Patron: The Governor-General, Her Excellency the Honourable Ms Sam Mostyn AC

 

A lot is happening at ArtSound. Read on for news about:

  • Garden Concert: Gary Luck
  • Vale, Bill Motherway
  • ArtSound Volunteers of the Year
  • Thanks to the volunteers
  • CBAA conference and station tours
  • New studio console
  • Studio visitors
  • Presenters wanted
  • Call for radio-drama scripts
  • ArtSound production unit
  • Canberra Southern Cross Club sponsorship
  • ArtSound’s podcasting meetup
  • Donations
  • How you can help

Garden Concert: Gary Luck

On Sunday December 14, at 2pm, ArtSound presents another of its concerts in the Manuka Arts Centre Gardens. This time it’s Gary Luck, who has long championed the great Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, even writing a short play, with music, featuring incidents in Lightfoot’s life. Luck has presented his tribute show in honour of Lightfoot to audiences far and wide, refining it over the last 40 years, and adding in some of his own originals.

Those include his “Blood on the Frangipani” about the bombing of Darwin during World War II. He has performed it on national radio, live at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, and in the Northern Territory Parliament House during annual commemorations of the bombing.

If you book in advance, admission is $15 with a glass of wine, beer or soft drink. For children and youths under 16, admission is free.

For tickets, go here and click on “register now.”

https://artsound.fm/events-listing/#!event/2025/12/14/garden-concert

Vale, Bill Motherway

ArtSound has lost a valued volunteer: William (Bill) Motherway, who presented the program Celtic Heartbeat from late 2022 until this year, passed away in early December.

Listeners will remember Bill’s lilting Irish accent when presenting the popular Saturday morning programme Celtic Heartbeat and his Senior Memories program which he presented on alternating Mondays until ill health prevented his travel to the studios.

Bill came to ArtSound about four years ago and became the principal presenter of Celtic Heartbeat, which aired every Saturday morning for two hours. Bill had previously been a presenter with Queanbeyan FM for over 20 years; there he presented the breakfast program and a Saturday morning program, Irish Heartbeat, which became the basis for the ArtSound program. Bill shared the Saturday morning spot with Judy Baker and other presenters including Eleanor Lewis, Betsy Dixon, Monty Fox and Eric McDonald.

Bill also had a great following of listeners when he was on air for Senior Memories.

His life also included playing a button accordion accompanying his singing of Irish and Australian ballads when entertaining at concerts and get-togethers. He entertained at aged care facilities for many, many years, sometimes on two or three occasions a week at various locations throughout Canberra and Queanbeyan.

Bill was a good friend to many of us at ArtSound and his on-air presence and community entertaining will be sadly missed.

ArtSound extends its condolences to Bill’s family and friends.

Volunteer of the Year

Congratulations to Chris Deacon (pictured left) who was named ArtSound Volunteer of the Year. We all know how much time and passion Chris invests in keeping our station broadcasting around the clock. He is also in the middle of a one in 20 years upgrade of our studio broadcast equipment.

Michael Catley was a worthy runner up. Michael (pictured right) has been instrumental in securing acts for our ArtSound concert series, as well as being a key member of our Fundraising Committee.

We all thank Chris and Michael. Their hard work and commitment help make ArtSound the best community radio station in town and ensures we can meet our objective of developing and promoting Canberra’s arts and artists.

At the recent volunteer holiday party, Julie Finch-Scally (centre) announced the awards.

Thanks to all our volunteers

ArtSound’s Board president Bart Meehan writes:

Well done, to everyone!

As 2025 draws quickly to an end, I want to thank everyone who has worked so hard this year. As is always the case in community organisations, next year presents challenges both in recruiting more volunteers to continue our operations and fund raising. However, I think it’s appropriate to take a moment to reflect on what we’ve achieved this year.

In the past 12 months, you have managed to deliver thousands of hours of original programming, complete hundreds of interviews, organise live concerts, run training numerous courses and workshops, support the development  and promotion of local arts and artists, raise tens of thousands of dollars in donations and sponsorship, obtain the largest Community Broadcasting Foundation grant awarded this year and with that establish a major studio equipment upgrade project (a special mention here to Chris Deacon!) and, of course, secure the patronage of the Governor General. All of this achieved by volunteers, committed to making ArtSound the best community station and arts organisation in Canberra. That’s an impressive record by any organisation — so take some time to congratulate yourselves.

Have a great holiday break and I look forward to working with you again in 2026.

CBAA conference and station tours

In October ArtSound’s Chris Deacon attended the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) national conference in Hobart. He took in sessions about building station brand recognition, philanthropy tactics and donor management, the future of AI in media, and sponsorship. Also on the conference program was a strategic planning workshop arranged by Technorama Inc, an association of community-radio technical specialists, and visits to three community stations in Hobart (Edge FM (pictured), Hobart FM, and Print Radio) and Launceston (City Park Radio).

At Hobart FM (below), Technology Manager Jim Parish OAM arranged a station tour.

New broadcast console

ArtSound has taken delivery of some of the next lot of equipment required to upgrade further studios at Manuka. ArtSound is the first broadcaster in the Australasian region to launch this digital technology from Germany which is generously supported by a Community Broadcasting Foundation grant.

Project Manager Chris Deacon said: “With the ArtSound-funded upgrade of Studio 1 almost complete, this new acquisition will allow ArtSound to retire more 20-year-old equipment in some remaining studios and expand ArtSound’s programming and operational capabilities into the future.”

Chris added that under the grant commitments made to the funding body (CBF), ArtSound is pursuing an agreed project timeframe for delivering a completed solution by mid 2026.

ArtSound’s podcasting meetup

Members are invited to attend ArtSound’s fortnightly Podcasting Meetup. It’s an informal gathering of podcast enthusiasts — some experienced, some beginners — who discuss podcast skills, approaches, and content.

The group generally meets every second Monday from 5:30-6:30pm in ArtSound’s dedicated podcast studio. The date of next meeting is Monday, December 15.

To inquire about joining in, write to podcast@artsound.fm.

Studios visitors

Representatives from the Australian Film, Television & Radio School in Sydney came to the ArtSound studios is late November to shoot film in our newly upgraded broadcast studio. The School will use the footage in one of its training courses, to show trainees what a well-appointed broadcast studio should and does look like!

Are you our next presenter?

Do you have good knowledge of an area of arts practice that could make for compelling arts radio, or are you keen to learn?

ArtSound is always interested in hearing from potential presenters who would like to create programs about specialist areas of arts in and around the ACT, or the world.

Perhaps you have specialised knowledge in, say, opera, or film music, or radiophonic art, or non-music subjects related to arts or culture… or history or heritage… You tell us!

We can provide training in the relatively simple tasks involved in long- or short-form programming — either live to air or via pre-recording.

Please write to programmingcommittee@artsound.fm and we’ll get in touch to discuss the possibilities.

Call for radio-drama scripts

You, too, could be featured in an ArtSound Radio Players production. If you have a script that would be suitable for radio, or even an idea for a radio play but you’re not sure where to start, get in touch with ArtSound Radio Theatre, which airs Sundays at 4pm (repeated Mondays at 10pm). The highly experienced troupe may be able to help. Write to help@artsound.fm.

ArtSound production unit

Do you have skills or ideas for audio production? For example, have you wanted to create a series of short items about some aspect of ACT-region arts and culture? Or could you help us to create polished on-air announcements of various kinds?

ArtSound is expanding its production of promotional and sponsorship (advertising) announcements, along with short items to drop into our regular programming.

If you’d like to join us, or have ideas to share, get in touch via help@artsound.fm.

Canberra Southern Cross Club sponsorship

ArtSound is back on the Canberra Southern Cross Club Community Rewards list, which allows ArtSound supporters to contribute to our coffers simply by dining at the club’s various facilities.

Under the program, as a patron of the club, you can go to this link: https://csccmarketing.wufoo.com/forms/m1ti98210e4gdsx/ and add your CSCC member details. Then, every time you buy food and drinks at the CSCC, ArtSound will get 7.5% of what you spend, and the money goes towards our equipment upgrades and running costs.

Donations

We’re always grateful to receive donations to support our work, which includes featuring about 1,000 ACT-region artists on air annually along with specialty programming that supports and fosters arts activities in the ACT region.

ArtSound does this as an all-volunteer community radio station with expenses that run to more than $120,000 each year, almost half of them from the costs of transmitting to the ACT from Black Mountain and Mt Taylor.

If you can help, please use the QR code below to go directly to the ArtSound donation page. Or get in touch to talk about how you might help: admin@artsound.fm or 6295 7444.

Support ArtSound in any of many ways

Opportunities to help out at ArtSound are many. Some of them are:

Welcoming Committee members

Communications team members

Advertising reps

Presenters

Program producers and assistants

Music library helpers

 

ArtSound FM’s mission is to cultivate a vibrant arts community in the ACT region. Your memberships and donations sustain our year-long programming including our artist-centred features and interviews and our many broadcasts of live recordings of concerts in and around Canberra.

 

Thank you for being part of ArtSound!

Please go online to artsound.fm to take out membership or donate.

Or, send your contact details and a description of how you think you can help to help@artsound.fm.

Or phone (02) 6295 7444 — if necessary, please leave a message and we’ll get back to you.

Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible.

ArtSound is an all-volunteer community radio station.

 

Please forward this newsletter to any possibly interested friends and family members.

And if you have any suggestions about items to include in this bulletin, please send them to newsletter@artsound.fm at least three days before the end of the month.