BELLINGEN Shire residents have been left with reduced access to their local community radio station after their Dorrigo plateau transmission tower was closed down.
2 Triple B FM has been part of the fabric of the Bellingen community since its first broadcast from Carl Foster’s service station showroom on the main street of Bellingen in 1980.
The station, formally became the Bellingen Community Communications Co-operative in 1981, received its broadcast licence in 1983, and the volunteers went on to build what became the first mud-brick radio station in the world.
A tower on Scotchman Road followed, with the Dorrigo transmitter later extending coverage across the entire Shire including the valleys.
The station has operated as a volunteer-run cooperative ever since, sustained by around $40,000 a year in community sponsorships and fundraising – enough to keep the lights on, but leaving little room for unexpected costs.
NOTA spoke with board member Kristen Collier about the situation.
“The tower came down after a long-standing rental arrangement with the private landowner came to an end,” she said.
“2 Triple B had shared the site with Bellingen Shire Council, which had used the tower to manage water pumps and sewerage systems across the shire via radio signal.”
When the council decided to transition those systems to internet-based connections, they no longer needed the tower.
“We were notified in August last year that we would probably have to move,” Kristen said.
The loss of the tower has meant Dorrigo and parts of Thora and Kalang have lost access to the station; a significant concern given the role community radio plays in emergencies.
“The coverage of the valleys is really important,” Kristen said.
“If there was a flood event, there could be a piece of information at the right time that could be very valuable – and some of those residents may not be able to get that through the ABC..”
The volunteer team is currently erecting a temporary transmitter at a council-owned site near Dorrigo, though Kristen notes it won’t deliver the full coverage the old tower provided.
Weather has also slowed progress.
Fortunately, the station has a key asset in Board Chair Rodney van der Vliet, who is a broadcast engineer.
“I really don’t know what we would do without him,” Kristen said.
“He was able to figure out solutions that we wouldn’t even have known to look for.”
The temporary fix still requires fundraising to cover installation and infrastructure costs.
By Jessica MILLER
You can help your local paper.
Make a small once-off, or (if you can) a regular donation.
We are an independent family owned business and our newspapers are free to collect and our news stories are free online.
Help support us into the future.
