What is Borderless Radio ©

The Borderless Radio Rankings [BRR] introduce a fresh way of looking at local radio stations and brands in a global digital marketplace. We now cover Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Region and more radio markets will be progressively added. We also have our unique Pacific Top 1 Million Report.

Subscribe by donation today, see full details below including our FREE reports now available for you to download.

Building global communities

With new digital wireless radio receivers [such as DAB capable sets in Australia, HD radio in the USA] as well as mobile phones receiving online audio streaming as broadband costs get incrementally lower, listeners across the globe can connect directly to thousands of online radio stations.

Local market boundaries, AM/FM/DAB licence areas and frequency allocations are increasingly irrelevant to building communities of listeners.

AM, FM and Digital radio are trapped inside geography

When radio [or wireless] first began broadcasting, there were so few stations that wireless signals travelled thousands of miles across physical and political boundaries.

As radio moved into mainstream entertainment and information supply, the numbers of stations licensed to serve local communities and regions multiplied. The frequency spaces they occupied got crowded, so the AM band was expanded more than once, and FM services added.

To crowd even more FM stations onto the radio dial, spaces between FM stations have become smaller, and many countries make money by licensing off AM and FM frequencies through auctions to the highest bidder.

The result of all these new services on ‘heritage’ AM/FM radio has been reduced geographical coverage, expensive directional tower arrays, and degraded quality of service for many listeners. Signals no longer became borderless, they became trapped inside coverage contours, Local Area Plans, mandated coverage areas, markets defined and ruled by commercial ratings systems, and other restrictions.

Online streaming underpins the real radio revolution

All this is now becoming rapidly irrelevant as new technology allows online streaming to receivers in cars, on mobile phones, via notebooks and portable computers, as well as new multi-system portable radio receivers in our homes and where we roam.

Suddenly, wireless signals are free of those decades of restrictions, and potentially can open the world of radio to the world of listeners. These global audiences are the realm of now, not just the future. They are redefining radio, its ownership and revenue models, and underpinning a revolution in global entertainment.

Welcome [back] to Borderless Radio

The Radio Heritage Foundation tracks radio heritage. From spark wireless to AM to shortwave to amateur radio to FM to digital to global wireless. They all form part of radio genealogy. Along the way, we protect and reflect the connections between popular culture, nostalgia and radio heritage.

Welcome back to Borderless Radio © Subscribe by donation today.

Borderless Radio © Rankings

We rank radio stations and brands within a country or regional market via the global reach of their websites.

BRR allows comparisons between different kinds of radio stations such as commercial, non-commercial, community, public broadcaster, narrowcast, AM, FM, Low Power FM, digital radio, and web based radio.

This is because we use a single original data source for all these different kinds of radio stations.

Many of these stations may not feature in the usual listener ratings for an individual market, or there may be no radio ratings at all in that market.

The Big Picture

We give the ‘big picture’ by ranking radio station websites according to where they fit in the global marketplace.

Not all websites stream audio online. Not all broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific region even have websites. Many have websites that don’t yet feature in global rankings. This will progressively change. Join us and track the trends and changes to Borderless Radio © across the region.

Quarterly Reports

Each quarter we will issue our BRR Reports. You can download and read our first reports FREE:

You need to enter a valid email address to access each report. We do not sell or rent our email lists to anyone. You can read our privacy policy.

Download free samples of the Borderless Radio reports:

BRR Australia 2010 #1

Download “BRR Australia 2010 #1”

BRR-Australia-2010-01-Release.pdf – 176.89 KB

BRR New Zealand 2010 #1

Download “BRR New Zealand 2010 #1”

BRR-New-Zealand-2010-01-Release.pdf – 141.79 KB

BRR Pacific Region 2010 #1

Download “BRR Pacific Region 2010 #1”

BRR-Pacific-2010-01-Release.pdf – 170.18 KB

BRR Pacific Top 1 Million 2010 #1

Download “BRR Pacific Top 1 Million 2010 #1”

BRR-Pacific-Region-Top-100-2010-01.pdf – 117.91 KB

Subscription by Donation

Report	Each	4 Issues	Save 20%*	Save 40%**
BRR Australia	US$60	US$180	US$144	US$108
BRR New Zealand	US$35	US$105	US$84	US$63
BRR Pacific	US$25	US$75	US$60	US$45
BRR Pacific Top 1m	FREE	FREE	FREE	FREE

* to qualify for this rate, become an Annual supporter today from as little as US$10 and get a range of discounts and special offers

** to qualify for this rate, become a Lifetime supporter and get even more discounts and benefits, including access to hundreds of pages at our website for your advertising and branding campaigns to reach our own Borderless Radio © audience.

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