Could they not afford him?
Thats what i hear yes
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Sad @Sonics89
Bay FM Redlands seem to afford former 4BH PD, Geoff Harrison. He was heard on bfast this morning.
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Statement: Operational Changes at SWR
To our valued SWR listeners, sponsors and supporters;
We wanted to share with you operational changes that we have made at SWR, effective Wednesday August 14.
SWRFM Community Media Association Inc is a not-for-profit community radio station, broadcasting from Blacktown, NSW.
Over the past 12-18 months, SWRâs sponsorship
revenue has been in decline, with cost-of-living pressures affecting local businesses. This has meant that local businesses in our community have had to make decisions on how they spend their money (including spend on sponsorship).
At the same time, SWR has applied for grants to help cover the operational costs of the radio station. Grant funding in the community sector has been uncertain, highly competitive and volatile.
SWR has potential to capitalise on opportunities to help it grow, on the back of the studio renovations. The current employee roles in place are not set up to unlock these opportunities and deliver value to SWR and its stakeholders (our listeners, members, sponsors and the community) and need to be restructured. Therefore, the SWR Board of Management has made the difficult decision to make redundant the employee positions of Sponsorship Manager and Breakfast Host (held by Wayne Buscombe) and
Office Manager (held by Joanne), effective Wednesday 14 August, 2024.
As you can appreciate, this decision has had a direct impact on both of our employees and we are working to support the team through this process, including the offer of wellbeing support .
We have offered these services to our general membership, who
may be affected by this update.
Wayne Buscombe (or Busco as affectionately known) has been the face and voice of our station for over a decade. His networking and connections helped SWR to secure much needed funding for the studio renovations, from local, state and at a federal
Government level. His Breakfast show (âBusco for Breakfastâ) is a popular show in our community and will be sorely missed.
Joanne (Jojo) has been our Office Manager for the past 18 years. She is the first person that any new SWR member would likely meet. Jo has seamlessly helped co-ordinate new semester applications, Annual General Meetings, Xmas Parties and all the weird and wonderful enquiries that our listeners and members have of SWR.
This is not a decision that has been taken lightly. However, as grant funding in the community sector is uncertain and the sponsorship revenue has been in decline, it has become necessary to make this decision in order to secure the financial stability of SWR.
In the meantime, it is business as usual for SWR. Youâll still hear a mix of 70s to now every weekday morning, and all of your favourite shows/broadcasters will be on air as normal.
Sponsorship enquiries can be directed to sponsorship@swr999.com.au
General enquiries can be directed to office@swr999.com.au
Many thanks,
SWR Board of Management
- SWR 99.9 On Facebook.
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Contradictory line, the board has admitted they need to review their circumstances and have punted over three decades of experience and two loved staff.
If I was on SWRâs board, I wouldâve been investing in training and research to revitalise the circumstances. If the staff were keen for that, great; if they werenât, then it is time to explain the cold hard facts and farewell them respectfully.
Did Busco have an opportunity for an on air farewell? Did he want one?
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If theyâre out of money, this probably wasnât an option - especially if a few key sponsors pulled back in a short period. Two staff, even cheap ones, likely cost $100k+, which for a small sub-metro is probably the biggest opex item in the budget. Power, rent of a council building, licensing, internet, etc. would all be tiny in comparison. From memory Iâve seen all-volunteer sub-metros run for under $40k a year.
If youâre a board director, one of your key responsibilities is making sure you donât trade insolvent. Sometimes that means quick, difficult decisions.
This is all speculation. I donât know anything outside whatâs been said in the statement.
This is all very sad. Their consistent breakfast show has been a key differentiator for them. I hope things turn around and they can rebuild.
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Well put @anthonyeden , I donât know either what exactly happened but your educated guess seems to be on the money.
It just tells you how fragile a community radio station can be, just as you say a couple of major sponsors disappear, how do you pay the bills? Easier said than done to find another big sponsor or two within short notice.
I am disappointed as well, Busco was part of my life most days. 15 odd years for breakfast radio is pretty good. He seems to be too young to retire but he would be rejoicing not having to get up super early every week day. Hope he can find employment easily. Being arguably the most successful SWR breakfast announcer for so many years is an amazing feat.
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This might be of interest.
Click on Development & OperationsâŚ
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Pulse FM is still transmitting audio favouring the left, this has been the case for over a week and a half.
I am surprised they havenât done anything to correct it, note this is only on FM and the stream is fine, which makes me think the audio out to the transmitter is at fault.
I do have a few recordings but even better is I hooked up a temp radio to steam it: http://10321.cloudrad.io:9054/monitor this is raw from the 89.9.
Add insult to injury the audio still drops out every now again and I am still blocked on their FB so I canât message them about it. 
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haha that sounds bloody awful
Some of you might be pleased to hear that Koori Radio Sydney have hired a new contract technician & while he has crap loads to sort out, heâs getting things on the move & a new STL (studio to transmitter link) installation is under way, so in a few weeks or less, Koori might have a STL to the FM transmitter & itâll not be just a rebroadcast of the DAB transmission after about 8 years.
As a result Koori may sound a little different on air soon, for now they will be using the same audio processor, just feeding it with AES direct from the studio instead of an off air DAB feed, in time the processor (that TXA owns) will be replaced with one Koori will purchase hopefully/maybe, so the sound on air may change further then?
The Left leaning audio wonât change for now, the contract tech knows about it & has tried balancing things at the studio, but he canât get it fixed without screwing up other things & itâs worse apparently when they use/have networked programs, i.e. programs not live or produced at their Redfern studios.
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Great news! Thanks for the update.
In other news I noted 91.5 Gympie has a new website (since I last viewed it at least).
But despite the website address & logo changes the station still IDs as 91Five.
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A positive change one might say.
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I am so keen for this. I really donât mind the music and content on Koori but the audio always stops me from listening to it for any period of time.
So happy I can finally have it as a preset in the car.
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Maybe they should just broadcast in mono until it can be fixed. If they switch off the stereo pilot tone too theyâll expand their coverage area a little too. Wish the stupid ABC regional stations on FM who only broadcast mono audio would do this too.
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6EBA FM Perth (95.3) is still off air. Thereâs not much information I can glean from the usual sources; does anyone know more?
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I asked the same question nine days ago on this thread. No responses thus far. 
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For the non-techs reading here, thatâs actually somewhat of a Myth, the stereo & mono audio is in a multiplex carried on the modulated wave, they both travel the same distance, i.e. as far as the modulated wave.
The distance the signal travels is dependant on the transmit power & modulation levels, yes, taking the L -R & 19kHz pilot out of the MPX, you have to have more power in the L+R audio component to still modulate at the same level as before (100%) & if the transmit power doesnât change, the modulated carrier will still travel the same distance out from the transmit antenna & the receiver will still have the same RX signal strength of that signal at any given point as before.
90% of radio receivers these days donât have a mono/stereo switch as they automatically go from stereo to mono at a pre determined signal strength, the problem is only evident when the 19kHz pilot tone is too loud & the receiver hangs on to the âstereoâ audio too long & tries to decode it until the end of the distance the modulated carrier will travel & it gets noisy, where as if itâd switched back to mono you wouldnât have that level of signal to noise until very late in the signals reach.
If you go the the extreme end of the FMâs modulated signal reach, the stereo audio will still be in the multiplex (MPX) just as the mono audio component is, but the stereo will be too noisy to decode cleanly.
Also for those still reading, the L -R stereo audio isnât Left minus the Right audio channels, itâs the Left audio channel plus the Right audio channel inverted, to make a -R & give a stereo channel difference, as 2 positive left & right channels added give the mono L+R, you need one channel to be a negative to have a difference between the 2, otherwise youâd just be creating another mono L+R sub carrier in the MPX.
It depends on how much frequency & how much stereo separation you have in the audio as to how easy it is the hear the receiver switch from stereo to mono from whatâs called multipath, some audio processors can limit the upper frequencies & stereo separation so itâs not as noticeable or noticeable at all the change, so you can have a quieter stereo much further out, which does increase the coverage.
This audio frequency/stereo separation multipath is different to the multipath where the modulated signal bounces off objects & arrives at the receiver in multiples at different times.
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Is 2VOX FM Wollongong off air at the moment?
UPDATE: Back on.
89.1 2BLU still off the air though.
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