ArtSound Newsletter — January 2025

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

• Garden Concert coming in February
• Podcasting 101 course on again
• ArtSound’s podcasting meetup
• 2025 membership marathon
• Farewell, Gerry Kay
• Licence renewal
• Field strength test
• Programming aims, updated
• New program: The Music of Now
• Late-night programming changes
• Down in the Basement update
• Poetry on the Radio visitors
• Writing competition & call for radio-drama scripts
• Radiothon donations
• Technology update
• Community radio federal funding
• ArtSound’s 2025 Membership and Fundraising Drive
• How You Can Help

 

Garden Concert coming in February

Clear you calendars for the next ArtSound Garden Concert. It’ll take place on Sunday, February 9, at 3pm. We’ll announce the lineup and other details on air and in the next issue of this newsletter.

ArtSound Podcasting 101 is back

Our short course on podcasting will return in February 2025, and you’re invited to enroll in it.

It will take place over two Saturday afternoons, February 1 and February 8, from 1:30pm to 4:30pm each day.

Experienced ArtSound presenter/producers will show you how podcasts are made, with hands-on use of podcasting and studio consoles, microphones, and recording devices, as well as sound-production software you can download freely and use at home.

You’ll learn the basics of editing software packages that you can download and use at home, and much else.

The course fee is $150, and you can register and pay via ArtSound’s website. If you’d like more information than is at that site, write to podcast@artsound.fm.

ArtSound’s podcasting meetup

Whether or not you take our Podcasting 101 course, you’re welcome to join our podcasting meetup group, which has been getting together for a few months, now. It’s a small band of podcast enthusiasts who have been meeting regularly at the ArtSound studios to discuss and plan podcast skills and content.

The group meets on every second Monday night from 5:30-6:30pm in ArtSound’s dedicated podcast studio.

To inquire about joining in, write to podcast@artsound.fm. Participants are asked to become members of ArtSound.

2025 ArtSound membership marathon

Beginning this month, and through all of 2025, ArtSound is running a membership drive.

Currently, membership accounts for about 10 percent of the organisation’s annual income. We’d like to double that. To enroll of renew, go online to artsound.fm/membership. (For assistance, call 6295 7444.)

The Board recently announced modest membership-fee increases from January 1, 2025. The new annual fees are: individual membership, $75; family membership $110; concessional membership (with seniors or student ID) $50 per year.

For a limited time, new members will receive a free copy of the latest ArtSound Press publication, Gertrude’s Sweetheart: Monologues for Readers and Actors.

Farewell, Gerry Kay

Gerry Kay was a long-term volunteer at ArtSound who began his contribution at the Curtin studios of ArtSound’s predecessor, Canberra Stereo Public Radio, and assisted with its transition to the Manuka Arts Centre in 2005. He passed away late last month.

A major ArtSound donor, Gerry was involved in a wide range of voluntary activities at the station including hosting classical music and jazz programs as well as Senior Memories and Arts Café. He also assisted with outside broadcasts and construction of the studio consoles before retiring from active voluntary work due to illness.

Amongst other achievements, Gerry undertook the major job of digitising much of ArtSound’s analog recordings and cataloguing the CD library. ArtSound gratefully acknowledges Gerry’s many contributions and conveys condolences to his loved ones from those volunteers who knew him well.

His wife, Elizabeth Kay, said at a memorial service: “He loved his time at ArtSound when he retired, music being the great love of his life along with science fiction.”

Gerry moved to Australia from England in his late teens, was conscripted to National Service in the Vietnam war, then trained to become an officer in the Australian Air Force where he worked for 30 years. His postings included with UN peacekeeping forces in the Sinai Desert.

In 2009, when he was 60, he suffered a severe stroke and eventually moved to the Mirinjani care home in Weston.

Licence Renewal

Once every five years, community radio stations must apply for renewal of their broadcast licences. In late December, ArtSound completed its latest application — an arduous process. Renewal applications are made to the governing authority, ACMA, the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Stations must supply details of, for example, station policies (ArtSound’s are on the station’s website “governance” page), their number of financial members and volunteers, and details of how they select programs for broadcast.

ACMA also asks more subjective questions, such as: how, and how effectively, stations have engaged with their local community; how their service contributes to the diversity of local radio programming; and which of their programs are “material of local significance.” (To that last, we reply: all of them, as we select all broadcasts with that goal in mind.)

It’s likely that all stations provide similar responses to ACMA’s question “What are the major challenges facing the licensee?”: money, members, volunteers…

Field Strength Test

We’re making significant progress in tweaking the performance of our new transmitter at Black Mountain. Technology Manager Chris Deacon has been remotely fine tuning the audio performance of the broadcast chain to optimise the quality and reliability of the transmissions. This is usually undertaken at late hours or after midnight to avoid disrupting regular programming. Since its installation late last year, the new transmitter has had no unplanned outages.

As part of its Community Broadcasting Foundation grant acquittal undertakings, ArtSound undertook an extensive new survey of transmission performance this past week (thanks to Chris Deacon and Peter Monaghan). This involved using GPS-enabled test equipment to record hundreds of measurements of the transmission field-strength at various locations around Canberra during a 50km drive. The results will be overlaid on a Google Earth map. Preliminary results indicate improvements in the strength of our signal as expected as a result of the recent power increase. Results will be reported to the Community Broadcasting Foundation which kindly funded the upgrade.

Programming aims, updated

ArtSound arrived at its programming aims long ago, and they have remained largely the same over the years. The most significant changes in the Programming Aims tend to be corrections of grammar and usage. That said, over the last couple of months, a group of volunteers have updated the document, underscoring some of its core concepts. Among those are that, in keeping with ArtSound’s Constitution and broadcast licence, the station aims to cover and foster the arts in the ACT region by airing news and information about arts practices and events along with music not otherwise often or generally available to ACT audiences.

If you’d like to read the Programming Aims, find the document on the front page of the ArtSound website.

A new program on air

The Music of Now is orchestral, chamber, electronic, and related music of the late 20th century up to today. Canberra classical pianist Jacob Wu presents a one-hour program dedicated to the composers and musicians, many Australian, who create outstanding music which is almost impossible to find elsewhere on radio.

Beginning on January 26, at 6pm, you’ll be able to hear The Music of Now, and each Sunday after that. It displaces Hot, Sweet and Jazzy, but fans of that program need not fear: it will still air on Mondays at 4pm.

Once the Music of Now will follow Jazz Album Explorations, with Dirk Zeylmans and Flynn Marcus, and precede Mark Shepheard’s Early Music Experience.

The Music of Now will also replay on Wednesdays at 10pm, pushing Tiki Lounge Remix and Beale Street Caravan back one hour.

Late-night programming changes

Starting on January 1, 2025, you’ll be able to listen back late at night to many programs produced by ArtSound volunteers. Those will re-run from midnight, or just after. Go to the ArtSound website’s “Program” page for details. From January we will be progressively offering repeats of selected programs.

Changes coming to Down in the Basement

Down in the Basement, ArtSound’s long-running, weekday evening jazz and blues show, will undergo a refresh in 2025. “I have great respect for this program’s heritage and traditions,” said Betsy Dixon, DIB’s Program Coordinator, “but it might be time to think about how we can continue to provide a program that is fresh and interesting to existing listeners, but also capable of attracting new ones.” She said that any changes will be made in consultation with current DIB presenters.

Also changing for DIB is the Tuesday night line-up, currently Betsy Dixon and Liam O’Connell on alternate Tuesdays. Liam, a well-known local musician and founder of Branch Stack Records, presented his final show, at least for the time being, in December.

Michael Crowe, who completed ArtSound’s Introduction to Radio Broadcasting course in March 2024, will take over the alternating Tuesday DIB slots. For the last few months, he has been co-presenting with Betsy Dixon on her usual “Bluesday Tuesday” programs.

Also stepping away from DIB is Eleanor Lewis, who has been presenting every second Thursday; she’ll continue on ArtStarter (the breakfast show) and Sunday’s A Jazz Experience.

Garth O’Loughlin, usually heard on Senior Memories, is filling in, every other Thursday. His wealth of knowledge shines through, making his shows always a pleasure to hear.

Join us Down in the Basement

Down in the Basement (DIB) airs Monday through Thursday nights, 8-10pm. Continuing regular hosts, along with Betsy and Mike on Tuesdays, are: Dean Parham alternating with Nicholas McBride and Col Horweg on Mondays; Gary Knobel every other Wednesday; and Mark Borowik and Suzie Michaelis on Thursdays. Want to become involved in the program — as a presenter, content producer, or in some other role? Contact Betsy Dixon via programmingcommittee@artsound.fm.

Poetry on the Radio visitors

Visitors to ArtSound for recordings of our weekly program, Poetry on the Radio (Sundays 4:30pm, Mondays 10:30pm) included one of the ACT’s preeminent writers, Subhash Jaireth, the author of books of poetry, essays, and fiction. His collection of essays, Spinoza’s Overcoat: Travels with Writers and Poets (from Transit Lounge press in 2020), won the 2021 ACT Book of the Year. He’s pictured here with Poetry on the Radio co-host Kimberly K. Williams.

Other visitors over the last month have included Shane Strange (publisher of Recent Work Press), Barrina South, John Foulcher, and a longtime key figure on ACT poetry and poetry presenting, Geoff Page.

Writing competition: Canberra Days

Everyone has at least one story!

ArtSound is running a “Canberra Days” literary competition.

We’re looking for local writers’ stories set in Canberra in the past, present or future, written in the first person, and between 1,000 and 3.000 words in length.

A judging panel will shortlist up to six stories, which ArtSound will record using Canberra actors for broadcast on ArtSound Radio Theatre, which airs Sunday at 4pm (repeated Monday at 10pm).

The author of the best story, as judged by the panel, will receive a prize of $200.

Some requirements: submissions must be in either Word or PDF format; title and author’s name, and email address must be displayed at the top of the first page; text should be in 12 point font with 1.5 line spacing; pages should be numbered; authors are limited to two submissions; all submissions should be new works.

Submissions will be accepted until February 28, 2025.

Please send submissions to admin@artsound.fm, with the following in the email title line: “Submission Canberra Days – [author name].”

Note that in addition to recording and broadcasting the shortlisted stories, ArtSound may elect to publish them under its ArtSound Press imprint. Any profits from publications by ArtSound Press are used to fund ArtSound in its ongoing support of Canberra arts and artists. If a book is published, authors submitting work to this competition agree to allow the publication of their story without payment, but they will retain copyright and receive two copies of published work.

Radio plays wanted

Do 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? ArtSound Radio Theatre may be able to help. Drop us a line at admin@artsound.fm.

Radiothon Donations

If you missed out on donating during our recent Radiothon on-air fundraiser, by all means get in touch if you’d like to help out, via our website (artsound.fm) or by phoning the station on 6295 7444.

Or, use this QR code to go directly to the ArtSound donation page:

We’ll be delighted to hear from you, and you’ll be helping to take ArtSound into its fifth decade of operations. Each year, we broadcast hundreds of interviews and concerts with local artists in many fields, along with specialty programming that supports and fosters arts activities in the ACT region.

Jazz Haus at Tuggeranong Arts Centre

ArtSound’s Chris Deacon was on hand on December 14 to record the last Jazz Haus concert for 2024.

It was a stellar lineup, with American bassist Gene Perla, an alumni of Elvin Jones’s band, two of Australasia’s leading saxophone players, Andy Sugg (Australia) and Roger Manins (New Zealand), US/Australian pianist Brett Williams (an alumnus of Marcus Miller’s band), and a smokin’ drummer,

Mark Sutton, who trained at the Canberra School of Jazz when that institution was housed at what are now the ArtSound studios.

Chris Deacon will air the concert recording on a future edition of Friday Night Live (Fridays 8pm-).

Photo: Chris Deacon

Community radio federal funding

The Albanese Government in December announced increases in federal funding of community radio among boosts in support of other community-media sectors. Minister for Communications, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP and Minister for Indigenous Australians, the Hon Senator Malarndirri McCarthy announced $27 million in extra grant funding, including $12-million over three years for community radio. (The announcement included $3-million over three years for community television and $12-million over three years for the federal Indigenous Broadcasting and Media Program.)

Jon Bisset, the CEO of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) CEO said in media releases: “The additional funding announced today is sorely needed. The existing programs have not been funded to keep pace with rising costs nor respond to the contemporary challenges and needs of broadcasters. We are very pleased the Government are responding to station’s needs with urgency and moving on additional funding now.”

He noted, however, that in 2024/25, alone, the Community Broadcasting Program, which funds the Community Broadcasting Foundation and CBAA, fell at least $11-million short of meeting the basic operational needs of community radio stations. Also, the Government had not committed to additional funding beyond the next three years and had not indexed the funding to keep pace with inflation. What’s more, he said, the $27-million in funding over three years falls far short of the $40-million per year that the CBAA had identified as needed for sustained operations within the sector. “Since the development of the sector’s Roadmap 2033, our position has been to advocate for funding adequate to support all broadcasters to reach their full potential and deliver greater positive impact for communities,” he said.

The Government’s recently completed Community Broadcasting Sustainability Review Discussion Paper, and Program Evaluation, had acknowledged how historically oversubscribed the funding program has been, he said.

During 2024, community broadcasters, such as ArtSound FM, participated in an industry-wide consultation process as part of the Government’s Community Broadcasting Sustainability Review, which has been assessing the sector’s legislative, regulatory and ongoing funding needs.

Can you help ArtSound to meet its expenses? Please read on.

ArtSound is a lean organisation, with no paid staff and modest budgets. We fix in-house what we can, including expensive microphones like this one, whose inner workings are mysterious even to most users. Photo: Chris Deacon.

2025 is ArtSound’s Big Year of Fundraising — and Membership!

ArtSound’s Fundraising Committee is building on recent successes to revive ArtSound’s financial fortunes after some tough years.

Our 2024 campaign proceeded on various fronts. During the year, we held an ongoing membership drive, an end-of-financial-year donations drive, and a full-fledged Radiothon during October. We also held a variety of other fundraising events, including concerts like the one described above.

Now, in addition to encouraging donations, we’d particularly like to boost our membership, as that can provide a solid financial base for operations. Currently, membership fees account for about 10 percent of our annual income; we’d like to increase that to 20 percent.

On January 1, 2025, membership rates increased modestly: the individual rate will be $75, family $110, concession (card-holding seniors and students) $50.

ArtSound aims to boost the benefits that members enjoy. Already members, and non-members, receive 24/7 radio every day of the year, but we’d also like to grow the number and range of businesses that will offer discounts to our members. We list these on our website’s membership page.

Can you help us to identify or recruit such business supporters? If you know of any that might be interested, please write to Bart Meehan (bart.meehan@gmail.com) with details (including any contact details, if you have them).

GoFundMe

In one major thrust of our overall fundraising campaign, we’re continuing to use an online crowdfunding platform to raise money for essential technology upgrades. That’s on GoFundMe. The campaign has passed $10,500 towards a goal of $15,000. And we’ve received some welcome donations outside the GoFundMe campaign. Thanks to everyone who has contributed.

You can use this website or QR code to contribute to this crucial project: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-console-artsound.

Or, contact us and talk about how you might help: admin@artsound.fm

Help us to upgrade our broadcasting gear. That will ensure we bring you the best specialist music and arts programming in the region (and streaming to the world).

Simply go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-console-artsound and follow the prompts. Or contact us and talk about how you might help: admin@artsound.fm

Thank you.

Other ways you can help

Do you have skills that you’d be willing to lend to the ArtSound cause? Please let us know. Below are some areas where you might be able to help – but perhaps you have skills that we don’t know how to profit from, until you tell us!

Needs include:

Welcoming Committee members

Writers of scripts for on-air announcements, press releases, and the like.

Management and financial wizards

Advertising reps

Presenters

Program producers and assistants

Concert recording engineers

Music library helpers

If you can help, please send your contact details and a description of how you think you can help to help@artsound.fm. Or phone 6295 7444 weekdays between 10am and 2pm.

If you associate with artists of any kind, you could promote the station to them.

Any way you can spread the word is useful to ArtSound.

 

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 you don’t reach someone right away, please leave a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

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.