February 27, 2014
Cherbourg’s community radio station Us Mob (4UM) can now compete with the “big boys” in the South Burnett following an upgrade to its transmitter.
The station’s transmitter was damaged during the 2011 floods and since then 4UM has been broadcasting with an output of just 400W, restricting its range.
But on Tuesday, transmission returned to the full-strength allowed by Us Mob’s licence, just under 2000W.
This means the indigenous station can now be heard in Kingaroy instead of fading out along the Burnett Highway.
Station manager Jeanette Brown said new equipment had also been installed which makes the station “sound better”.
“We now sound just as good as our competitors!” Jeanette said.
Operations consultant Michael Monk said the sound had been improved by installing new processing equipment in the broadcast rack which gave the station a “more professional” sound.
He said the upgrades were necessary to allow the station to go forward and continue to grow.
Us Mob broadcasts 24/7 providing local content from its three announcers – Chrissy Bond, Harold “Big Chance” Chapman and Rory Boney – as well as streaming content of indigenous interest from other stations around Australia.
In more good news for the station, Us Mob will soon be taking on two school-based trainees from Murgon State High School who will be completing a Certificate II in Media and a Certificate II in Administration.
“We’re hoping to give them their own air time, too,” Michael said.
Jeanette said she was also hoping Us Mob would now be able to do more outside broadcasts, getting out into the community.
