George FM streams dance, electronic and hip-hop music live from New Zealand, now a nationwide brand built entirely on the country's own club and DJ culture. Press play on Radio Shuffle and it streams instantly, free, with no account or app download required.
Started from a spare bedroom in Grey Lynn
George FM began in 1998 as a low-power FM station run out of a spare bedroom in Grey Lynn, Auckland, by brothers Thane and Richard Kirby, according to Wikipedia's history of the station. Its original signal covered only about five kilometres, barely more than a neighborhood radius, but it built a dedicated following inside Auckland's dance and electronic music scene fast enough to outgrow that tiny footprint.
From a city-wide partnership to national ownership
The station went city-wide in 2001 through a partnership with the Manukau Urban Māori Authority, turned commercial in 2003, and was acquired by MediaWorks in February 2009. It expanded onto Freeview in 2008, and a further purchase of additional frequencies in 2015 turned George FM into a genuine nationwide brand, a long way from its single spare-bedroom transmitter.
Broadcasting into a genuine homegrown dance scene
New Zealand's drum and bass and electronic scene, which George FM draws on heavily, has its own documented history rather than being a straight import of overseas trends. DJ Presha's partnership with Dave "D-Rave" Roper at touring and distribution company Subtronix helped push the genre into the underground mainstream, and the group Concord Dawn is widely credited with taking New Zealand drum and bass further still. Auckland's Pointers venue has become known as the country's drum and bass capital, anchoring a club culture that George FM's playlist and events both plug directly into.
Listen free on Radio Shuffle
George FM streams New Zealand's dance and electronic scene, grown from a Grey Lynn bedroom into a nationwide station. Stream it free on Radio Shuffle, anywhere, any time, with no sign-up required.