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SBS Radio

SBS Radio is an Australian radio network owned by the Special Broadcasting Service directed towards newly arrived immigrants in Australia. It originally began as two stations based in Melbourne and Sydney, set up to provide pre-recorded information about the then-new Medibank health care system in languages other than English. Nowadays, the network targets the estimated 4+ million Australians who speak a language other than English at home with programs in 68 languages.

History and evolution
The history of SBS Radio goes back to the 1970s when the government started considering the demand for broadcasting in languages other than English after a mass-influx of foreign-born populace post World War Two. In January 1975, Al Grassby, the Commissioner of Community Relations at the time, approached future members of the SBS executive board about his intention to start up two experimental radio stations in Sydney and Melbourne, which would almost always broadcast in non-English languages, on a budget of around $67,000. The amount was sufficient to pay for two broadcasters per program and rented studios in the two cities. On 12 May 1975, the ABC established 3ZZ in Melbourne, which broadcast predominantly in languages other than English. After some months of planning, on 9 June 1975, 2EA (EA standing for Ethnic Australia), opened in Sydney by Al Grassby, with the first language heard on 2EA being Greek. == Programming and content ==
Programming and content
Most programs contain a mix of news, current affairs, sport, community information, entertainment and music relating to a specific ethnic or language group. The exception is the English language NITV Radio program, and overnight programming from the BBC World Service and Deutsche Welle. Programs with large communities such as Greek and Mandarin also have talkback segments in the last quarter of the program. A program is hosted by maximum two hosts, and usually includes a pre-recorded or pre-written Acknowledgment of Country, which acknowledges the land of the studios which the program is broadcasting from. SBS Radio broadcasts programs from either of its Sydney or Melbourne studios. Some programs may be primarily broadcast from one of the two locations owing to historical reasons, for example the Albanian program was primarily broadcast from Melbourne due to being first added to the Melbourne radio schedule (See above for chronology of language additions) ==Radio stations==
Radio stations
SBS Radio has three main radio services, Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 3, as well as a national FM service. Radio 1 is available on AM in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Wollongong (1107, 1224, 1440 and 1485 respectively, and can also be listened to in FM on the SBS Audio app) while Radio 2 is available on FM in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra (97.7, 93.1 and 105.5) and on AM in Wollongong (1035). Radio 3 is only available on digital platforms. It broadcasts the BBC World Service on all days of the week unless of special circumstances. The national service (branded simply as SBS Radio) is available throughout the rest of the nation through FM broadcasting (except in Newcastle, where it is available on AM) and on the Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST) satellite service, and is composed of material from Radios 1, 2 and 3. Additionally, a few community stations in areas without dedicated SBS Radio transmitters carry some SBS Radio content. Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 3 are all available nationwide through digital terrestrial television, through DAB+ digital radio in available areas, on satellite from free-to-air Optus D1 and Optus B3 C-band satellite transmissions, and on Foxtel. Until the launch of Radio 3 in April 2013, programs available on Radio 1 and Radio 2 varied depending on the platform and the location: for example, digital radio and television in Brisbane largely followed scheduling in Sydney, while digital radio and television in Adelaide and Perth largely followed scheduling in Melbourne. SBS has some additional digital-only services. These are available on digital radio in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra; on digital terrestrial TV throughout the country, on VAST, the internet and other platforms. These include: • SBS Chill, a mix of chillout and chilled world music • SBS PopAsia, a mixture of J-pop, K-pop and C-pop, which began broadcasting in 2010. • SBS South Asian, a mixture of Bhangra, Bollywood music and South Asian pop music in addition with South Asian news and talk programming. It was previously named as SBS PopDesi. • SBS Radio 3, which began broadcasting on 29 April 2013. Radio 3 was added to Foxtel and Austar on 2 September 2013. It initially included Australian made programming in various languages. As of 2024, it carries SBS language programs from 11AM to 5PM weekdays, with BBC World Service programs at all other times. • SBS Arabic 24, a 24-hour Arabic radio station, began broadcasting on 7 March 2016. It broadcast a quantity of BBC Arabic programming until it became unavailable in January 2023, and was replaced with music programming. Discontinued digital radio services include: • SBS PopAraby, which featured Arabic pop music. It is now a programming block on SBS Arabic 24. • SBS Radio 4 relayed the BBC World Service most of the time, and was supplemented with Australian programs. On 18 April 2019, all such programs on SBS Radio 4 were transferred to SBS Radio 3. Slogans previously used include The many voices of one Australia, Six Billion Stories and Counting... and Seven Billion Stories and Counting...; with the current one being A World of Difference. == Languages ==
Languages
As of , SBS Radio broadcasts in the following languages. All languages are available on the national service unless otherwise noted. On 20 November 2017, SBS Radio reorganized, dropping of services in twelve languages that either weren't as widely spoken, or had communities who weren't in need of a dedicated service in their language, based on the 2016 census. In those languages' places, however, were seven new languages introduced after the review, but due to lack of airtime, none of these services are available on radio as of . SBS Radio has re-organized its radio service once again in November 2022, based on the 2021 census. ;Broadcast on Radio 1: • English for Indigenous Australians • AlbanianAmharicArmenianBosnianBulgarianCantoneseCroatianDinkaEnglishEstonianFinnishFrenchGreekHebrewHungarianJapaneseKhmerKoreanMacedonianMandarinPolishRomanianSamoanSerbianSlovenianTigrinyaVietnameseYiddish ;Broadcast on Radio 2: • ArabicAssyrianBengaliBurmeseCzechDariDutchFilipinoGermanGujaratiHindiHmongIndonesianItalianKurdishLaoMalayalamMalteseNepaliPashtoPersianPortuguesePunjabiRussianSinhalaSlovakSomaliSpanishSwahiliTamilThaiTurkishUkrainianUrdu ;Distributed via podcast: • Hakha ChinKarenKirundiMongolianRohingyaTeluguTibetan Previous languages • English for Africans • BelarusianCook Islands MaoriDanishFijianIrish GaelicKannadaLatvianLithuanianMalayMaoriNorwegianScots GaelicSwedishTonganWelsh Radio 1 also broadcasts segments of SBS Chill, either to fill up schedule gaps or to replace a program in recess. A radio version of SBS World News also aired on Radio 1 and currently airs in podcast format. SBS Radio also broadcasts a variety of languages from BBC World Service and Deutsche Welle, as well as SBS Arabic24 also broadcasts the BBC Arabic programming. All languages broadcast on Radio 1 were available (with reduced hours) on the national FM service, as well as all languages on Radio 2, except Dari, Lao and Maltese. None of the languages which were broadcast on Radio 3 were available on analogue radio. ;Notes == Technical information ==
Technical information
RDS trial SBS Radio began a trial of RDS (Radio Data System) in Sydney and Melbourne in November 2012. RDS provides "Now" and "Next" information for the current and pending program information. It is now available more broadly. The RDS PS on FM radio is "SBSRadio" where this service is available. Rollout of EPG SBS began broadcasting the SBS Radio EPG (14 Day) on digital television (DTV) in November 2012. Data is provided real time for DAB+ clients, and a forward schedule for DTV, by "Aim Rapid 2", from All In Media, see [www.digitalradioplus.com]. Pay television data is delivered by HWW. SBS Radio Operations SBS Radio is managed, monitored and maintained via SBS Radio Operations. Distribution of SBS content is managed by third-parties such as Broadcast Australia and other specialist vendors. Based in Sydney and Melbourne, the Radio Operations teams within SBS monitor, switch programming sources and co-ordinate resources within SBS to deliver content across all SBS markets. == References ==
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