Contact FM is a
student
A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution.
In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementar ...
radio station in
Hamilton, New Zealand. It operates from the
University of Waikato in
Hamilton. It broadcasts on the 88.1
MHz FM frequency, having previously broadcast on 106 MHz, 89.0 MHz and 1440 kHz. The original Contact FM, owned by the Waikato Students Union, was broadcast on 89.0 MHz from 1985 to 1998. During a period of
voluntary student unionism, the WSU subleased the frequency to private ownership, along with selling Contact FM's equipment. Specialist shows have included the Prognosis Show, a
progressive rock show hosted by Richard Stockwell on Saturday nights from 1996 to 1997. The show also included
space music
Space music, also called spacemusic or space ambient, is a subgenre of new-age music and is described as "tranquil, hypnotic and moving". It is derived from ambient music and is associated with lounge music, easy listening, and elevator music.
...
,
krautrock
Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...
,
psychedelic music
Psychedelic music (sometimes called psychedelia) is a wide range of popular music styles and genres influenced by 1960s psychedelia, a subculture of people who used psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, mescaline, and cannabis to ...
,
electronic music and
experimental Music
Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...
.
The Independent Broadcasting Community relaunched Contact on a
low-power frequency 106 MHz, before settling with its current frequency of 88.1 MHz. The station celebrated its 30th birthday in October 2009. The current Management Committee of the Independent Broadcasting Community (Hamilton) Incorporated, who run Contact FM, is chairperson Nick Johnston, treasurer Daniel Farrell, secretary Lauren Kerr Bell, and officers Ayman Aneece, Shane Griffin and Luke Jacobs.
Contact hosts many local Hamilton music events. Since 2008, it has run annual Hamilton music festival
Hamilton Circle Jerk. The event features 15 Hamilton bands performing 3 song sets, two songs by other Hamilton musicians as well as an original. The festival had previously struggled to attract sponsorship, in part due to being controversially named after the
mutual masturbatory act.
References
External links
Contact FMOfficial webcast
{{New Zealand radio networks
Student radio stations in New Zealand