CHASING MY "ON AIR" DREAM
Part 3 

    I was blessed to have the opportunity to work fulltime for Radio Rhema in Christchurch for almost seven years from July 1981 until April 1988. 

    During that time, I met and married my wife, Tessa in June, 1986 (we will celebrate 40 years together in June this year).
Thinking back, it was probably about a year before we left NZ that I started to sense that my time at Radio Rhema was coming to an end. This was magnified by the fact that, one of the new announcers who had been a professional commercial annnouncer joined the staff, and was instructed to give the existing announcers, some of whom like me did not come from a commercial radio background - some training to help enhance their on air presentation. To my disappointment, Richard Berry instructed this man not to include me in those training sessions. In fact, during the last year of my time there, my on air shifts were reduced until, in the end, I had just one hour on Sunday evenings before a talk-back host took over and I was tasked with vetting phone calls and queuing them for the talk-back host for his four hour shift.

    As Tessa and I prayed, we sensed that the Lord might be leading us to return to Australia. I decided to send 'aircheck' tapes to three Christian radio stations - two in Tasmania and one in Perth, Western Australia.

    We were encouraged that both Tasmanian stations, Launceston's

WAY FM and 7HFC FM, Hobart (now Ultra 106Five) replied positively with offers of announcing positions for me. The station in Perth, known then as Sonshine FM replied saying that they did not consider I could offer them anything that they couldn't find locally - which I accepted as being an honest appraisal from them, particularly as Perth, W.A. is a very long way from Christchurch, New Zealand.

    We returned to Australia on the first of May, 1988, spending two weeks (now with our eight-month-old daughter) on the Gold Coast with my parents before flying down to Launceston.

    I worked for WAY FM in a fulltime position for approximately three years until 1991. To be honest, that was not an easy time for us. 

    As a fulltime employee with Radio Rhema in NZ, I did not receive a salary, but the ministry was well enough supported by Christians across the nation that our rent was paid for us, power and landline phone connection, an adequate weekly allowance for groceries, and also petrol allowance when I was able to buy a car. They looked after the staff very well.

    When we moved to Launceston, we were in for a bit of a culture shock. Personal regular financial support was limited. We lived in rental accommodation, and after a period of time, members of the station committee generously commenced to pay our rental for us which was very much appreciated. We never went hungry, and looking back, we know the Lord always provided for us, but it was not an easy time. We were blessed on about three occasions when the station manager, Kevin Hooper knocked on our door with anonymous gifts of $1,000 for us each time.

    Another aspect of the radio ministry in Launceston that was somewhat disappointing to us was that the presentation of the Gospel in the music was low-key with not many of the songs mentioning Jesus or being too overtly Christian. From memory, the music mix was 3:1 - three secular songs and one Christian song. Their station philosophy was that they were seeking to reach non-Christians, and not to just entertain Christians, so they felt the way to do that was to not come on too strong overtly with Christian content. i suppose their programming ethos could be defined as "pre-evangelism." To be totally honest, in the end, I felt bored on air. I did not like much of the music, and announcers were not encouraged to speak in clear terms the Gospel message, but to just allow the music to convey the message. In contrast, Radio Rhema had transitioned to an all-Christian music format a couple of years after I started working for them, and announcers were encouraged to share from their hearts short uplifting words of God's hope and love.

    After leaving Launceston's WAY FM, I had no other radio involvement until we moved down to Hobart at the beginning of the year 2000.

    At the time, I was unemployed on the dole, so weekdays were mostly free.

    In Australia, the radio broadcasting spectrum includes government-funded ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission), commercial stations, and a significant number of Christian and community stations across the country.

    Community radio, also referred to as Community Access Radio has provided opportunity for people who never would qualify for these other stations, and whose area of interest in music or spoken word would be seen as too specialised and narrrow for wider general radio programming.

    It must also be stated that also, some of these community radio stations have higher standards than others in relation to on air presentation. Most community stations rely heavily on membership fees from supporters as well as paid recorded sponsorship advertisements.

    

    

    Without going into detail, I contacted Huon FM, based in Geeveston in the Huon Valley south of Hobart and soon commenced a regular on air shift with them, initially on a weekday, encouraged by David Matheson and his wife who were part of the leadership team at the station. Then after a while, I began travelling down on Sunday mornings to do a three-hour long shift from 7-10am playing a mixture of secular and Christian music. I am indebted to Carolyne Milne and her husband, David, who were involved at the committee level and very much hands-on for several decades. Through their encouragement, after a period of 10+ years totally out of the radio scene, I recommenced broadcasting with Huon and Kingston FM in 2013, for a while doing two shows per week. 

    The Saturday late afternoon program ran for two hours, and was a mix of secular and Christian contemporary music. When I commenced the program, I prayed about what to call it. I believe the Holy Spirit led me to call the program "Life Sounds." The interesting thing is that some time later, I discovered, unknown to me at that time, that the preceding program on the station was produced by Indigenous broadcasters and it was called "Deadly Sounds." In stating this, however, I do not at all mean to disparage Aboriginals involved.

    The one hour Sunday morning program called "Sunday Celebration" heard from 11am-12pm is totally Christian, and mostly consisting of contemporary Christian music. The station website is: huonfm.com 

    97.7 TASMAN FM, based in the small township of Nubeena in the Tasman Peninsular, not far from Port Arthur was formed following the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, as a means to bring the community together with a positive focus.

    I have been blessed to be able to do a three-hour long Tuesday afternoon program with this station also over the past 3+ years. Again, I have been blessed that the management have no problem at all with me playing Christian music, so I use a format with a ratio of 3:1, playing every fourth song as a contemporary Christian track. A regular feature is also my friend Greg Newman's "The History Of Pop," featuring a year each week from the 60's to the 90's, highlighting musical facts from the particular year with a song from the same year.

    As well as local listeners, I have been greatly encouraged that my brother and his wife, an old school friend from Miami State High on the Gold Coast, and a Japanese mother with two young children - a friend of Robert, my school mate, and his wife - all in Brisbane, Queensland - listen online at tasmanfm.com.au

    The amazing thing that I really praise God for is that, on searching out a number of other community radio stations in Australia, even others in Tasmania, the majority do not seem to have ANY Christian programming, but the two stations I am involved with in southern Tasmania are more than happy to have Christian programming content.

    I am forever grateful to the Lord Jesus Christ for all the opportunities given me to broadcast on radio since my first community radio fortnightly stints at 2NCR FM, Lismore, New South Wales, in 1979 and the Sunday evening three-hour shifts I was able to present on 2SER FM, Sydney while attending Bible college in Katoomba in 1980. 

GOD IS GOOD!