Ifinity FM Invercargill Finds Flour Power
Radio station fundraiser tonight
GWYNETH HYNDMAN
It started with an Xbox, a mixer, a microphone, $1000 in cash, and a leased transmitter above a mate's garage.
A year later Ifinity FM director Greg Selman is moving the radio station into the old Fleming and Company flour mill on the corner of Tyne and Conon streets.
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Ifinity FM Logo © Ifinity FM
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A "20 For 10" concert ("20 bands for $10") at the Invercargill Working Men's Club tonight has been organised to pump more money into the project.
"It's pretty awesome," Mr Selman said, as he gave a tour around the premises the station began leasing last week.
The four-story building, built in 1877 and reconstructed after a fire in 1889, was used as a flour mill until 2006 and has since been used as a storage space and more recently as the laser tag business Lazerland.
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Fleming & Co Flour Mill
© NZ Historic Places Trust.
Photo: Karen Astwood
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The Category II historic building was a good fit for a station as well as rehearsal and recording space for Southland musicians because of the thickness of the walls and the distance from the rest of the city, Mr Selman said.
The second storey would be converted into an artist space; graffiti art already covered much of the walls, and the opportunities to continue creating were limitless. The third and fourth storeys would need work done before they could be leased, but there was also interest in using the building as a base for film productions, he said.
Having the transmitter more elevated meant their coverage went further. They were already being picked up in Christchurch, Mr Selman said, which was good for advertising.
They started off with less than six advertisers last year; they now had 20.
Mr Selman said it was about targeting the right audience and advertisers with their station which was youth-based – about 42 per cent of their listeners were students – and played a mix of Kiwi rock, electronica, metal and drum and bass.
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Ifinity FM Spreads the word in 2011
© Southern Institute of Technology
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After hitching up to Wellington two years ago, Mr Selman enrolled in the New Zealand Broadcasting School and returned to Invercargill with a desire to pull together a radio station that was more underground, with the opportunity to expand the station into an artist's space.
Mr Selman said he sold his car for the $1000 he needed to get the station up and going last year.
Music at the 20 for 10 concert will include The Glen Haze Band, Mikey Microdot, Sound Boy Tom, JB Hori and the Copper Avenger, Apache Rose and Matty T.
Tickets at $10 are available from Impuls'd and Quest in Invercargill. Door sales are $15.
The concert goes from 7pm to 1am.
- © Fairfax NZ News
© Southland Times March 10, 2012.
This material remains © Fairfax New Zealand Limited and is only to be used for non-commercial personal or research use. Any other use requires permission of the copyright holder.
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