Disrupt Radio’s founder says expansion plans are underway

Start-up radio station Disrupt Radio has garnered a small audience in its first year, and hasn’t stopped plans to expand across Australia and overseas.

Disrupt Radio chairwoman Michelle Guthrie.

Disrupt Radio founder Benjamin Roberts is hopeful the start-up broadcaster will expand overseas, despite recording tiny audiences in Australia in its first year of operation.

Mr Roberts said the station was undergoing capital raising and is looking to break into other markets outside of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane where it is available on DAB+.

Speaking to The Australian, Mr Roberts said after marking one year in operation this month, the station’s “format is resonating”.

The station has produced 10 programs since it began, including four live daily and six specialist shows.

“We didn’t go into the market expecting to break even and generate tons of revenue, that was never the strategy,” Mr Roberts said. “We are definitely not making profit but we don’t expect to at this point.

“Anybody that has launched a new radio station before knows that some of them go for five years without making money, so it’s all about getting the product right first.

“We are looking at ways we can monetise, not just the audience, but also the programs and the types of things in each of the programs.”

Disrupt focuses on evergreen business and educational content for the entrepreneurial community.

Disrupt Radio’s board is chaired by former ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie, who is also the station’s second-biggest personal shareholder, and its content is headed up by former ABC radio executive Steve Kyte.

Disrupt Radio founder and chief executive officer Benjamin Roberts. Picture: Supplied

Mr Roberts said Disrupt was undertaking a $5m capital raising while working with firm EMT Partners in Melbourne to help “turbocharge year two”.

The plan is to possibly break into the Perth market and also overseas, including Britain.

In the latest official GfK radio ratings results, Disrupt recorded weekly cumulative live audiences of fewer than 1000 listeners in both Melbourne and Brisbane and 5000 listeners in Sydney.

This is down on the first radio ratings survey of the year where Disrupt recorded 14,000 listeners in Sydney, 5000 in Brisbane and 2000 in Melbourne.

Mr Roberts said ratings shouldn’t be looked at “in isolation, you have to look at a trend”.

“They bounce around at any station, until you have some critical mass of cut-through you’re not going to see a stabilised result,” he said.

“Our whole business plan and business is not built around GfK, it’s one of the many metrics we use to measure the station.”

He said many Disrupt listeners chose to consume the station via their website, streaming applications or on-demand consumption, as opposed to via the DAB+ station.

Despite the low ratings results, Mr Roberts said the next 12 months would focus on driving “reach and revenue”.

When The Australian spoke to Ms Guthrie 12 months ago, she said the station was “not a six-month business” and it aimed to “connect with a new type of radio listener”.

Some of the station’s highest profile on-air names include former ABC radio host Libbi Gorr, who hosts the Enterprise Breakfast show, former AFLW player Moana Hope who leads the afternoons program Entrepreneur Her, and broadcaster and businessman Jules Lund who hosts the Start-up Nation show.