Community Radio in Western Australia: Notions of value

This paper examines what “value” means in relation to community radio broadcasting, summarising the development of a theoretical framework of value for community radio from the existing literature. As well, this paper provides an outline of the findings garnered from testing that framework at three community radio stations in Perth, Western Australia particularly the perceptions of value by the study participants. Finally, and most importantly, this paper discusses the importance of one key finding from the research: that study participants from all stations perceived the value of participation in community radio, as not necessarily an altruistic activity. This indicates that community radio’s value is significantly more about the benefits of participation for the volunteers rather than the benefits for the listening community