January 17, 2014
Wild Horse FM members held a special board meeting today to finalise arrangements for upgrading the aerial system at the Yarraman community radio station’s remote transmitter site and to discuss funding ideas for future upgrades.
Station manager Jim Bond said the transmitter aerial was damaged when it was struck by lightning late last year.
Upgrades at the transmitter site, which is located on a former dairy farm on almost the highest part of town, will increase output to 500W ERP and will provide a better quality, full stereo, signal.
Mr Bond said it would also help to clean up a few dead spots for listeners around the area.
This would especially assist the “grey nomads” who make up a lot of the station’s listeners.
“We are aiming to cover the major highways … the Burnett Highway, the New England Highway, the D’Aguilar Highway and maybe even along the Bunya Highway,” Mr Bond said.
“In times of emergency, messages from police and emergency services will be able to reach the travelling public.”
Ergon Energy has offered to assist with the project by providing a special “cherry picker” to allow the new equipment to be installed, however it is not expected that the upgrades will be completed before March.
Wild Horse FM also received a $4000 grant from the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR) to install a generator and a small shed at the transmitter site.
This will allow the station to remain on air during “planned” power outages and quickly resume broadcasting during unplanned blackouts.
The station has also recently set up an Outside Broadcast van – a fully converted 15 foot caravan – which will allow presenters to broadcast from external events such as markets or it could be used to quickly relay emergency services alerts either from on site or from SES headquarters.
Mr Bond said the station had come “a long way” in the past few years. It now has about 10 presenters and broadcasts – and streams online – 24/7.
Programs are also relayed to 4DDD Dalby, including two hours of the Monday-Friday breakfast show, and Wild Horse FM’s twice-weekly gardening show.
Other changes planned at the studios, which are located in Heritage House, include the installation of a new telephone system next month which will allow interviews to be recorded in a second studio.
Many of the volunteers are also working their way through a Certificate III (Media) run by the Community Media Training Organisation (CMTO).
The course is running on six weekends, one weekend a month for six months. It has covered everything from workplace health and safety to preparing a running sheet and putting a program to air.
- Related article: Wild Horse Hosts Radio School
