Patron: The Governor-General, Her Excellency the Honourable Ms Sam Mostyn AC
May 2026 Newsletter
As always, there’s lots on at ArtSound beyond our on-air signal – let’s dive behind the scenes and find out about it!
SECOND STUDIO UPGRADE BEGINS
ArtSound has recently commissioned its main broadcast studio (Studio 1) thanks to generous listener contributions and volunteer effort (see pic below by Steve Little).
We were delighted to receive international publicity for this project from no less than 25 industry journals (for example https://dhd.audio/artsound-fm-futureproofs-with-dhd-audio-production-consoles/). Training in the use of the new equipment is largely completed and by all accounts, the transition from the old to the new has been quite smooth!
We received a grant from the Community Broadcasting Association to assist with upgrading the second broadcast studio (Studio 3to us) to digital standard and work has just commenced. The grant, while very welcome, only covered the major equipment items, and ArtSound still needs to fund and purchase the remaining smaller items.
CAN YOU ASSIST?
Here’s a concrete way for you to support ArtSound’s new studio development. Help purchase a new LCD screen for each of studios 1 and 3. Cost = $599.00 x 2. No amount too small!
Donations are tax deductible!
Mindful of increasing risks to IT infrastructure, ArtSound is upgrading its network cybersecurity. To accomplish this, we need to procure two Raspberry Pi microcomputers. These are required to monitor our network traffic at our studios and transmitter site, through provision of up-to-date VPN technology.
Cost is 2 x $150.
Our second studio upgrade (currently in progress) requires some new LAN cables.
- 2 x CAT6 SFPT cable (30m) @ $55.00 = $110.00
- 4 x CAT6 ethernet patch cables (5m) @ $12 = $48.00
- 6 x CAT6 ethernet patch cables (1m) @ $7 = $42.00
- 5 x CAT6 ethernet patch cables (0.5m) @ $5 = $25.00
No amount is too small to contribute! Please let us know at admin@artsound.fm
ARTSOUND LAUNCHES YOUTUBE CHANNEL
ArtSound FM’s YouTube channel is your cosy corner of Canberra’s arts and music community online. Think of it as a friendly extension of the station, where you can put faces to the voices you hear on air and revisit moments you might have missed.
On YouTube, that spirit turns visual with show highlights, live sessions, arts features, and stories from the people who make Canberra’s creative life tick.
What you’ll find here: intimate performances and sessions from local and visiting musicians across jazz, classical, folk, world, blues and more. Conversations with artists, writers, filmmakers and cultural organisers from around the capital region. Behind-the-scenes glimpses of community radio in action, from the Manuka studios to outside broadcasts at concerts and festivals.
So, ask not what ArtSound can do for you, but what can you do for ArtSound. We encourage all members to subscribe to the channel.
Look for ArtSound FM on YouTube!
https://www.youtube.com/@ArtSoundFM-927
ARTSOUND AGM 2026
The Annual General Meeting of ArtSound Inc., the Association that operates ArtSound FM, will take place on Tuesday May 26th at 7pm in the McDonald Room at Eastlake Football Club, 3 Oxley Street Griffith.
We urge all financial members to attend. Come along to meet your fellow members and have a say in the direction of our station.
Eastlake Football Club supports us; you can support them by joining us in the bistro for dinner before the meeting.
ARTSOUND SUMMER SERIES CONCERT
ArtSound ran its last concert for our Summer Series in the Manuka Arts Centre Gardens on 19th April, We had the biggest crowd we’ve seen for a while on a cracker of a Sunday afternoon to see a good-humoured, tight-but-loose set (think Charlie Watts) from Transit Dolls in support of a more majestic sweep from The Rain Gauge.
Transit Dolls in the Park
The Rain Gauge in the park
View from the bar.
ArtSound’s concerts will now move inside for a few months while the temperatures are low before resuming in the ArtSound Gardens later in the year. Listen out on ArtSound for details of forthcoming concerts!
SIR GAWAIN COMING IN MAY
More than two years in preparation, ArtSound’s radio adaptation of a masterpiece of mediaeval English Literature, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is coming in May.
ArtSound’s Poetry on the Radio and ArtSound Radio Theatre join forces to present a three-part performance of the work. We’ve dramatised the narrative poem, set in the court of King Arthur, in a modern-language verse translation by the Canberra-based Australian poet, Keith Harrison.
An anonymous poet created Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in a dialect of Middle English at around the time of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It tells of a young knight who beheads a Green Giant and then must undertake a quest whose startling goal is to submit himself to the same fate.
Our production uses Keith Harrison’s highly regarded translation, which is published by Oxford World’s Classics of the Clarendon imprint of Oxford University Press — thanks to it for permission to use the work.
Keith Harrison is also the narrator of our production, which also features a cast of Canberra-based participants. Sir Gawain is played by Zahi Hoque; Theodore Ell plays The Green Knight and Sir Bercilak de Hautdesert; Emily Shepley is Lady Bercilak; Adrian Caesar is King Arthur; Fergus Armstrong is the Guide; and Peter Searles, Shane Strange and Peter Monaghan voice the porter and other attendants.
Shane Strange, publisher of the ACT’s leading poetry imprint, Recent Work Press, voices episode introductions by Keith Harrison. ArtSound’s communications team member Barbara Young recorded series and episode announcements.
Incidental music has been provided by Canberra-based consort Apeiron Baroque: John Ma, Marie Searles, and Lauren Davis. Thanks to Wesley Music Centre for accommodating our music recording.
And special thanks to ArtSound Manager of Technology, Chris Deacon OAM, for assistance with sound quality issues.
The three-by-one-hour series was directed and produced for ArtSound by Keith Harrison and Peter Monaghan. Keith Harrison is a poet, translator, essayist and playwright, and Emeritus Professor at Carleton College in Minnesota where he taught for many years and was sometime Editor-in-Chief of The Carleton Miscellany. Keith is the author of such works as Changes: New and Selected Poems (1966-2002); a memoir, Not Quite Ithaka (2023), and his verse translation of Sir Gawain.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight airs on Sundays May 10, 17, and 24 from 4 to 5 pm – and then on Mondays May 11, 18, and 25 from 10 to 11pm.
CONCERT HALL REBOOTED WITH NEW HOST LEN POWER
Len Power writes below:
With the untimely passing of the beloved host of Concert Hall, Annabel Wheeler, I’ve taken over as host for this program that runs on Sundays at 8pm and is repeated at 2pm Wednesdays.
I believe Annabel ran the program for about 40 years. As I’m well into my seventies, I can’t promise to meet or surpass Annabel’s record, but I’ll do my best!
The program wouldn’t be possible without our sound engineer, Tim Lamble, who goes out to venues and records the concerts. Tim provides high quality recordings and information about them, making my job much easier when assembling each program.
As a music reviewer for Canberra CityNews magazine, I reviewed a number of the music programs that I will be presenting in Concert Hall and that should help me to set the scene for listeners.
I’ve been with ArtSound since 2007 and have written, produced and presented several programs including The Gershwin Project, The Broadway Musicals Yearbook and The Magic of Music, which is currently running on ArtSound on Saturday afternoons at 5pm.
I also review theatre and music for ArtSound each week and my reviews can be heard on Arts Café and Arts About.
ARTSOUND SUPPORTS KALAPINI INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC CONCERT
One of India’s finest, leading and well-trained classical vocalists, Vidushi Kalapini Komkali gave a performance at the Wesley Music Centre on 13 March.
She was accompanied on the Harmonium by Abhishek Shinkar and on the Tabla by Ramendra Singh Solanki – two accompanists of equal stature. ArtSound was there to record it, and you will hear it broadcast on a program in the near future. The concert was organised by ArtSound member Amod Pradhan. (pic C. Deacon)
TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE JAZZ SERIES – Hetty Kate Jazz Quartet
With a stage presence matched only by the clarity of her voice, Paris-based, Australian Jazz vocalist Hetty Kate presented songs from her newest release, a sparkling homage to the most effervescent of seasons, Spring, part of a four-album odyssey tracing the calendar year over different continents.
ArtSound is a supporter of the concert series, and Chris Deacon will feature a recording of this event on a forthcoming “Friday Night Live” program (Fridays 8PM).
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.
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.
