Austereo's Digital Radio Content Director Jaime Chaux was delighted with the big turn out of fans at the Radar Radio OB today. He is glad the format has such an attraction, although he did jokingly say it may also have had something to do with the free coffee being served at Radar's marquee. Chaux told radioinfo that new unsigned bands today all have high quality production and that it is not hard to find good content to put on Austereo's new music station.

The digital radio only station adds about 30 new songs a week to its playlist, all sourced from material uploaded to the station's website (pictured below) by up and coming bands.

Chaux says bands these days are very sophisticated and can offer all that Radar needs to be able to include them. The station expects bands to have professional bios and pics, and a webpage or myspace site as well as good audio.

"It's easy for bands to grab some studio time or set up a home studio these days, then record to professional audio software on their laptops, so there is very little question about quality audio any more.

"If a band is flat or out of tune, we will not play them, but there are so many bands with great audio and great lyrics out there that it is not hard to find things to play."

Because listeners want to get to know new bands and their music, the rotations on Radar are very tight, some at around 90 minutes. No song stays in the playlist for more than 6 months because it is very definitely a new music station.

Radar is well aware that its audience at the moment is small, but the station is cross promoting on Austereo's other stations around the country to try and inform Austereo's four and a half million listeners about digital radio and the Radar brand, which can be heard online as well as on digital radio.

The station also has a regular Radar branded night segment on Triple M where new music is played and discussed.

Chaux says the audience is continuing to segment so Austereo is looking to Radar as part of a strategy to "try and own as many pieces of the pie as we can."

He says the reaction to today's Radar launch event was "great nationally and excellent for getting the Radar message across!"

Radar Radio can be heard at the link at the bottom of this page.