2019 was a fantastic year for Apollo Bay Radio.
We have a stack of new presenters with an even wider variety of shows playing so much great music from different genres.
We were successful in our grant application to Colac Otway Shire to enable the purchase of new, sophisticated outside broadcasting equipment. The grant was matched $1 for $1 so we were also lucky to have enough sponsorship, membership and fundraising cash.
Without our sponsors, members and all of you who have bought a meat raffle ticket from us at the bottom pub over the past few years we could not continue to broadcast, let alone buy our new gadget.
Now we just have to figure out how to use it. Stay tuned!
So we now have the potential to broadcast live to air radio away from the studio. While some of our presenters see this as an opportunity to begin their commentating careers (you’ll probably see us at Apollo Bay Hawks home games!), we are all very excited to be able to broadcast public events – particularly musical ones, along with important community forums and meetings.
It was great to also have guests in to talk about what’s happening in the community and we always encourage you to get in touch if you have a message to get out there.
If you have a news item or want to come into the studio to chat about a local project or event, email us at onair@3abr.org and we can help.
Our sponsorships continue to grow and we thank those local businesses who have chosen to support us.
With so many new shows and presenters, we are appealing to a wider range of listeners so I’d like to thank those who regularly turn the dial to 87.6 or stream Apollo Bay Radio online. Without a community of listeners, we wouldn’t be a radio station for the community.
Our big finale for 2019 was Jingle at the Bay, now in its 6th year, our Christmas Themed Open Mic event proved that even in 42-degree heat (yes the show must go on!) there’s still a core group in our community that comes out and support our fun alternative to traditional Christmas Carols. Let’s hope the weather is a little more amenable for Jingle 2020, for Santa’s sake.
Finally, a special word of thanks for both the outgoing 2019 committee and the new committee for 2020 – without this core group who run the station administration we wouldn’t have community radio in Apollo Bay.
Happy New Year,
John Smith – President
Apollo Bay Radio Inc.
Well said Pres!