One of the things that annoyed me when I moved from Freemans Bay to Glenfield in 2006 was that I would not be able to tune into Base FM anymore. This radio station broadcasts on a low powered frequency (107.3) out of Ponsonby. This pretty much meant I was out of luck if I wanted to listen to it at home. I even spent about $100 on a big VHF aerial in the hope that I could pick it up. Unfortunately there must have been another low powered radio station on the same frequency closer to me than Base FM’s transmitter in Ponsonby. So all I could hear on that frequency was some oldies music.

So I was stoked to learn the other day (quite by accident) that Base FM is now available on Freeview. I did a service search on my satellite receiver and it found it pretty much straight away. All in crystal clear digital audio.

For those new to Base FM, It’s basically a station where DJ’s specialise hip hop, drum & bass, reggae, funk and soul. The DJ’s play what they want and they are not under any commercial pressure to play rubbish. They only play music they are truely passionate about. So now that this awsome station is available all over Aotearoa, I think down the line this will have a positive influence on the creative output of New Zealander’s with an intertest in producing quality hip hop, drum & bass, reggae, funk or soul. Aspiring artists can draw from a wider range of influences instead of just what they see on C4 in primetime or by listening to banal commercial hip hop and R&B on radio stations like Mai FM and Flava.

Tags: basefm, freeview, satellite

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.