Association of Community Access Broadcasters in Encyclopedia

The Association of Community Access Broadcasters (ACAB), is a group of twelve New Zealand community radio stations. The stations, which were established between 1981 and 2000 and have received government funding since 1989, broadcast community programming and provide facilities, training and on-air time for individuals and community groups to produce the programming.

The ACAB group is a core component of New Zealand On Air's Community Broadcasting Strategy. A government funding pool of approximately $2 million is allocated annually for the eleven stations to produce programming for women, youth, children, ethnic and other minorities and people with disabilities in accordance with section 36(c) of the Broadcasting Act 1989. Individual station funding is allocated on a four-tier system based on audience reach, with each station receiving between $110,000 and $220,000.^[1]

In addition to government funding conditions, ACAB stations also have an individual and collective mandate to broadcast programmes for people of a wide range of particular religions, cultures, languages, ages and sexualities. Stations operate independently and locally, making decisions on programming and scheduling by consensus.^[2]

Station	Frequencies	NZ On Air Funding Tier^[3]	Languages	Communities	Other programming topics
Planet FM	104.6 MHz Auckland	Tier 1	English, Tongan, Arabic, Mandarin, Singhalese, Niuean, Punjabi, Tamil, Cantonese, Khmer, Telegu, Tagalog, Hindi, Nepali, Spanish, Italian, Sikh, Gujarati, Marathi, Afrikaan	Tongan, disability, Roman Catholics, Korean, Buddhist, Sri Lankan, Samoan, Punjabi, Ghanaian, Irish, Scientologists, queer, Fijian, Cook Islanders, South Indian, Christian, Zambia, Indonesian, Assyrian, Filipino, Japanese, Croatian, Hare Krishna	Bollywood, New Zealand hip hop, mental health, literature, astronomy, environment, health
Community Radio Hamilton	1206 kHz Hamilton 106.7 MHz Hamilton	Tier 2
Radio Kidnappers	1431 kHz Hawke's Bay 104.7 MHz Hawke's Bay	Tier 3
Access Radio Taranaki	104.4 MHz Taranaki
Access Manawatu	999 kHz Manawatu	Tier 3
Arrow FM^[4]	92.7 MHz Wairarapa	Tier 4		Students, Disability, Maori, Carterton Thursdays	Cancer, Alcoholism, Democracy Now
Coast Access FM^[5]	104.7 MHz Kapiti, Horowhenua	Tier 4
Wellington Access Radio	783 kHz Wellington	Tier 2
Fresh FM^[6]	104.8 MHz Tasman 95.2 MHz Nelson 95.2 MHz Takaka 88.9 MHz Blenheim	Tier 3
Plains FM^[7]	96.9 MHz Canterbury	Tier 2	English, Arabic, Cook Island M ori, Dutch, Fijian, Filipino, French, German, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Nepalese, Samoan, Taiwanese, Tongan
Otago Access Radio^[8]	1575 kHz Otago 104.5 mHz Dunedin	Tier 3
Radio Southland^[9]	96.4 MHz Southland	Tier 3

Association of Community Access Broadcasters

References