Byron-based community radio station Bay FM 99.9 has taken out Excellence in Community Engagement at this year’s Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) Awards.
Bay FM Belly host Sista Rasela Torise and YAC Radio founder Lealah Shostak accepted the award for their trilogy Young Legends: flood stories of Main Arm, co-produced with then-fifteen-year-old local mentee, Monet Shortland.
The award-winning work was produced in partnership with Byron Youth Service and Main Arm Public School with funding from the NSW Department of Communities and Justice and the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
The powerful audio airs voices of Main Arm children telling their stories of the floods and landslides two and a half years ago and includes an original song.
Community stories that ‘touch your heart’
Ms Torise said the award meant ‘so much’ to her, the station and the sector, in terms of interviewing, producing and presenting community stories, ‘the ones that touch your heart’.
‘To have this project recognised is everything that I stand for in community radio,’ Ms Torise told The Echo on Tuesday, ‘for me, personally, it’s recognition for the past 21 years of volunteering and working within the sector’.
‘I feel honoured, humbled and grateful to have found the thing in life that I absolutely love and that I’m able to do it.’
Bay FM awards legacy
Bay FM was short-listed for four awards in total, including two for the station’s emergency preparedness and information campaign and one for Mia Armitage as best news and current affairs presenter.
Six of the station’s volunteers were on the Gold Coast Saturday night for the awards celebrations, with Ms Torise and Ms Shostak appearing arm in arm on stage to accept their trophy and certificate.
Bay FM President Ange Kent said she felt very honoured to be part of such an ‘incredible’ community station.
Bay FM’s latest accolades continue a legacy of industry awards, including station of the year in 2022.
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