Didn’t Bay FM have an internal civil war not long ago? Sad that this kind of stuff happens so often at community radio stations - warring factions are more hellbent on seeing off their opposition than they are serving the community their licence is provided to serve, and that it takes the ACMA to intervene to try and ensure the community does get involved
The Pulse story is a sad one in that, yes some foresight on the insurance front would have helped, but does Daz really need to be going after the little guy like this. Geelong only has one community station (no the Christian music station does not count) and despite its flaws The Pulse does provide a genuine community service. Let’s hope this doesn’t result in significant consequences for the station
I’m sure I’ve heard it in stereo before too, though there are some community radio stations who are still mono only, which surprises me a little in this day and age.
I can only assume stereo broadcasting is more complex and expensive?
Widdowson has most recently been a pastor on staff at a church on the NSW Central Coast, before that was the pastor at a church Norfolk Island, and was previously co-host of breakfast on Hope 103.2 and long ago co-hosted Saturday Disney on Seven. He has also been running a theatre group on the Central Coast and was involved in the local community television station on Norfolk Island.
Have Voice of Islam licensed 107.9FM permanently or something? Because I can’t get it on 87.6 anymore but it’s on what’s meant to be only used during Ramadan.
Actually @Petarkco, this is a temp licence for a short period of time, worse, not a hapless community station but a business/organisation using a licence.
@Bort perhaps this should be linked to Narrowcasting/random/other thread?
Following recent amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act, a number of community stations in four states have received letters from the ACMA alleging “several complaints” about their services, and stating that while no formal investigation will take place, the station should consider matters raised.
Reads a lot like certain stations being caught out under the existing rules but crying foul over the changes as a diversionary tactic.
From erring on the side of ACMA, it sounds a lot like the issue is less about where the sponsorship is coming from (see below) but rather the use of advertising agencies to obtain advertisers-- sorry, sponsors.
If upheld then this is a purely ridiculous interpretation of s.84. It should (and I dare say would) clearly fall under “relates to the licence area” subsection of the ‘local significance’ clause.
I personally think Community Service Announcements aimed at a state/territory-wide or national audience should be allowed to air on community radio stations, because CSAs reminding listeners to Stop, Revive Survive or to seek help from a mental health organisation if they need it are just as relevant on a community station as they are on commercial radio.
There shouldn’t be any major problems with sponsorship from outside the licence area, if the sponsor is providing a relevant service to the listening area that’s not available within the coverage area of the community station. But other than that, community radio stations should primarily aim to have businesses & organisations which are based within the listening area as their main sponsors IMO.
Yep, that’s what I was thinking too. The article says that a number of community stations in NSW, QLD, WA and NT received the letters, so it’d be quite interesting to know who’s been caught out.
Wonder with a lot community now online streaming, is the community radio concept getting dated. Almost like in the 80s/90s lots of people pirated software but now it changed to app stores etc as they need to adapt. Also expensive taxi licenses now uber comes and disrupts the industry. Many examples.
Should they all become low power community commercial stations instead? Station like The Edge and wsfm don’t serve western Sydney being broadcasted from North Ryde. 2gb / macq sports radio are no longer purely Sydney etc. Having small commercial players might provide some local competition and more opportunities for people to have a career in radio and get paid.
The loss of such community radio would mean there be no community involvement, no specialized programming like Mechie’ s show, no opportunity for volunteers to cut their teeth in the industry and learn the trade.
And they would each end up playing similar music and sound somewhat the same.
If anything, community radio might even be more important right now than it ever was before due to increasingly networked content from commercial radio and cutbacks at the ABC & SBS in recent years.
I might be too idealistic. Hoping the small commercial station to allow those community announcers to get an income. So those community shows can thrive. I do like community radio listen to a lot…
