The provincial capital of Malaita Province, Auki in the Solomon Islands, and surrounding communities, now can receive their national service of the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC) on FM 96.3 and ABC Radio Australia on FM 107. This follows the installation of an FM96.3 transmitter on a Solomon Telekom transmission tower in Auki.

SIBC Chief Executive Officer, Johnson Honimae said:

“This great milestone has been achieved as SIBC celebrated its 72nd anniversary of broadcasting in this country early this week. Our listeners in Auki and surrounding communities will now listen to programmes from the national service in Honiara through livestream with much clearer digital audio.

This is another step forward in the implementation of the Unity FM service that has been part of the strategy of the Corporation in the past several years. This adds on to the FM96.3 in Honiara and in Gizo in the Western Province.

SIBC would not have achieved the FM service in Auki without the great support of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation through the supply of equipment and engineers supported by SIBC’s own engineers who set up the two FM transmitters in the past several days.”

As part of a three-year Memorandum of Understanding between the two networks, SIBC and ABC are sharing technical expertise, including SIBC infrastructure, to enable ABC to broadcast in Solomon Islands, and content like news and current affairs, sport, music, lifestyle and general interest information.

ABC International Head Claire M. Gorman said:

“We are delighted that our two teams were able to come together to execute this exciting new development in FM transmission, connecting communities across Auki and the Malaita Province. The collaboration between our technical teams encapsulates the true spirit of our longstanding friendship and partnership with SIBC. We congratulate them on the tremendous milestone of their 72nd anniversary and look forward to future opportunities to support one another’s work as public broadcasters.” 

SIBC is in discussions with the Malaita Provincial Government for land to establish an FM studio in Auki. Listeners can still receive the National Service on AM 1035khz, SW 5020 khz and at sibconline.com.sb.