Football action coming up on the station ...

Brian Flowers wins the 2013 Ricky Award

At the station's Annual General Meeting on 21 October,  Brian Flowers was named the winner of the 2013 Ricky Award for Excellence in Radio.    Brian performs three 5.5 hour shifts a week on the station,  starting at midnight.    We wonder when he has a normal life, since he's mostly nocturnal.    He plays 'Country Music ... Of Course"   through the night and also fills in for other hosts who are absent,  whenever asked.   Brian has had a long history with the station has steadfastly contributed to the welfare of the station.        Brian's award was a popular award with the members attending the AGM.

The Ricky Award is named after Ricky Stevenson,  a long-time accountant who served Hawkesbury Radio in many roles for many years.   He succumbed to cancer in 2003 and in his memory, his wife Pamela donated the Ricky Award, to be presented to an individual for excellence in radio and contribution to the Station.

In the left picture, Brian Flowers is being presented with the 2013 Ricky Award by Director Chris Dries while Chairman Paul Rasmussen looks on

2013 Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of Hawkesbury Radio's owner, the Hawkesbury Radio Communications Co-operative Limited was held in the Deerubbin Centre, Windsor on 21 October.  

The Agenda contained all the normal matters included in an AGM - CHairman's Report,  Directors' Report, Presentation of Annual Accounts etc, and Election of half the board for a 2 year term.  Four directors retired from the board, and being eligible, presented themselves for election for another term.   Two other members also offered themselves for election.  

As is customary, a secret ballot was held of the members present, with some votes also cast by Power of Attourney as we have always done and the following members were elected to the Board: 

• Yvonne Bartle
• Gavin Casburn
• Michael Golikov
• Michael Kear

Congratulations to those elected,  and thank you to all the members who put themselves forward, willing to make a contribution to the station's management.  

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 

Racing legend Johnny Tapp makes a visit

Recently racing legend Johnny Tapp paid us a visit at the invitation of Gary Cotter and was interviewed on his show. 

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.

Studio 2 Stage 2 begins

 The second stage of the renovation of Studio 2 has begun.   This is the area that used to be the "green room" and is being rebuilt into a full-blown broadcast studio - a duplicate of our main broadcast studio.  The idea is to provide a duplicate of the main studio so training can progress on the same equipment used for broadcast,  shows can be recorded there, interviews can be conducted in an environment that's not on-air live etc.    

In some circumstances, we will broadcast from Studio 2 instead of Studio 1.   For example if maintenance work is being done on our main broadcast equipment,  the presenter can simply move into studio 2 and broadcast from there,  using more or less the same equipment.

You can watch as the upgrade progresses,  at our special gallery page here.

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. >>>

New soundproofing in Studio 1

At long last our new sound deadening foam has been installed in Studio 1 - the broadcast studio.     

First - move the broadcast setup to studio 2 - normally used just for recording the less-complicated pieces to be included in shows.  Michael Golikov runs his show from the temporary studio while the work continues

Next - clean down the wall - remove all the papers pinned there, and dust etc. Then glue the new foam to the wall.   Here is Steve Wilkins and Seth Lewis hard at work 

The new studio look is spick and span. Seth Lewis, Chris Dries and Steve Wilkins are obviously pleased with the new sound deadening.

The Winner of our Logo Competition

We are delighted to reveal at last the winning entry in our recent Logo Competition.    We were delighted with the number of very thoughful and inspired entries - a great many people have given a lot of thought to how their local station should be portrayed, and taken into account the way they see the station integrating with the Hawkesbury community and joining with the community to make our area a better place to live and work.  

Chris Muscat from the Slopes, NSW submitted the winning design.     He says about his design: 

"The Blue colour represents the 'blue' of our iconic Blue Mountains, the backdrop for the Hawkesbury Region.  The Equalisers represent sound/music/mix levels and also have been chosen and shaped to symbolise the silhouette of the Blue Mountains."

You can see Chris's other design, and the other finalists on our special Logo Competition page.

Congratulations to Chris Muscat, who wins the $1000 in prizes from our sponsors, and will get to sit in on a radio show at a time that suits him.

The photo shows Chris Muscat,  (middle) with Andrew Reilly (L) Advertising Manager of Hawkesbury Newspapers, and Mike Kear (R), Sales & Marketing Director of Hawkesbury Radio, at the presentation ceremony. 

Hawkesbury Radio would like to thank the following sponsors that have made our competition possible: