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Station News |
| Bellingen Golf Club |
| Announcing the 2BBB Trivia Night to be held on Bastille Day, 14th July, at the Golf Club from 7pm. There'll be fun and challenging quiz questions from our MC, Adrian Lipscomb, plus extra games for the extra keen and for all the winners-lots of great prizes from our local sponsors (a full list to follow soon). PLUS a French best-dressed competition-ooo la la! AND wonderful gypsy French manouche music from Panache. Food and drinks available at the Club. Bring your friends to make up a table of 8 or let us find a table for you. An evening of fun, frivolity and tres tres francais to fundraise for your very own community radio station-help keep us on the air-Tickets $10 available at the station 52 Wheatley St North Bellingen Pre-booking essential. Call 66550718 for more info. |
New Presenters / New Shows
The recent 2bbb Training Course has provided us with a great bunch of new, enthusiastic presenters. We have Bernadette Johnson, Terry Cleary, Brian Francis, Max Bray, Montana Baldwin and Alasdair Reed.
Bernadette filled in for Bellamy while he was away. Now that he has returned she will start her own music show called ‘This and That’ on Sunday 10 October between 12-2pm.
Terry Cleary has his own brand of ‘Mostly Music’ a lively program on Friday (after Bellingen Access) between 12-2pm.
Brian made his debut in the Sunday evening spot with ‘Sunday Easy’ 7-9pm. Bernadette came in to give him some moral support
Max Bray who attends Bellingen High School moves into the ‘Raw Radio’ youth spot - so expect some funky music.
Montana Baldwin together with her mother Mary Ellen presents ‘Melonpop Drive’ between 4-6pm each Friday.
‘The Listening Room’ is Alasdair’s spot 9-11pm on Sunday and the music is ambient, experimental and a little electronic.
New Board After AGM
On 3rd November 2011 a new Board of Directors was elected at the Annual General Meeting
Board Of Directors 2011-2012
Simon Rawson
Anna Bray
Katie Wilson
Susan Hanley
Terry Cleary
Leo Bradney-George
Jerome Speekman
John Vallance
Chair Persons Report
Chairperson's Report to
The Annual General Meeting
Bellinger Community Communications Co-operative
3rd November 2011
Report by Chairperson, Simon Rawson
We have had eight board meetings since the last AGM, approximately one every six weeks. The meetings have all been harmonious, productive and, given the present small numbers on the Board, surprisingly quorate. Sadly John Popham resigned in March both as Day Manager and Board Director but not before he had performed some much needed work on our Assets Register, helping us to write off long defunct pieces of equipment that still lurked in our inventory.
A big thank you to all of my fellow board members for their diligence during the year, but a particularly big "Thank You" must be directed at Cherie Race, without whom 2BBB would struggle to be On Air. For many years she has taken care of such “small matters” as renewing Broadcasting Licences, paying APRA fees, applying (and acquitting ourselves) for Grants, and making sure all of the seemingly ever-growing bills get paid from our somewhat scant resources. I am very sorry to say that I received her resignation letter on Saturday indicating that she would no longer be Secretary / Treasurer / Day Manager at 2BBB, effective forthwith. I do hope that we as a Co-op can find the resources within our ranks to replace her. She will be sorely missed. I am sure that we will in due course find some way to properly thank her for all of the hard voluntary work she has done for our Co-op.
Thanks to Anna helping to keep us on our toes with Subscriptions, and thanks to Ellie for selling Sponsorship Ads well over and above what we had budgeted for. This was just as well, as our other sources of income (now that all post flood insurance monies have well and truly dissipated) were all well under budget – I am sure our Auditor will have more to say about the predicament we face with incomings and outgoings. It was with our budgetary struggles in mind that the Board recently resolved to begin an annual $10 Volunteers Levy to help us begin to get back in the Black.
The old 2010-11Board is passing on to the New 2011-12 Board several earmarked priorities in terms of a fund-raising push and fresh applications for grants. As well as, for example, an application for a General Grant from the Community Broadcasting Foundation to cover the scheduling software that is next up on our WishList, we can try and tap into local Community Grants, Grants for Volunteer Organisations, and given that 2012 is the International Year of Co-operatives, we might find some Co-op funding becoming available. We could perhaps also engage with local refugees and find a further avenue for some funding.
2BBB could team up with Bellingen EYE and Transitions Bellingen to come up with some concrete programming concepts, complete with recorded examples of such programmes, and we can then apply for substantial CBF Programming Grants during the next funding round in August 2012. But we will need the groundswell of keenness and support from the wider BCCC Membership and 2BBB Volunteers to make such things happen. We can also re-apply for Ethnic Programming Grants, but we have to be seen to be creating the right programmes to acquit ourselves for the funds, and again that requires volunteers to run such programmes.
Training is another priority earmarked for the new Board. There are names going up on the list in the foyer, we should work towards putting the next course in place ASAP. As well providing us with new blood to expand our programming schedule, it also provides some much needed income.
Another priority flagged for attention is 2BBB’s Outside Broadcasting. Since Tark’s departure, the van has become something of a stationary financial drain and we need to decide what to do with it. It would appear that our best – and most portable option – would be to replace it with wireless / digital / mobile setup that could be transported in the back of a car and broadcast back to base in Studio 1 from anywhere in the Shire.
Any proceeds from the sale of the van could be used to fund the new technology that we will require to begin being able to broadcast from anywhere in the Shire, at local events in Dorrigo or Urunga, for example. Due to being in transition from the Van to a new OB setup, we had minimal involvement with the Global Carnival this year. But thanks must go to Leo for making so many preview CD’s and doing so many great interviews with all of the artistes.
Since July – and with help from Trevor Tree of 20/20 Imagineering – we have begun a test stream online. There is now a link in place on the home page of the 2BBB website to a server in the UK which carries our live signal. We have now progressed to a trial of a paid server, which guarantees 24/7 availability. Thus far, it has been very reliable. You can now listen on the home page of the website, and via a free App for iPhones and other such devices.
This should now give Ellie an added bonus to offer to potential sponsors, as we are able to advertise local businesses and the Shire as a whole to an ever-widening demographic. At the very least, the streaming ensures we are filling our mandate more effectively by reaching parts of the Bellingen Shire that we were struggling to get to with our regular signals. Given that we are doing this on the smell of an oily rag, we should be able to make the venture self-financing at the very least.
We have had a breakthrough this year with coverage for defamation insurance. Previous boards had always found such insurance prohibitive. We have been able to piggy-back onto the CBAA’s insurance policy and for only $562 pa we are now covered for “unintentional defamation” by our presenters.
We have also made some steps forward with our computing systems at 2BBB. The IT Policy Review showed us that we badly needed a systems administrator and Jerome Speekman has kindly taken on that role. Jerome may want to correct me, but I think I am right in saying that the 2BBB computer systems are now better than they have ever been. We now just need to connect the networking link between the computers in studio 1 and 2 and – in combination with some Programming / Scheduling software – we will be able to draw sponsor ads and music direct from the library on the Studio 2 computer to air in Studio 1.
During this year we have acquitted ourselves for a previous year’s grant by installing our new relay transmitter. Thanks again to Cherie and to Richard Hughes for making all of this happen by the March deadline. It just leaves me to let you know that as the BCCC we recently set up a Facebook page to initiate discussion and disseminate news through the 2BBB community and beyond. If you are on Facebook, please click “like” and join the discussion.
Who knows where new technologies can take us in 2012 and beyond as a Communications Co-operative. Perhaps we can utilise free sites such as YouTube or Vimeo or Skype to further expand our activities. It doesn’t need to cost us anything to do so. For example, YouTube now offers a free editing facility which opens up the possibility of Community TV – or at least Bellingen Community TV YouTube Channel - on the cheap - if that is something that our members are interested in.
New Book by Seth Jordan
Congratulations Seth from 2bbb fm
“World Music”, Seth Jordan Bendersky’s impressive new book on the development and rapid expansion of this vibrant music genre, has just been launched in Sydney.
Co-founder and Artistic Director of Bellingen’s Global Carnival, Seth was one of 2bbb’s original presenters in the 80’s. It was from 2bbb that the Community Radio Network first syndicated around Australia Seth’s award winning ‘Radio Babylon’. On reel-to-reel tape then, its later incarnation, ‘The Tiki Lounge’, now beams out nationwide via the CRN satellite.
American-born, now Sydney-based music journalist, Seth’s professional life has blossomed since the 2bbb days. Still a broadcaster as well as a festival consultant, and MC coordinator for Womadelaide Festival, Seth writes regular world music reviews for ABC’s Limelight magazine. He is also the Australasian/Pacific correspondent for Songlines magazine (UK) and has been a regular contributor to Rhythms magazine, Drum Media, the Canberra Times, and The Rough Guide to WorldMusic.
Seth Jordan’s ‘World Music’, published by Newsouth Books is a definitive work, eagerly awaited by music devotees. Hopefully, 2bbb fm and the Bellingen Libraries will soon have their own copies.
From its early beginnings in the 1980s, the vibrant world music genre in Australia has burgeoned to become the dynamic scene it is today. World Music charts this evolution, with chapter contributions from some of Australia’s most knowledgeable and respected world music journalists, broadcasters, academics and promoters, and in doing so provides an historical perspective on one of music’s most exciting styles. It explores the story of Australian-based performers and other individuals who have significantly contributed to the development of Australia’s world music scene. With chapters covering many musical sub-genres – European, African, Latin, Reggae, Asian, Middle-Eastern, Indigenous, and contemporary cross-cultural fusions – attention is also given to the communities, organisations, venues and festivals, along with the various media outlets that have promoted world music in Australia.