Station to Station - Casino’s Own Wireless & Three Rivers FM
Published in CBX Magazine, May 2014
The community spirit is alive and well in stations across New South Wales. Though separated by land stretching across 700km, two community broadcasters have found a way to help each other out.
Casino’s COW FM have teamed up with Three Rivers Radio in Dunedoo to exchange advice and information on not only technical issues but also accounting and reporting methods.
President of COW FM, Myrna Walters, explains how this all came about.
“The secretary at the time of Three Rivers FM, Charlie Rush and I met through mutual friends. On discovering that we both worked in community radio, Charlie told me that their technical person, Ken Westerman, was born in Casino. We have since kept in contact over time and discussed the upcoming rollover of digital and how the stations are being run.”
Currently focussed predominantly on upgrading COW FM to an automated radio system using Raduga and Zara software, Walters says that this exchange of ideas “is of paramount benefit to all.”
“We can look at better ways to enhance community radio, presenters’ programs and everything that goes with running a station.”
There is also a certain element of comfort to be taken in discovering they’re not alone when something goes awry.
“From my point of view it is nice to know that the other community radio stations experience similar problems to us and having them as backup support is fantastic.”
COW FM’s ‘open door policy’ of sorts seems to already work in their favour, with other stations regularly turning to them for guidance, as Walters says,
“We quite often exchange ideas and have presenters and technical people from other community radios dropping in to COW FM to see how we run our station and we also find this really helpful.”
Based on the success of this collaboration, Walters is enthusiastic about the possibility of expanding it further in the future, and not only with her friends in Dunedoo.
“We are looking at collaboration with other community radio stations around and outside of our area. Hopefully we can all exchange ideas and suggestions regarding the operation of community radio.”
If you’re ever in the area, you can listen to COW FM on 107.9FM and Three Rivers Radio on 101.5FM and hear their success for yourself.
