RDU 98.5FMRDU 98.5FM

Radio U has been on air in Christchurch since the mid-1970s, long enough that most of Ōtautahi still calls it that rather than RDU98.5FM. It runs from 270 Saint Asaph Street on student and volunteer labour, with support from New Zealand On Air, and goes live-to-air from Saltbox Studios — the rehearsal and recording rooms on the same corner. It sits in the Student Radio Network, publishes its own local chart as the Te Ahi Top 10, and hands an hour a week to the MAINZ audio school.

Daytime is an alternative playlist broken up by interviews. Come the evening each host takes a single seam and says so: Liquid Exchange on drum and bass, I.C.U. on left-field bass, Gesture/Texture on noise, The Apocalypse on metal, Flammable Material on stoner rock and hardcore, Droppin' Jewels on golden-era hip hop, and Big Fresh Collective on 160 footwork.