‘No hidden agenda’ at 100.3 Bay FM says current board member

An internal dispute at South East Queensland’s 100.3 Bay FM has escalated to the ACMA, the CBAA and the Office of Fair Trading as board members seek to establish who is in control of the station (see related article).

At the community station’s Annual General Meeting at the end of October last year a group of candidates associated with the ‘Friends of Bay FM’ stood a range of candidates against the previous board, because they did not agree with the way the station was being run.

Current Committee Member Pamela Wintour has told radioinfo:
 
“Our team of candidates that were nominated as running mates of Russ Barnsley were endeavouring to ensure that the incoming committee for 2017 would run as a ‘committee’ and not a dictatorship.”

At the AGM, James Harling was elected as President; Russ Barnsley as Vice-President; Marcus Fitz-Gerald as Secretary; Graeme Palmer as Treasurer and Don Jackson as Announcers’ Representative. Also elected were Committee members: Neil Atkinson, Drew Ebbstein, Graham Lever, David Stone, Bruce Walker and Pamela Wintour.

James Harling and Marcus Fitz-Gerald were both subsequently stood down on 12 December after it was found that their membership applications had not been ratified at the time of the AGM. As a consequence the station’s bank account was frozen and no payments were made after December 13 last year. The matter was brought to the attention of the Department of Fair Trading.

“Currently Russ Barnsley and his running mates have agreed to the Office of Fair Trading’s advice to deem both Harling and Fitz-Gerald as members,” according to Pamela Wintour.                                                                                                                            
“Both sides have agreed to meet at the OFT to come to an agreement to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) before the end of February, and also to agree to make arrangements to work together as a committee without executive officer appointments… Co-operation in these areas will result in our banking institution enabling Bay FM to meet all financial commitments,” she says.

Pamela Wintour has told radioinfo that she and colleagues Russ Barnsley, Graeme Palmer, David Stone and Neil Atkinson “have no hidden agenda in seeking that a democratic committee should run Bay FM.”

“All committee members [should] be permitted to express his/her view, thereby having a say in the community radio station’s governance. This is simply in the best interest of all announcers, members, sponsors and the community,” says Wintour.

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