Broadcast Coverage

Southern FM broadcasts on 88.3 FM to Melbourne’s southern and south-eastern suburbs.

The suburbs in Southern FM’s official broadcast region are:

Armadale	Clarinda	Malvern	Sandringham
Balaclava	Clayton	Malvern East	Sandringham East
Beaumaris	Clayton North	McKinnon	South Yarra
Bentleigh	Clayton South	Mentone	St Kilda
Bentleigh East	Elsternwick	Moorabbin	St Kilda East
Black Rock	Elwood	Moorabbin Airport	St Kilda West
Black Rock North	Gardenvale	Mordialloc	Toorak
Brighton	Glen Huntly	Murrumbeena	Windsor
Brighton East	Glen Iris	Oakleigh
Caulfield	Hampton	Oakleigh East
Caulfield North	Hampton East	Oakleigh South
Caulfield South	Heatherton	Ormond
Carnegie	Highett	Parkdale
Chadstone	Hughesdale	Prahran
Cheltenham	Kooyong	Ripponlea

 

Audience

The above suburbs are Southern FM’s official broadcast profile, however our broadcast signal does carry into neighbouring suburbs, like Dandenong, and Mulgrave for example. We can even be heard as far away from our broadcast tower as Somerville. While they aren’t officially in our broadcast profile, we do have support from these areas, as some of our members come from outside our official broadcast area. While unintended, this shows that our reach extends beyond our ACMA-designated broadcast region.

According to Census Data (2021), Southern FM broadcasts to a population of 588,389 in an area of 181km². Based on the latest audience research by the Community Broadcasting Association (CBAA) in 2025, 23% of people in the greater Melbourne region listen to Community Radio each week. Click here to view Audience Research Summary

When this survey result is applied to our broadcast region, Southern FM reaches a potential cumulative audience of 135,329 (weekly). Please note: This figure does not include people listening outside our FM broadcast region on our website livestream or via the CommunityRadioPLUS app for smart phones and tablets.

In today’s age, radio stations use online and digital platforms to complement their broadcast. Southern FM has a strong online presence, live internet streaming, Radio on Demand, and podcasting. Our combined online efforts amount to roughly a further 300,000 plays per year of either entire shows, or snippets of audio. Our online social networks are highly engaged and frequently updated with the latest information from the station. Our website receives more than 10,000 unique visitors per month.

In our broadcast region, the top three industries are Manufacturing, Property and Business/Retail. This provides sponsors the opportunity to attract patronage from listeners who are well-placed in terms of household disposable income as well as having an interest in their local community.

Programming

The station broadcasts 24 hours a day with a diverse range of programs. The diversity of our shows ensures we attract loyal listeners to our programs which include magazine-style shows, sports, health and lifestyle, literature, local and international news along with nearly every genre of music including Classical, Blues, Jazz, Alternative, 60’s, RnB, along with the chart topping hits of the moment. Combined with a selection of programs in languages other than English, sponsors can reach their target audience without having to buy time on several different stations.

Sponsorship on Southern FM

By law, Southern FM is limited to no more than five minutes of sponsorship messages per hour. This ensures your message will be heard rather than being lost in a myriad of advertisement clusters as on commercial radio. Your message on Southern FM is broadcast as a sponsorship message rather than a commercial. This creates greater empathy for your message from the listener, because they know you are supporting the station. To ensure this is recognisable we put a ‘tag’ at the end of your message that typically would be something like “name of your organisation – is a proud sponsor of Southern FM”.

Based on McNair Research, we place your sponsorship message in our most active time slots, between 6 PM and 10 PM each day. In addition, we offer “bonus spots” in our late night programming.

Our Volunteers

At 88.3 Southern FM we do not have paid staff or management, everyone is a volunteer. People from all walks of life make up our active membership. Their knowledge, talents and expertise create our diverse programming. Some of our members have worked in commercial radio or with public broadcasters and on television as presenters, panel operators or in technical support roles. Others are, or have been involved in the media as journalists or on stage, in film, television, theatre and the music industry.

Behind the scenes, our on-air presenters (who pay for studio time to enable their programs to go to air) are supported by dedicated helpers in the areas of production, engineering, accounting and administration.  When you pay for a sponsorship message, the money is being used only to run the radio station, not paying salaries or dividends to shareholders. The revenue covers ongoing costs, like rent, utilities, payment of licence fees along with other enhancements to station technology.

If you enjoy a particular program on Southern FM, you can sponsor that time slot. Doing so will assist the presenter by negating their need to pay studio fees, for the duration of your sponsorship package.

Become a Sponsor

To view our Sponsorship package Media Kit, Click here.

For more information about sponsorship opportunities, please email sponsorship@nullsouthernfm.com.au or fill out the form below and we will contact you.