No new home yet for fire bombed WOW FM

Adelaide community station WOW FM 100.5 is still off air after a molotov cocktail thrown through the station’s window destroyed its studios and damaged its transmitter two weeks ago.

Station Chairman David Thalbourne has told radioinfo: “The combination of the fire and the water damage in putting it out means we no longer have a home for the station and we are off air.”

The Port Adelaide station, located on the corner of Swan Terrace and Robin Roads Semaphore, has been offered support from other community and commercial radio stations in Adelaide, but cannot get itself back on air until it finds new premises and collects about $50,000 worth of insurance money to replace the burnt out studio equipment.

Thalbourne is not sure whether the Council, which owns the fire bombed building, is intending to repair the building for WOW FM or to find alternative premises for the station. The brick building, which was previously a child care centre, is thought not to be very suitable for a radio station.

The fire bombing followed six months of other incidents of harrasment for station volunteers, including abusive messages in the station’s guest book, threatening phone calls, abusive SMS messages, and tyre slashing.

When asked by radioinfo if the bombing was the result of disputes between station volunteers Thalbourne said he is “suspicious” that may be the case. He would not elaborate because the bombing is under investigation by police.

“There is no outcome from those investigations yet… working with volunteers can be very difficult,” Thalbourne told radioinfo.

David Thalbourne stepped forward for the position of Station Chairman just 5 weeks ago at WOW FM’s annual general meeting, after the previous Chairman had resigned six months before, indicating a history of friction within the station.

“I was involved with the running of Coast FM for many years and I thought I might be able to bring some of the skills I used there to help WOW FM. I saw a need to get it working efficiently again, but we have a major hurdle to jump now.”

Thalbourne says the AGM was “not a particularly firey meeting,” but that there had been a series of resignations leading up to the meeting.

WOW FM is a low powered community station broadcasting at 200 Watts on FM 100.5. It broadcasts music and information “dedicated to the community of the Western suburbs of Adelaide [with a] diverse sound. A greater music mix from rock, hip-hop, dance, local and international.” WOW stands for ‘Way Out West’ and is located in Adelaide’s western suburbs near the beach.