Great news as radio station marks three decades

THE FIRST Christian community radio station to be given a licence in Victoria turned thirty last week.

Good News Radio, based in Ballarat, broadcast its first transmission on 12 May 1993.

To mark the occasion a celebratory morning tea was held last Friday with some of the station’s first presenters speaking about their experiences.

The station is 100 per cent volunteer run and plays Christian music and religious services.

Roger Ross has been volunteering at the station the entire 30 years and said he has seen a lot of changes.

“I came to the organisation after they began the test transmissions, and they were asking for volunteers to come in and do some reception work and that was how I got my foot in the door,” he said.

“Then I became a presenter and I’ve also had 10 years as station manager.”

Of course, a lot else has changed in three decades and Good News Radio had to overcome initial challenges to get to air.

“It was a vision by one man Dennis Stingell, to get together a group of people who were interested,” said Mr Ross.

“There were public meetings, meetings to form a committee, making the applications and so on.”

He said the changes in how radio works, both in front and behind the microphone, experienced at the station have been huge.

“There’s been a lot of changes particularly in the technology because when we first came to air we were playing vinyl records and CDs and cassettes,” Mr Ross said.

“Now we have a library which holds all the music on the computer, and we can choose what we want to play.”

Along the way a book shop was opened on site in 2014 selling new and second-hand bibles, Christian books, CDs, DVDs and cards with money raised going towards supporting the radio station.

Mr Ross said those who give their time and expertise to the organisation have always been the heart of Good News Radio.

“There was a lot of people involved over the years with more than 100 volunteers and everybody has not been paid,” said Mr Ross.

“The music changes, the programming changes, but we’ve always had the original vision of being able to present programs that are different to what we might hear anywhere else on other radio stations.”

With three decades on the air, Mr Ross said community radio stations still have a crucial role to play.

“It’s so important to have that local content,” he said. “For my programs in particular, I want it to be relevant and I want people to know that there is so much happening.

“We’re not playing old hymns all the time, we’re actually playing very much contemporary music and that’s been amazing.”