Country: Australia

Is an Australian classical music radio station available in major centres around the country. It is operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It was established in 1976 as "ABC-FM", and later for a short time was known as "ABC Fine Music" (a play on the letters FM), before adopting its current name. It was the ABC's first experiment in FM broadcasting — which had become a necessity in Australia as broadcasters ran out of AM frequencies on which to transmit.
ABC Classic FM, inspired partly by the example of BBC Radio 3, broadcasts classical music, operas, recitals, live concerts, music analysis programmes, and on weekdays an hour-long in-depth interview conducted by Margaret Throsby during which her guest's choices of music are played. In common with all ABC Radio stations (other than Triple J, which operates its own service), it also carries news bulletins produced by ABC News. On 19 December 2005, in line with the policy applied at every ABC Radio network (except Triple J and Radio Australia), these news bulletins became state-based rather than national.
On weekdays, ABC Classic FM's news bulletins are broadcast at 5.00, 5.30, 6.00 and then hourly (except at 14.00 and 15.00) until 19.00. At weekends, news bulletins are broadcast hourly from 5.00 till 10.00, then at 12.00, 17.00 and 19.00. All news broadcasts, other than an extended 10-minute bulletin at 7.00, run for 5 minutes.