By 96five Tuesday 3 Oct 2023Station NewsReading Time: 5 minutes
96five CEO Phillip Randall joined Brissy Brekky’s Ken and Nicky to share an exciting update – 96five has a new home! Thanks to God’s incredible goodness, some savings and the generosity of a group of supporters, we’re moving to 6 Moorak Street, Taringa.
After he shared the big announcement on-air, we spent some time with Phillip to find out more about why 96five needed to move, and where to from here…
So why the move?
“Around 15 years ago, the station was based in a building in Milton and the owners of the building decided to renovate and all the tenants had to vacate the building. At relatively short notice, 96five was informed that they had to move… so within a six-week period, we had to find somewhere to move to and then move all the equipment,” Phillip shared.
“Cornerstone Church was gracious enough to make space available in their building for us, but it was always intended to be the interim solution – six months – while we searched for a more permanent home. And here we are 15-plus years later, still located in Cornerstone Church. The challenge has always been that our team is spread over four different parts of the building with lots of space in between, so we’re a bit disconnected.
“The studios were just offices that we simply put studio equipment in… we were only going to be there for six months, so we never went to the expense of soundproofing them and making them a more permanent studio solution. So currently if you’re trying to record in our second studio and the train goes past, you’ve got to stop and rerecord.
“We’ve been chatting to the church about what the future might hold, and Cornerstone Church’s plan for growth. Part of these plans meant that 96five had to decide what our future was going to be… and so for the past 18 months we’ve been working hard to find a building.”
How did 96five manage to buy a building?
“We were talking to some of our supporters about the need for a building of our own, that could be a 21st century media centre, creating content to change lives. Sharing this vision, a very generous supporter stepped out with a $100,000 gift to start the building project, and the process of us being able to look for a building,” Phillip shared.
“Thanks to much prayer and hard work, earlier this year 96five found a property in Taringa that looked ideal. An offer was made and accepted and I’m excited to share that 96five will be making the move to Taringa early next year.”
What’s the next step?
Now 96five has a new place to call home, Phillip talked about what comes next. “We’ve engaged architects and a builder, and all the different consultants and services that you need. We’re almost at a place where the plans are ready to be signed off, so we can start fitting out the building… but, of course, that’s going to cost a significant amount of money and over the coming months we need to raise the funds to finish off that process.”
Phillip said the construction and development work will include:
- building two on-air studios and a news booth
- production studios
- podcasting studios
- video studios and editing facilities
- soundproofing and sound deadening of the studio
- repairs/improvements to air-conditioning, lighting, carpets, ceiling
- data cabling, electrical cabling and the cabling required as a broadcaster
“The building is over three levels – a basement carpark, the ground floor which comes in off Moorak Street and currently has a tenant in it, then the first floor, which is where we are constructing the studios.
How will the building help the ministry of 96five?
Currently we’re in a facility that limits what we can do because of the amount of space we’ve got, where that space is located and the fact that it was never set up as a dedicated radio and audio facility. The vision for our new facility is to create a 21st century media centre that has the facilities to create content to be distributed wherever people are consuming content,” Phillip said.
“It’s going to be content that points people to the love of Jesus and the Christian message of hope, and will be distributed through FM radio, digital radio, our website, and platforms like YouTube and social media…wherever people are consuming content!
It’s going to be content that points people to the love of Jesus and the Christian message of hope, and will be distributed through FM radio, digital radio, our website, and platforms like YouTube and social media…wherever people are consuming content!
“Our vision is not just for the creation of the content either. It’s about connecting and creating community. The new facility will allow us to fulfill the purpose of 96five, which is ultimately impacting people with experiences of God’s love – and we do that through the content that we create and the connections that we make.”
How can I be a part of this?
“This November the focus of the ‘Here for Good’ appeal will be raising the remainder of the funds needed to complete the renovation to our new property and enable the radio station to keep broadcasting a message of hope across Brisbane. It’s the largest goal we’ve ever set for a November appeal – $875,000 – but it’s what’s needed so we can make the move into the new building early in the new year.
“Whatever our amazing listeners can contribute will have a significant impact on the future of 96five as together we create a Christian media centre to serve our community the way God is calling us to.”
We would love you to consider what you could give to help us complete this building project, and broadcasting hope in Brisbane.
If you would like to be a part of making this fit-out possible, you can contribute right now.
I would like to support 96five’s permanent home
Your gift is so greatly appreciated!