station 95bFM, this is just another day.
Radio Bosom’s first pirate broadcast in 1969 was from a borrowed boat in the Hauraki Gulf as a stunt by Auckland Uni students. And for 55 years, the station has managed to stay afloat. Though sometimes only just – for decades it has relied on the continued support of a loyal band of bCard holders (subscribers) and even now, many station ‘staff’ are volunteers.
The station is owned by a trust on behalf on Auckland University Students’ Association, but must bankroll itself. Over the years, bFM has been close to closure many times, prompting fundraisers galore. In mid-2023, the station decided to sell off a chunk of its 50ish-year-old vinyl collection – “a final resort” to stay alive. The situation is still by no means secure, with the latest fundraising gig ‘Save the B’ scheduled for December 20.
So, when Tom Tremewan, General Manager of 95bFM – and also the son of one of the law students who founded bFM – sees Mediaworks, NZME and TVNZ in dire financial straits, cutting the ties on beloved programmes and staff, he’s sympathetic.
“We are all suffering the same fates of the digital march,” he says. “We’re not exempt from any of those issues.”
Digital or die
But unlike the bigger kids in the playground who are pulling the plug on programmes or jobs, Tremewan says bFM – with its leaner budget and infrastructure – is more flexible.
“We will have to do what everyone else has to do and we will have to do it sooner rather than later,” he says, talking about switching to a digital future.
Indeed, bFM is the station best positioned to adapt to this new landscape, he says.
As a student radio station with that younger demographic, b’s audiences are the most prepared to head into the digital realm. Though Tremewan says theirs is an ageing listenership (because loyal listeners tune in for life) 95bFM’s focus will forever be an evergreen 17 to 24-year-old bracket.
Right now, that’s Gen Z, but soon it’ll be the Gen Alphas.
“We are phasing into a digital strategy that speaks to the current audience we have and the potential audience that we want to engage with,” he says.
“We have a really good vision for the future, but it’s not a case of turning off terrestrial and switching on to digital, and hoping that all our advertisers and listeners just come through with us on that transition.”
Keep this frequency clear
The digital revolution won’t be the first time Radio b has asked its audience to change platforms. The station switched from AM to FM in 1984 – one of the first in New Zealand to broadcast on that frequency, its Schedule 7 (educational purposes) licence meaning it didn’t have to buy a permit at auction like commercial stations did.
And bFM listeners worldwide have been able to tune in via the internet for decades – the station was the first in Aotearoa to stream live radio, starting in the late 1990s – so they’ve had plenty of time to warm to the idea.
“Our audiences are becoming more comfortable digitally in △ accessing on-demand content,” says Tremewan.
But you can’t force them. “We can’t just say, ‘If we build it, they will come.’ We actually have to adapt to the changes in our audience consumption behaviours.”
Deep cuts, not budget cuts
One of bFM’s secret weapons is that Schedule 7 licence: the station is allowed to operate because it pledges to be a training ground for radio, promote the involvement of women and ethnic minorities, operate a “contemporary progressive alternative music format” and support New Zealand music.
It’s a champion of grassroots talent – on the playlist, behind the mic and even in the advertising department.
What makes 95bFM different from The Edge, ZM, Mai FM and other commercial stations is the way it’s curated. Specialist music shows sit alongside interviews with prime ministers, segments from academics and the usual news, weather and surf. That variety is why Tremewan has been heavily involved in student media since 2013.
It also provides a great pathway for artists struggling to break into the music scene as they compete with TikTok and Spotify. In Aotearoa, the station is considered one of the few remaining ways to build an artist’s fanbase organically.
“Radio is like this magic thing that connects people and artists across time and space.”
The music mix is unique in NZ radioland and always evolving, depending on what the audience is listening to. Tremewan says a lot of the time bFM will play new tracks but also deep cuts from bygone eras.
Talent factory
As well as a showcase for local artists, the station is a stomping ground for future journalists and broadcasters – a place for them to hone their skills before tackling the big kids’ club.
“We’ve got a really well esteemed newsroom. When a journalist finishes school, people will come in and then go off to RNZ, The Herald and Stuff,” he adds.
Journalists including Noelle McCarthy, Simon Grigg, Tony Stamp, Russell Brown, Rebecca Wright and Kim Choe, plus broadcasting personalities such as Jeremy Wells and Mikey Havoc have all emerged from the
bFM studios.
Comedian Rhys Darby and David Farrier hosted a programme on the station from 2010 to 2012 which was later picked up for TV.
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick was a newsreader and later host of lunchtime show The Wire before she entered politics.
Even the ads are alternative
Steadfastly refusing to be mainstream (its tagline is “Other radio stations are s…”), bFM writes and produces adverts in-house. Partly, it’s another way to provide students with real-world media experience. Mostly, it’s because they want to do it their way.
“We always have our own editorial control and licence over what we produce in house for clients, which is for the bFM audience through the bFM lens,” says Tremewan.
“If you had a straight read on something, that’s not what we’re about. We want to be weird and different.
“We can do experimental, out-of-the-box creative things that other brands are probably quite rigid and afraid to do, because we do a lot of trial and error anyway. We can be cheeky. We can bend the rules. We can be a little bit raucous, and we can do stuff that might get noise complaints.”
How the station operates is unlike any other, and that fact that it works is largely down to the talent it breeds and nurtures.
With 40,000 tuning in each week across New Zealand and around the world, it’s still a niche station, but the listeners are highly engaged. bFM has around 32,800 weekly terrestrial listeners and 24,650 streams via its website monthly.
“Outside of New Zealand, we get a significantly large number of listeners in Australia, Japan, USA, UK, South Korea and Norway,” Tremewan adds.
He says b’s focus on is reflecting the audience now and the future.
“The magic of radio is that we can take it out of the station and take it to people. We can engage with our audience, bring our music to them.”
This was first published in the December-Janaury 2024/2025 NZ Marketing Magazine issue. Subscribe here.
