New Aus Online Radio Firm Gets Stripes

Tag : Radio
By Christie Eliezer, Melbourne

While the introduction of digital radio in Australia has beenfurther delayed, the country's first mobile radio subscriptionservice has just been launched. For a fee of $7.95 Australian($6.30) per month, subscribers to the service are enabled to access30 channels through their 3G mobile phones and computers.

The channels include such genres as Sixties American psychedelicrock, Japanese pop, love songs, hip-hop culture, chill out jazz andthe Australian Top 50. Stripe markets itself as the place to findexciting new music - Australian as well as global - with onechannel reserved for tracks less than four weeks old. It plans toexpand to incorporate news, sports and lifestyle services.

"Stripe Radio will revolutionize radio in Australia the way FM didin the 1980s," its founder, Glenn Wheatley, tells Billboard.biz.Best known internationally as Melbourne-based manager of highprofile acts John Farnham, Delta Goodrem and Little River Band,Wheatley lead a consortium of radio and music executives whointroduced FM radio down under.

He expects the new broadcaster to have 40 ad-funded channels byChristmas, and 100 by the end of 2009.

Wheatley intended to introduce Stripe by satellite delivery. "Butthere wasn't the right satellite in this part of the world," herecounts. "After 12 frustrating months of working out how to launchour own satellite, 3G technology came to Australia. It did the jobat less cost and without the need to support a massive structure asXM and Sirius had to do."

A report "2008 Australia - Mobile Communications Statistics, Trendsand Forecasts,” released last month by research firm Researchand Markets, reported that all four major mobile operators in thecountry - Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and Hutchison - are completingfaster 3G network upgrades. Vodafone's network will reach 95% ofthe population and Hutchison expects to cover 96% during the firsthalf of 2009.

Following the launch on Oct. 2, Stripe is cautiously targeting asubscription base of 20,000 in its first six months.

Its managing director Iain Bartram and head of programming JarrodGraetz come from traditional radio backgrounds. Wheatley willremain in home detention until Oct. 19 after being found guilty oftax evasion last year.