Our History

3INR (call sign 96.5 Inner FM) began life in November, 1987, when a group of local residents held a meeting to discuss the formation of a community broadcaster in the north eastern region of Melbourne. A few of these original Members are still involved with our 96.5 Inner FM Community Radio Station.

Live in 1990

After two years of test broadcasting, the Station was issued with a permanent license on December 7, 1990, which is renewed every five years. We commenced full time (24-hour) broadcasting on December 10, 1990. Since that time we’ve emerged with our own unique personality and sound, and we continue to develop and promote our “grass-roots” style of community-focused broadcasting.

From Warringal to the World

Inner FM’s studios are located in the Warringal Shopping Centre, on the corner of Rosanna Road and Burgundy Street, Heidelberg. We’ve been there for almost our entire history. Our compact offices houses two on-air studios and a small production area.

24 hours a day, every day!

We operate 24 hours a day, every day, and during a normal week we produce more than 100 hours of live in-studio broadcasting with the help of 50+ Presenters hosting various unique programs – without any paid staff. The shortfall in hours over a week is made up of a variety of recorded overnight music or replays of programs that had been broadcast recently. Our format is a mixture of magazine style and music programs appealing to all tastes and age groups. For those technical minded our transmitter is mounted on the roof of the Austin Hospital boiler room.

On FM, Online, On Your Mobile & If You Ask Nicely, On Your Smart Speaker

96.5 Inner FM serves the cities of Banyule, Manningham and Darebin. However, our programs are heard across a much wider geographical area, with a listening catchment potential in excess of 425,000 people in these three municipalities. We also stream live on the internet and have listeners from all around the world via streaming and smartphone applications such as TuneIn or iHeartRadio. With the growing popularity of technology such as smart speakers, electronic personal assistants and Bluetooth, it makes it possible for listeners to switch on at any time of the day or night from almost “anywhere in the known universe”.

Want to get involved?

Our station has many special interest programs including local schools, community groups such as Scouts Victoria, service clubs, legal news and music programs that cover all genres from classical to rock, to pop, to blues, to jazz, to stage and theatre and even some country connections.

Volunteers involved in the operation of the station include young people from local schools and universities who come to us wanting to help out. Our youngest regular Presenter is in their mid-teens and our oldest are well into their eighties (but don’t point that out to them). We’re always looking for anyone in the technical or production field to help us get our station out onto the airwaves and welcome others who wish to join our presenter ranks after a period of training in the technical aspects of producing a program.

The running of 96.5 Inner FM is coordinated by our Committee of Management (CoM) that meets once a month. The program decisions are made by an autonomous Program Working Group (PWG) that meets to formulate program styles and ideas for future programming. The PWG reports directly to the CoM.

The revenue for the station comes from sponsorship, membership subscriptions and occasionally small grants for specific projects. We’re constantly fund-raising to help supplement the costs of operating the station. We do occasionally receive grants from the Community Broadcasting Foundation to allow us to repair and replace equipment, etc.

96.5 Inner FM celebrated the Station’s 30th anniversary of 24 hour broadcasting in 2020 and look forward to developing and growing while serving our local communities well into the future.

So if you’d like to get involved with 96.5 Inner FM please complete the form below or email [email protected] and someone will be in touch.

Welcome to 96.5 Inner FM, your Local Community Radio Station – “The Sounds of Our Cities!”