2MBS Fine Music Sydney (ACMA callsign: 2MBS) is a
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
music
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
operated by the Music Broadcasting Society of
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
Co-Operative Limited. Launched on 15 December 1974, it is Australia's first fully licensed
FM radio station and it has since reached over 630,000 listeners.
Format
Approximately 80 percent of 2MBS Fine Music Sydney's on-air music content is from the western
classical and related traditions which include
baroque music
Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transiti ...
,
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
,
contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...
and
chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...
. The remainder is made up of
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
,
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
,
operetta
Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...
, piano music,
film soundtrack
A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...
s,
oldies
Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...
,
sacred music
Religious music (also sacred music) is a type of music that is performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence. It may overlap with ritual music, which is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as ritual. Relig ...
,
ethnic music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
,
ambient music
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...
, and non-mainstream and
experimental contemporary music.
Background
The station broadcasts from studios located at Chandos Street,
St Leonards St Leonards may refer to:
Places Australia
*St Leonards, New South Wales
**St Leonards railway station
*St Leonards, Tasmania, suburb of Launceston
* St Leonards, Victoria
Canada
*St. Leonard's, Newfoundland and Labrador
New Zealand
* St ...
, to the greater
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
region at a frequency of 102.5 MHz from a 50
kilowatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
(ERP) transmitter located atop
Governor Phillip Tower
The Governor Phillip Tower, the Governor Macquarie Tower, and the Museum of Sydney are the main elements of a large development in the central business district of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Completed in 1994, the property development ...
, in Sydney's central business district. Its operations are conducted by volunteers and a small number of paid staff. Operational funding is principally derived from corporate sponsorship, arts partnerships, philanthropic donations, listener subscriptions, and the secondhand Book and CD Fairs held around the Sydney area.
In February 2020, the station rebranded from Fine Music 102.5 to Fine Music Sydney.
Programming
One of the station's most popular programmes for several decades was ''Evensong'', a weekly programme of English
sacred music
Religious music (also sacred music) is a type of music that is performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence. It may overlap with ritual music, which is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as ritual. Relig ...
in the
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
tradition. Its regular presenter Mrs. Ann Ramsay died at the age of 91 on 1 April 2006. ''Evensong'' has been replaced by another popular Sunday program, ''Hosanna''.
Popular non-classical programmes broadcast by the station include the blues show ''Stormy Monday'', which has aired on Monday evenings for three decades, and for many years was rebroadcast nationally by the
Community Broadcasting Association of Australia
The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) is the peak body and the national representative organisation for community radio and television stations in Australia. The CBAA provide leadership, advocacy and support for members to ac ...
(CBAA) satellite service. ''
Ultima Thule'', the station's Sunday evening ambient music programme has been on air for nearly twenty years, and in 2005 became the first programme to be
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...
on Australian
community radio
Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popular ...
.
Fine Music Sydney is a member of the Australian Fine Music network which is a loose affiliation with a number of similar independently owned and operated stations in other parts of Australia, including
3MBS
3MBS was the first FM (frequency modulation) radio station in Victoria, Australia, and began transmitting to Melbourne and surrounding areas on 1 July 1975. Since then it has operated successfully as a non-profit community-based organisation broa ...
FM
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
,
4MBS FM
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...
,
5MBS
5MBS is a community radio station based in Adelaide, Australia and located in Hindmarsh, South Australia. It broadcasts on 99.9 MHz across much of the Adelaide metropolitan area, as well as a live stream via its website. 5MBS is run by vo ...
FM
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
, and
ArtSound FM
ArtSound FM (callsign 1ART) is a community radio station broadcasting to Canberra from studios in the suburb of Manuka. Its format is fine music and arts programming.
ArtSound was established in the early 1980s under the name Canberra Stereo ...
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
.
Schedule
Jazz
Fine Music has over 15 programs per week that centre on jazz music (from its beginnings in the early 1900s right up to present) and it is Sydney's chief radio station that would primarily feature jazz music.
About jazz
Fine Music Sydney Jazz music is aired every day on 12pm and 7pm (10pm on Sundays and as well as on Mondays).[A Week of Fine Jazz on Fine Music Sydney]
Fine Music Sydney.com The schedule of Fine Music's jazz program is listed below:
*On Mondays, swing jazz
Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. The name derived from its emphasis on the off-beat, or nominally weaker beat. Swing bands ...
from the 1920s and 1930s are featured at 12pm, and hard bop
Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospe ...
at 7pm.
*On Tuesdays, Dixieland
Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ( ...
(New Orleans Jazz) is broadcast and as well as smooth small group jazz from the 1950s to present.
*An Wednesdays at 12pm, the station plays contemporary jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
, usually having ethnic or Australian roots, with smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s.
History
Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 19 ...
at 7pm.
*A fusion of Jazz pop
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describes a ...
and rock jazz is broadcast on Thursdays.
*Fridays feature jazz music specifically from Sydney and the program would feature guest interviews.
*Saturdays feature modern style, urban jazz that have a lounge music
Lounge music is a type of easy listening music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It may be meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place, usually with a tranquil theme, such as a jungle, an island paradise or outer space. The rang ...
feel to them.
*At noon on Sundays, the station broadcasts ragtime
Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...
and jazz from the first 30 years of the 20th century.
Other genres
*Classical world music is featured on Saturdays from 10am to 11:30am.
*Oldies from the 1920s to 1950s are presented every 2nd and 4th Saturdays from 1pm to 2pm.
*Operetta and oratorio
An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is mus ...
are broadcast on Saturdays from 2:30pm to 5pm.
*Film music is aired Saturdays between 6 and 7pm and also from 5pm-6pm.
*Sacred music is broadcast on Sundays from 9am to 10am.
*Contemporary classical music is aired Sundays from 8:30pm to midnight.
*Opera music
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
is aired on Wednesdays at 8pm.
*Ambient and easy listening
Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...
music from across the world is featured on Thursdays from 10:30pm until midnight.[
]
References
External links
*
Fine Music Contemporary Music Collective
Fine Music Ultima Thule, Ambient and eltro acoustic music
{{Coord, 33.822312, S, 151.19879, E, display=title
Community radio stations in Australia
Radio stations in Sydney
Radio stations established in 1974
Classical music radio stations in Australia
Jazz radio stations
Easy listening radio stations in Australia
Blues radio stations
Experimental radio
World music radio stations