As stations all around Australia discuss the continuing PPCA dispute, one little station Peak Hill FM, has vowed that no matter what happens, it will keep on streaming.
Founder and chairperson Peter Herman has told radioinfo the station is just gearing up to join the Digital Revolution this month by purchasing a brand new Arrakis X14-14 console and new iRK microphones, and he doesn’t want to see Australian radio go backwards.
“Peakhillfm89.5 will also continue to stream as we rely on our overseas listeners and also our Aussie listeners to keep us going, so this business about Commercial Radio Australia and the PPCA should be left to sort itself out and not have outsiders try and influent other parties,” he told radioinfo.
The little station just out of Dubbo in Western NSW battled for years to get a licence and, like most regional community stations, runs on volunteer enthusiasm and the smell of an oily rag.
Herman says the station is “a small volunteer Community Radio Station… we have four main volunteer announcers, me included. Our station commenced in 2007 from the back yard of my home. Some 18 months later we were offered an old three bedroom home, which we have now converted into a fully functional studio. We are now on the air 24/7 with our streaming partner Bellonline in UK.
Volunteer announcers present programs such as ‘Magical Musical Tour’ Country as well as Anthem music, and Irene (Shuga) Ridgeway, who does a Tuesday and Thurday show including Indigenous music and she has also introduced a segment on leaning the local Indigenous language called Wiradjuri. The main music content is from the 1940s to the 1980s, including country music.
“We have a lot of fun with our station. We support the local goings on, with the Peak Hill Roosters Rugby League Club, The Showground Society, Business & Tourism Association and many other functions.”
Peter Herman has been nominated for Citizen of the Year in Peak Hill and won the Seniors Volunteer of the Year Award in 2010.
“Even though we are a young community radio station, we struggle with sponsors and are always looking for major ones to come on board. Like many other small towns, there are those who don’t like us, but the listeners in town outweigh those who don’t like us,” he said.
Peter Herman recently travelled around Australia to visit different community radio stations around this vast country and is now back on home territory doing his regular shows on Peak Hill FM.
You can listen to the station at www.peakhillfm.com.au… for now.