“Kinderling has been successful because it creates a community of interest,” Evan Kaldor told the Radio Asia conference in Bangkok, relating the success story of his kids radio station, which is heard on digital radio in Australia.

Parenting has changed, and parents these days are in need of advice and support, which is provided by Kinderling.

“New parents are sleep deprived, there are many more single parents…

“New parents think they are alone, but we turn it into a shared experience and create a community,” explained Kaldor and colleague Tim Ritchie in the conference session.

80 babies born every day in Australia and half of those are to new parents. “New parents are voracious consumers of parenting content,” said Kaldor.

There were no other radio station serving children in Australia, so when the opportunity came to begin a kids station on digital radio Kaldor and his team we wanted to take up the opportunity.

“Parents are distrustful of smartphones for their children, whereas radio is a trusted medium,” said Kaldor.

Tim Ritchie explained the format: “Young families have a routine, we wanted to create a soundtrack for that routine, becoming part of the daily habit of the family’s average day, eating, sleeping, playing and the other activities of the day.

“If it is a calming down time of day the music is slower tempo. If it is an eating time of the day there are songs about eating.”

The station is also committed to promoting Indigenous dreamtime stories and Australian music.

Has the Kinderling format worked?

Yes. The audience has grown, revenue is increasing and there are many success stories on the station’s social media pages.

“We said we wanted to be useful and helpful for families, we know that we are fulfilling that need.”

The peak listening time of day at Kinderling is evenings. Many parents use the station for meal times and for bath and bed time routines at the end of the day.

In the two years the station has been operating it has increased its rates 5 times from when it started, so there is “commercial potential” for the format.

The station now employs 15 people in a mixture of full time and freelance roles.