This report presents the results of a national research project into ethnic community broadcasting in Australia.

The study involved two phases. First, a survey was conducted online in English throughout 2022, with 100 station managers, program coordinators and ethnic community broadcasters. This was followed by fieldwork in 2022/23, at eight community radio stations in a mixture of metropolitan and regional locations, where semi-structured interviews were conducted with station managers, ethnic program producers, community leaders and migrant support service workers. These interviews were then followed up by focus groups with listeners of the eight stations we visited. Where required, focus groups were conducted with a translator present, to ensure all community members could participate equally and to ensure all voices were included in this research.

This report delivers findings related to some of the full-time ethnic community radio stations in Australia – those tasked with broadcasting multicultural content at all times – alongside those ethnic programs that sit within a broader, more generalist station. The research findings include stations in urban and regional/rural areas. In this sense, it is a true indication of how ethnic community broadcasting is operating across the full range of the Australian community broadcasting sector.