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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.
Football action coming up on the station ...
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 ...
VALE: Nicole Fitzsimons
It is with great sadness that we share the terrible news that Hawkesbury Radio Rugby League Commentary Team Member Nicole Fitzsimons was involved in a fatal motorbike accident while holidaying in Thailand.
The news was broadcast on Channel Nine on Saturday October 20. Here is the transcript from the Nine News bulletin: 'A young Sydney woman has been killed in a motorbike accident in the Thai resort of Koh Samui. 24 year old Nicole Fitzsimons worked as a PA on Nine's NRL Footy Show. The program's Executive Producer Glenn Pallister has issued a statement saying "Nicole's love of life was infectious. Anyone who was lucky enough to spend time with her was a better person for that experience."
This tragic event has deeply saddened our commentary team and those at the radio station who knew Nicole.
Nicole joined our ranks in 2011 in a junior role to learn about radio and sports commentary.
In 2012 she was a regular member of our team as a side line eye, showing real promise as she gained more on air experience. Nicole was on the side line for our final broadcast of the 2012 season where we officially celebrated 15 years calling live local league, somewhat fitting given that she was responsible for filming, producing and voicing the special video “Game day with Hawkesbury Radio” which we launched as part of our 15 years calling live local league celebrations and which you can see below.
With the talent she had displayed at Hawkesbury Radio and behind the scenes at Channel Nine, Nicole was destined for a bright future in the media, it is such a tragedy that she will not get the chance to reach her full potential.
To Nicole’s family, friends and colleagues, from all of us at Hawkesbury Radio - our thoughts and prayers are with you at this time.
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. >>>
STOP PRESS: ACMA's Investigation complete
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)’s investigation has been completed and has found Hawkesbury Radio NOT in breach of its License. A small group of members who have waged a nasty campaign against the Station and the Board for several months complained to ACMA and claimed Hawkesbury Radio was in breach of its broadcast license. Had these members succeeded then Hawkesbury Radio would potentially have lost its Broadcast license and therefore ceased broadcasting permanently. They were never going to succeed, but they tried very hard to influence ACMA staff.
UPDATE on the Privacy Issue
We have completed our consultation process, where we asked all of our members to state whether they do (or do not) authorise us to release their private details to others as part of our membership register. It took a few weeks to accomplish, because we had to send snail mail to every member and wait for their response, then update and double-check our records.
The Board believes our members’ privacy is critically important, which is why we undertook this exercise in the first place, and it’s proved important in the minds of the members too, because 82% of the members have stated that they wish us to keep their private details private. In fact several members stated that they were horrified and had no idea when they applied to join the station that they were giving us details that could be made public to people they barely knew at any time. Hawkesbury Community Radio Station will respect their privacy and the Privacy Laws of this Nation. Only the details required by law will be made available on the membership register. (Members can change their privacy status at any time by simply advising the office in writing of their choice.)
This has also meant that any pending membership applications have to be resubmitted on the new membership form, with their approval (or otherwise) to release their private details on the membership list. We are writing to people who have submitted membership applications in the last few weeks advising them that they have been held, pending the outcome of this change, and once they are resubmitted on the new form, the Board will consider them as soon as possible.
There has been a lot of coverage in the local press about this issue, and whether or not the Board was denying legitimate access to the membership register. As we have stated repeatedly, we have never denied access to the membership register. We merely wanted the members to first have the option of stating their preferences relating to the release of their private details. We are pleased to advise that now that the privacy issue has been resolved, and members have had a chance to state their wishes, the members who wanted to see the list were advised on Thursday 9 February that they could make a time with the office to see the register.
At the time of writing this, more than a week later on 17 February, no-one has made such an appointment.
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:
