Others may have seen a vacant lot on the streets of Perth’s southern suburbs, but Fremantle local Nick Juniper saw the ideal spot to launch a community radio station.
The architect-by-day debuted his radio broadcast at the High Voltage festival in May.
Last Friday, he officially hit the on air button for live broadcasts and regular shows, all from within the four walls of a bright orange shipping container decked out with radio and DJ equipment.
“Anyone who’s dabbled in community radio will realise it’s quite addictive,” he said.
“We threw it out there as an idea and got quite an immediate, enthusiastic response from the Fremantle community.”
The Freo-centric station is digitally broadcast from phones or the web and has about 18 shows on its program, cycling between talk shows, guest shows and DJ mixes.
With a background in radio gigs, Mr Juniper said his inspiration came from a much-loved radio station in New York City which also operates out of a refurbished shipping container on a vacant lot.
Aptly named “The Lot”, the Brooklyn station is a rotation of local DJs, live shows and techno tracks.
Mr Juniper drew parallels between Brooklyn and Fremantle.
“I kind of feel like there’s a nice synergy between the idea of a shipping container and Fremantle as a port city,” he said.
The not-for-profit station was fitted out entirely from crowdfunding and donations from local businesses. Mr Juniper said he was overwhelmed by the support.
“I feel like this addition (to South Fremantle) has been really welcomed and embraced by the community,” he said.
“We’ve also had a handful of businesses sign up as official sponsors of the station and the membership is growing every day.”
He said part of the station’s success stemmed from giving a platform to the young and up-and-coming DJs who lived in the Fremantle area.
“I think through COVID, the bedroom DJ scene exploded around lockdown,” he said.
“And everyone who had thought about dabbling in DJ mixing started to do it from their bedroom — this idea really tapped into that.”
Fremantle-based DJ Josh Grainger is set to host a weekly show from the shipping container.
The man behind Ningaloo Records — which is well established across Perth dancefloors — said Freocast was a “third space” for residents.
“People have their home and their workplace,” he said.
“A third space in the community are things you need outside of a business.”
His show “Friday, My Love” will broadcast Fridays from 3pm.