Bendigo's Fresh FM 101.5, also known as ''Bendigo's Best Sport'', (call sign: 3BBS) is a

community radio Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popul ...

station broadcast in

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, mak ...

, Australia. It began in 1983 as 3CCC based in

Harcourt Harcourt may refer to: People *Harcourt (surname) * Harcourt (given name) Places Canada *Harcourt Parish, New Brunswick * Harcourt, New Brunswick, an unincorporated community * Harcourt, Ontario, a village *Harcourt, Newfoundland and Labrad ...

using the frequency 103.9 FM.

History

The Australian Broadcasting Tribunal allocated Fresh 89.5 FM a community broadcasting license in 1983 to provide a community broadcasting service within the Bendigo area. After 25 years of broadcasting, the Fresh FM had is license cancelled in 2006 by

Australian Communications and Media Authority The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is an Australian government statutory authority within the Communications portfolio. ACMA was formed on 1 July 2005 with the merger of the Australian Broadcasting Authority and the Au ...

when the station failed to lodge renewal applications despite 12 months of frequent reminders. This resulted in a handful of on-air announcers walking from the community station, citing difficulties with management and disagreements with new programming (including increased use of pre-recorded content from

98.9 FM (Brisbane) 98.9 FM (callsign 4AAA) is a community radio station that caters to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in metropolitan Brisbane, Queensland. See also * List of radio stations in Australia This is a list of radio stations ...

). The station was found in breach of its temporary license conditions in 2008 "by failing to represent the Bendigo Community". The ACMA stated that annual general meetings to allow members to contribute to the operation of the station were not held between 2001 and 2006. In a plan to transfer the 89.5 frequency to

ABC NewsRadio ABC NewsRadio, since 2017 broadcast under the ABC News brand and for a short time known as ABC News on Radio, is a 24-hour news radio service broadcast by the Australian public broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). ABC ...

to broadcast national parliament, the ACMA suggested Fresh and fellow community station

Phoenix FM Phoenix FM is a community radio station serving the areas of Brentwood and Billericay, England on 98.0FM and online, covering an area of over 140,000 people. History The station was formed in 1996 and has been broadcasting full-time on FM since ...

share the 101.5 frequency with Central Victoria Gospel Radio. Finally, after sharing a frequency with the then-testing Phoenix FM on 89.5, the ACMA allocated the 101.5 frequency to Fresh FM in 2010 and Phoenix to 106.7, Gospel radio to 105.1. In 2014, Fresh FM became the first local radio station to broadcast a live

Victorian Women's Football League The Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) was the oldest and largest Australian rules football league for women in the world, consisting of 47 clubs from Victoria, Australia, across seven divisions and a total of over 1,000 players. The ...

match at the

Queen Elizabeth Oval Queen Elizabeth Oval is a sports stadium located in Bendigo, Australia primarily used for Australian rules football and cricket. History Cricket The Oval, originally known as Upper Reserve, hosted touring cricket teams as early as 1897. The ...

Format

Fresh FM is known for its local sports broadcasts, including

Central Victoria North Central Victoria is a rural region in the Australian state of Victoria. The region lies to the south of the Victorian/New South Wales border as defined by the Murray River, to the southwest of the Hume region, to the west of the Great D ...

n netball, basketball, and football, and has broadcast live

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

games via the NIRS. Listeners are urged to text "SMS requests" into the station with song requests during the work day, the music tailored primarily to the 70s, 80s and 90s decades of music.

References

Radio stations in Bendigo Bendigo {{Australia-radio-station-stub