OAR FM is a Community Access Media station in Ōtepoti Dunedin, New Zealand, and a member of the Community Access Media Alliance (CAMA). Rather than a single programming voice, OAR FM is a platform, home to over 100 shows created by and for the diverse communities of Dunedin, broadcast on air and online.
Nearly 250 community broadcasters use the station, supported by a paid team of five. Those five people cover everything: training, technical support, audio production, administration, and volunteer coordination. The broadcasters they work with come from all walks of life, varying abilities, varying tech experience, many with English as a second language. A tool that requires hand-holding doesn't work in that environment.
Domi has been at OAR FM since 2007, starting as a volunteer before joining as a part-time production assistant in 2012. Now Operations Director, they work across IT, production, project management, and volunteer support. When the station was forced to move in 2023, Domi was deep in the planning and saw an opening to modernise.
"We were looking for a smoother way to bridge the gap between our hosts, guests, and listeners, and our old setup just wasn't cutting it anymore."
The Challenge
OAR FM has always avoided talkback-style phone segments, but guest interviews are central to the programming. For years, those calls ran through an analogue line into a phone hybrid wired into the live studio desk.
The hardware was clunky. There was no caller ID, so presenters had no idea who was on the line before picking up. Putting someone on hold reliably wasn't straightforward. The equipment needed repairs more and more often, and by the time the move came around it was clearly on its last legs.
"The biggest pain point was the clunkiness of the physical hardware. It didn't provide any caller ID info or context, making it difficult to manage guests professionally."
The B studio was its own problem entirely: no phone line, which meant it couldn't be used for any show needing a remote guest.
Then in 2023, the building was sold. The lease ended and OAR FM had to relocate at short notice. Domi decided early on that they weren't going to replicate the old setup somewhere new.
Finding Studiio
The broadcast engineer brought in to install the new studios had come across Studiio at a trade show and suggested it as an alternative to buying another expensive hybrid system. It ticked the boxes: affordable, reliable, and simple enough that broadcasters could use it without needing help each time.
"Studiio was perfect because it slotted right into our current workflow and gave us more options and more flexibility. At the end of the day, we just needed it to work without worry, and it does exactly that."
The Setup & Day-to-Day
Onboarding was smooth. When a carrier restriction issue came up specific to New Zealand, James from the Studiio team worked through it and found a fix rather than leaving OAR FM to deal with it alone.
"He was very proactive in researching and fixing things for our specific needs and found a workaround to achieve our desired outcome. He was also very open and receptive to user feedback, and has already implemented some things that have made the service even more valuable for us."
Calling (both inbound and outbound) is the feature the station uses most, and it's made getting guests to air much more straightforward. The team also uses the weather block, the AI weather script feature, and the Call Intro and No Answer messages, which brief incoming callers automatically and give them an office number if no one picks up.
Broadcasters who'd used the old system were up and running after one training session. The call flow is logical enough that there isn't much to get wrong.
One thing Domi particularly values is not being tied to specific hardware. If a laptop dies, you swap it out and nothing breaks.
"If the laptop we're using ever packs up or gets too old, we aren't stuck. We can just swap it out for a PC, another laptop, or even a tablet, and know that everything will just work. It's great not being tied down to one specific piece of hardware."
Results
In the first ten months, OAR FM logged over 300 inbound communications through Studiio, with many more outbound calls on top of that for guest interviews.
The B studio now has full call capability for the first time. Shows that couldn't use it before can now walk in, open the panel, and have a guest on the line in seconds.
"Studiio has given us more control over our call management and workflow. The biggest benefit is the flexibility, we can just jump into our B studio, fire up the panel, and have a call connected in seconds."
The smaller things have added up too. Knowing the live status of a call (ringing, on hold, connected) sounds basic, but it removes a source of stress during a live broadcast that presenters used to just have to manage.
"The most noticeable change overall is the level of confidence we have now. We know our broadcasters can get stuck in and use the system successfully without too much staff intervention or monitoring."
For a station built on making broadcasting accessible to everyone, empowering volunteers to broadcast independently and confidently is exactly what success looks like.
"What really stands out is how community-minded the team is. It's a game-changer for community radio stations that might struggle to afford or replace top-end broadcast gear. Studiio fills that gap perfectly and makes professional tech accessible for everyone."