Redfern Entrepreneur Leads Sydney's Online Radio Surge

Alex Rivera opened the doors to Sound Harbour Radio in a former wool store on Redfern Street in late 2023. The station now streams to more than 120,000 monthly listeners and runs entirely on local advertising and small subscription fees of $9 a month.

The timing aligns with a documented lift in online audio use. Recent industry tracking shows traditional AM and FM audiences in Sydney fell 8 percent between 2024 and 2025 while digital-only stations gained 22 percent in the same period. Rivera’s operation sits inside that shift, offering live shows from 6am to midnight without relying on the infrastructure that failed during last week’s Telstra outage.

Studios and partnerships inside the city

The main broadcast room sits two blocks from Redfern Station. Rivera also records segments at a second space above a cafe on Crown Street in Surry Hills and supplies music beds to community events at the Paddington Markets each Saturday. These locations keep production costs low and let the station feature artists who cannot afford city-centre studio rates.

Sound Harbour began with four volunteer hosts and one paid engineer. By June 2026 the payroll had grown to nine full-time staff after a $180,000 grant from the City of Sydney’s Creative Business Fund, awarded in March 2025.

Listener numbers jumped after the station added a 24-hour loop of archived local gigs in April. Average daily streams now sit at 48,000, according to the platform’s internal analytics shared with advertisers.

Next steps for listeners and operators

Anyone in Sydney can access the stream free on any smartphone or computer. Business owners looking to replicate the model can contact the station’s small-business advisory line, which opens each weekday at 10am, for details on licensing and basic equipment lists that start at $2,400.

Rivera plans to open a third recording booth inside the old tram sheds at Rozelle by October, adding capacity for live audiences of up to 40 people.