Bay FM is shortlisted in five categories for this year’s Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) awards, with winners to be announced this weekend in Hobart.
All involved in nominated work, including the writer* of this article, say they are thrilled to make it as finalists, with the CBAA representing more than 90% of Australia’s community broadcast licensees.
Former station president, Ange Kent, is nominated for Excellence in Station Leadership thanks to her extraordinary volunteer work at the station’s helm after the sudden departure in 2022 of former station manager, Philip Shine, owing to ill health.
Mr Shine won the CBAA’s lifetime achievement award, the Michael Law Award, in 2022 after decades spent managing stations, developing the sector’s digital transition and founding its flagship national current affairs program, The Wire.
He was Bay FM’s first station manager and the first anniversary of his death recently passed this Spring.
Ange Kent’s leadership resonating beyond the bubble
As station president, Ms Kent did all she could to ensure Bay FM continued to thrive despite the many odds against it, including region-wide disaster recovery, a declared housing crisis and cost-of-living pressures, all of which directly impact the capacity of local volunteers and sponsors.
She delivered a rousing speech to a captivated audience of industry colleagues and stakeholders in 2022, when she accepted the CBAA’s Tony Staley Award for Excellence in Community Broadcasting on behalf of Bay FM.
She had been flooded and without internet during that year’s local disasters, Ms Kent told the packed-out Cairns auditorium, but thanks to her local community FM radio station, was able to stay informed of relevant, hyper-local advice.
Ms Kent went on to lead a station emergency preparedness campaign, including management and on-air training as well as a sustained broadcast series of short, localised information messages for the community that was last year shortlisted for two CBAA awards.
The longtime volunteer and producer/presenter of Bay FM’s Friday drivetime program, Northern Rivers Music Box, spent countless hours developing skills in governance and funding while continuing to stay abreast of rapidly changing media and music industries, all in the station and wider community’s interest.
She is credited with inspiring and welcoming other women to join the station’s board, significantly increasing gender diversity within the committee, including its executive, while maintaining a skills-based recruitment approach that also led to new men joining.
Rainbow Region music scene amplified through community radio
One of Ms Kent’s lasting legacies will no doubt be BaySounds, an annual Northern Rivers songwriting competition launched in partnership with SAE in 2024.
This year’s competition featured an expansion of categories to include youth, with winners to play at a live-broadcast gig at SAE next month.
The project is a logical complement to Ms Kent’s weekly program, where local musicians and industry stakeholders are regularly heard discussing their work and the two-hour playlist comprises almost exclusively Northern Rivers’ artists.
Her continued commitment to the local music scene, which includes collaboration with and mentorship of other contributors, is a major factor in Bay FM’s recent nomination for the CBAA’s Excellence in Australian Music award.
Other major factors include the program following hers on Fridays, Sista’s of Spin, a project showcasing the DJ and music production skills of women across the Northern Rivers.
Their rotating roster adds to a long tradition of local DJs airing beats for Bay FM, which has in turn inspired many a Bay FM fundraiser with presenters as the DJs entertaining dance floor punters.
After years of celebrated discotheques, more recent boogies organised by former president Nell Schofield have perhaps borrowed more heavily from this century but you’ll have to go to one to be sure, tune in to Bay FM to find out when and where the next local DJ dance party will be.
There are too many other programs and volunteers to name all who continue to support local and Australian music more generally on Bay FM, whether through program playlists, interviews, events, funding efforts or more general station work.
The station’s longtime First Nations program, Wirritjin, plays a particularly significant role in promoting Australian music and highlighting First Nations artists who appear on local festival lineups.
Bay FM producers and presenters impress judges
Excellence in Multicultural Engagement and Programming is another of the station’s award nominations this year, the result of a continued dedication to ethnic and multicultural broadcasting and many years of work from a team of presenters and other volunteers.
Check out the program guide at bayfm.org for some inspired listening when it comes to the music and stories of people with varied migrant backgrounds who live in the local community, whether they be from European, South American or African countries, Indonesia or Japan.
Work from acclaimed longtime Bay FM producer Rasela Torise is nominated for Best New Program, with her debut series of WOW (Wise Older Women) continuing to cause ripples in Australian community radio waves, having been picked up for broadcast across the Community Radio Network earlier this year.
Longtime local news reporter Mia Armitage, who also writes for The Echo (including this article), is shortlisted, under Outstanding Presenter: News and Current Affairs.
Ms Armitage and Ms Torise are to represent the station at this year’s CBAA conference, along with Robbie Armfield, who joined Bay FM in a new studio manager role in late 2024 and the station’s board last month.
Anyone interested in joining Bay FM, either in a volunteer presenter, producer, station support or board member capacity, can express an interest via [email protected].
Donations, subscriptions and other financial support can be made via the station’s website, while local businesses who contact the front desk will be connected with the station’s sponsorship representative.
*Mia Armitage is a Bay FM member
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