A notable feature of community radio over the decades is that it provides a musical alternative. Typically, commercial stations focus on music that's been in the charts whereas community radio will play music that covers a wider range of different genres and may not be deemed to be commercial.

This clip is taken from a six-part series called Pop Movie which aired on the ABC in 1986. This clip from episode 3,which focused on radio, features Midnight Oil lead singer Peter Garrett at the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal Inquiry in 1983 and Steven Walker, music programmer at community station Triple R. Both argue that commercial stations should play more Australian music, including from independent artists.

These opinions were controversial at the time but the gap between commercial and independent music has only widened today.

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