Hawkesbury Radio site. A great little community radio station in Sydney's north west. Firmly founded in the local community, the station provides interesting content related to the Hawkesbury area, sports, music and talk aimed at the local listeners.
Hawkesbury Radio is not dead!
An important announcement from Hawkesbury Radio.
Yes, The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) announced that they were not renewing the broadcast licence for Hawkesbury Radio. In the formal confirmation from the ACMA, they advised the board of Hawkesbury Radio that the ACMA would be calling for applications for Temporary broadcasting licence. In conversations with representatives of ACMA, again Hawkesbury Radio was encouraged to apply for a temporary broadcasting licence. All successful applicants of a temporary broadcasting licence may then apply for a full broadcasting licence.
Hawkesbury Radio would like to thank everyone for the overwhelming support we have received at this time from the community. We ask that the Hawkesbury community, who we have served for 39 years will swing behind us and all join Hawkesbury Radio and write to Minisiter Fifeld, the Minister responsible for community broadcasting, protesting their actions. The minister's email address is minister@communications.gov.au or telephone (02) 6277 7480.
In light of the facts, the directors of Hawkesbury Radio are committed to continue on the tradition of 39 years of continuous broadcasting, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Our action plan going forwards is simple. Firstly, Hawkesbury radio will continue to serve the Hawkesbury community and the world, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via the internet, while we await confirmation of our temporary broadcast licence. We will negotiate with the ACMA to meet any concerns regarding membership requirements. Hawkesbury Radio will then apply for the re-instatement of the broadcasting licence. Hawkesbury Radio believes that the ACMA is committed to a community radio station for the Hawkesbury. A radio station that serves our unique part of the world; part urban, majority rural and unserved by other media.
The directors of Hawkesbury Radio believe that the future is bright. Hawkesbury Radio will go the tough yards to prove that we are the only option for broadcasting in the Hawkesbury. Our plan is clear. Hawkesbury Radio has a dedicated membership to broadcast into the future. Let us not be tarnished by our few bad apples. Hawkesbury Radio will move onto bigger and better things and be stronger in the future.
Hawkesbury Radio is not dead!
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.
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
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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.
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.
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.
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. 
