Windsor Hawkesbury Community Radio’s first week test transmission on the Hawkesbury frequency 89.9 had some teething problems.
But CAMS’ Ralph Heness has told radioinfo the glitch was temporary and the aspirant community station is powering ahead with its plans for future weeks of test broadcasts thanks to the hard work of its members.
Heness, the Chairperson of the WHCR operating body CAMS (Consortium of Australian Media Services Inc), has told radioinfo:
We were on the air and on time, however, due to unforeseen circumstances which are still being investigated, our transmitter stopped about 35 minutes into the transmission. As it was our only transmitter, as we are a new service we had to find an alternate one. We sourced a backup transmitter and other equipment and went back on the air just after 3.40pm Monday.
As you can imagine, a non-for-profit temporary community radio service would find this difficult to deal with, but we are pleased to have achieved what we have and it is a testament to the hard work and effort of the members and the community who are involved.
In contrast to the other existing TCBL’s which have been operating for many years in one form or another, this is a new grass roots community establishment by the people of the Hawkesbury and for the people of the Hawkesbury, and the people are entrusted to become members of WHCR and participate in its daily operation for its success.
We continue to strongly support community engagement in the WHCR service and ask the public to join WHCR and participate in the day to day management and operations of this important community radio service, for the benefit of the community.
WHCR expects to be back on air successfully for its next two day allocation of test transmission time, which begins this Sunday 17 December.
The station has plans to commence 24 hour simultaneous online streaming along with its FM transmission by its second broadcast this Sunday.
Readers who have been following the Hawkesbury licence process will rememebr that there are now three groups sharing the frequency, 3:2:2 days each week. More details in our previous report.