Jenny Parsons wins 2016 Ricky Award

Congratulations to Jenny Parsons, winner of the 2016 Ricky Award for excellence and contribution to Hawkesbury Radio in the last 12 months.

Jenny has a very popular music show on Friday evenings and has made a solid contribution to the Programming Committee all year. Amongst other tasks, she runs regular presenters meetings.

The Ricky Award is given annually in honour of the late Ricky Stevenson, long time treasurer of the station who succumbed to cancer in 2003

In the picture, Jenny is presented with the Ricky Award by station's Chairman, Paul Rasmussen

Vale Barry Crockford

We are sad to have to report the passing of presenter Barry Crockford. Barry has been a presenter on the station for quite a long time. He presented a drive time show with Kimberly Hill (AKA Lovie) called the Baz & Lovie Show.

Barry had been a very active member of the Hawkesbury community in many ways - running a consultancy business for more than 20 years, a former president of the Hawkebury Chamber of Commerce, member of the Rotary club.

Barry was a keen gardener and had even travelled to England to see the famed Chelsea Flower show.

Here is a video clip of Barry with Lovie doing their drive time show ...

Hawkesbury Radio to cover every Wanderers game LIVE in season 2016/17

Hawkesbury Radio are excited to come on board as a community radio partner of one of the biggest clubs in Australian sport to provide a live radio coverage of Western Sydney Wanderers football to the Western Sydney community and Sydney as a whole. The coverage, named "Wanderers Live" will bring listeners live descriptions of every match the Wanderers play throughout the A¬League season, as well as a comprehensive pre- and post- game program unlike anything currently offered on radio for A¬League coverage in Sydney.

Hawkesbury Radio bring an expertise in covering live and local sport built up from over a decade of covering New South Wales Rugby League competitions and were the only community station in Australia to have NRL broadcast rights, calling Penrith Panthers NRL matches from 1997¬2009 including the 2003 NRL Grand Final.

Hawkesbury Radio have assembled a team of the next generation of sports broadcasters who bring a youthful exuberance to "Wanderers Live" as well as serious football credentials.

Heading up the coverage are Julian Daw of ABC Grandstand and Nicholas Kutnjak, Sports Director of Hawkesbury Radio

Julian brings several years experience calling A¬League matches on the ABC which continues to this day, as well as being a part of the ABC’s NRL coverage. Nicholas has been the lead Rugby League caller at Hawkesbury Radio for the past few years but also has vast experience calling A¬League and NSWPL football.

Joining them will be a team of contributors including Scott Jackson, Anchor of Sportsline and Weekend Sportsnight on Sky News Australia. As well as bringing a journalistic credibility Scott also plays First Grade for Doonside in the Blacktown District competition.

Also joining the team is Will Gotsis who has built up years of knowledge of the local football scene working with APIA Leichhardt in the NSWPL. Keyan Kramer has been a part of Hawkesbury Radio’s live sport team since 2014 and has experience working with Fox Sports Australia.

Rounding out the Wanderers Live team will be newcomer Tara Lee.

The team will become a fixture at Wanderers games this season bringing live coverage of every Wanderers A¬League game home & away, as well as selected pre¬season, FFA Cup, W¬League and NYL matches.

Julian Daw who also serves as the program's Executive Producer said "W e are extremely honoured and excited to have the opportunity to be a part of this continuing success story that is the Wanderers. The A¬League season will start with what will be the biggest Sydney Derby in history and we can not wait to get started, it will only get bigger from there"

Matches will be broadcast live on 89.9FM in Sydney as well as online on hawkesburyradio.com.au, For a complete broadcast schedule as the season gets nearer follow @WanderersLive on twitter as well as "WanderersLive" on Facebook.

Co-operative Rule Changes coming up..

UPDATE: There was considerable vigorous debate at the AGM about the rules, but in the end, the Special Resolution to approve the new rules was passed by more than the required two thirds vote. The Draft Rules have now been sent to the Department of Fair Trading for registration. Once they are registered, the new rules will become the rules we are governed by.

It's been more than 20 years since we changed the rules of the Co-operative, and it's probably time we reviewed how appropriate the current rules are for today's environment. Also, the Co-operatives Act has changed several times since we last updated our rules, including a major change to bring the NSW Act into line with the Co-operatives National Law. Our rules no longer fully comply with the Cooperatives Act and require some revisions because of that.

Therefore we will soon be calling a Special General Meeting soon to consider changes to our constitution with a view to achieving the following:

1. bring our rules into compliance with the current Co-operatives Act (as amended).
2. take account of changed circumstances and needs of the Co-operative since the rules were last modified (if the members think such changes are necessary)

Please think about our rules and what you think ought to be modified (if anything). Shortly we will be posting some draft rules for you to consider and discuss if you want to. Keep watching this space for more about this important activity. The rules of the Co-operative affect everything about how the station runs.

Community noticeboard

Community Noticeboard is a free public service  from Hawkesbury Radio.  Not-for-profit organisations holding events in our listening area or close to it, are welcome to let us know about forthcoming events, which will be included in our noticeboard announcements several times a day.

All you have to do is let us know at least two weeks in advance,  and make sure you give us details of a contact person so we can follow up with one of the organisers.

Now you can contact our Community Noticeboard team on line through our Community Noticeboard page. >>>

Community Relations Committee needs more members

The station’s Community Relations Committee is looking for more members. If you'd like to be involved in this committee, please let Community Relations Director Mike Kear know as soon as possible.

The Community Relations committee manages our station's activities with not-for-profit organisations around our listening area. Our most obvious function is the regular free Noticeboard segments that run frequently on air. It's our job to collate the information for the Noticeboard and produce those on-air segments weekly

But our role is wider than just the noticeboard. Part of the station’s reason for being is to be a part of the Hawkesbury community and to enable community access to our programming in a way that dovetails with all our other activities. We have a range of things planned and in the planning for this coming year and we need to find members who are interested in being a part of this vital function for Hawkesbury Radio.

You'll need to be:

• A member of the co-operative,
• Willing to contribute ideas in a positive way
• willing to do a bit of work to help further the station's objectives in the community

You don't need to have a lot of experience with the station, just some enthusiasm and willingness to contribute that's all.

If you would like to know more about this committee and how you could be involved, contact Mike Kear using one of the methods below to discuss how you might be involved.

Email: webmaster@hawkesburyradio.com.au
Or just leave a note in the mailbox in the office door.

Mike Kear
Community Relations Director

Web Site Hacked

Our site was recently broken into and a file modified with some links to dubious e-commerce sites and a malware script added to the bottom of the pages.     This caused visitors' anti-virus and anti-malware protection to trigger and warn that a malicious virus has been loaded onto the visitors home computer as they browsed around our site.    

The exploit was quickly detected and neutralised.

Our web site gets about 50-100 attempted hacking exploits every DAY normally.   We have defences in place to deal with these threats and they are updated frequently as a normal part of our regular maintenance on the site.    The threats range from people attemping to post inappropriate material to the guestbook up to attempts to break into our database.   Once a hacker gets into the database, they can steal information or do damage to our data.   Often, they are searching for customer information or credit card details for criminal purposes.  (Just for the record, we dont have any of that kind of information in our database for them to steal).

The most recent exploit was a new type for us, and we have built a new defence mechanism against it. 

We are sorry if anyone was alarmed by the addition of this script to the bottom of our pages- it wasn't of our causing, and we hope we wont see it again.      We are certain that there will be new attempts, because we have been fending off attempts to hack into the site every day for a decade or more.   The current count of ip addresses used to attempt to gain access to our site is 48,593 since we started keeping records.

Update:  The attack attempts continue unabated.  As at 10 February,  the number of ip addresses (computer locations) identifying as atempting to gain access to our site is now 63,934 

Our coverage of the Bridge to Bridge Ski Classic

Once again, Hawkesbury Radio was covering The Bridge to Bridge Water Ski Classic, which is Australia 's internationally renowned water ski race. Set amidst the backdrop of the picturesque scenery of the incredible Hawkesbury River, this event attracts competitors nationally and globally. It is a great adventure that commences at Dangar Island in Broken Bay and proceeds along the length of the Hawkesbury River finishing in the historic town of Windsor . Interstate and overseas competitors are amazed at the beauty and hospitality of the Hawkesbury region and in particular the township of Windsor, the renowned home of the Bridge to Bridge.

Our outside broadcast bus was again at the finish line to cover all the excitement.  Here are some pictures from the event ...

Congratulations to the Rugby League Call Team!!!!

For FIFTEEN YEARS now, Hawkesbury Radio's rugby league call team has kept up a high quality live call all season.   It's no small achievement to keep it up all that time, and maintain the professional quality of the broadcasts,  bringing the rugby league to our listeners week in, week out.

This provides a valuable service to the listeners in the Hawkesbury - enabling them to stay in touch with their team even if they can't attend the game.     Our call team has a sophisticated broadcast with numerous observation points  including expert as-it-happens game call,   sideline eye,   and keeping track of what's going on in other games on the same day.    This requires teamwork, organisation and attention to detail.     Not to mention quick thinking and diplomacy if things go wrong or there is any hiccup with the facilities at the ground on the day.   Backup plans are part of the deal for the rugby league call team.

Watch the video, prepared by Nicole Fitzsimons, as she takes a look at a day in the life of the Hawkesbury Radio commentary team.