History & Studios
Ten FM Tenterfield
We have come a long way from our old caravan on top of Mount Mackenzie, via a room in the old Tenterfield Lodge hotel building and then a studio in the back of the Community Centre, to our present converted house at 142 Manners Street, just up the hill from the Tenterfield Post Office.
The front lounge has been converted to our front office, with an extension out onto the old front verandah built by announcer and ex-president Terry West. The front bedroom is now the main studio, all sound-proofed, and behind it the bathroom was first converted to a record store, which became the CD store, and is now set up as the base for our technical and scheduling operations.
The back bedroom is now the production centre which is a hive of activity, with a small recording booth where our many announcements are produced. The kitchen is now our meeting room, and a small space behind the office, also extended by Terry West, is now the home of equipment which transforms everything to the airwaves for local and worldwide transmission.
Ten FM Stanthorpe
We have had a studio presence in Stanthorpe for a long time, based in a room in the Adult Learning Centre annexe at the High School, and for many years our Stanthorpe-based announcers have used this facility to present their programmes. However out-of-hours access has been a problem and we have now set up a new studio in the Stanthorpe Civic Centre across the road from Weeroona Park. There is also a large room alongside where we can train new announcers, and we shall be using this when training senior students and others who wish to become part of the local Community Radio service.
A major part of our service to the community is to provide feedback from individuals and groups in the area with regard to issues of local concern or interest, and so we set up interviews either live or over the phone in order to publicise events in the area and allow input from interested parties. These interviews and local news items are generated from the studio but also involve roving reporters who collect feedback and prepare it for broadcast.
Access to the building housing our Stanthorpe studio is controlled, so anyone wishing to visit is advised to make prior arrangements to ensure access is arranged.
History
A story about one of the area's first FM radio stations - compiled by Peter van Schaik
Tenterfield and District Community FM Radio Association (Ten FM) functions as an Association incorporated in the state of NSW. It provides community radio facilities for Tenterfield and Stanthorpe and surrounding areas, bounded roughly by Woodenbong, Tabulam, Deepwater and Texas. Its activities are governed by a Committee which is elected annually by the membership of Ten FM. Aside from the announcers and a band of volunteers, a three-member team of permanent part-timers takes care of the day-to-day operation of the station.
In 1983 trial transmissions began from Mount Mackenzie from a caravan parked near one of the television transmitter towers. When test transmissions proved successful, the fledgling Ten FM built a studio first in a room in the Tenterfield Lodge alongside the railway station, and then at the rear of the building which now houses the Community Centre. A year later, with the assistance of the Tenterfield Shire Council, Ten FM moved into its present location at 142 Manners Street.
Only some of the people who were instrumental in getting Ten FM on the air in those early days still have a close association with the radio station. They include Marion Saxby, Trent McCrystal and Paul Thompson. Setting up Ten FM was however a team effort and the station would not have succeeded without the dedicated efforts by people such as Brian Stokes, Phil Ainsworth, Peter Flexman, John (the big O) Osborne, Bob Mulholland, Chris Gallen, Glenn Taylor, Trevor Cooper, Peter Robinson, Robin Elks, Jan Fisher, Mike Harris and Kevin Condrick. (If you believe your name should be in this list, please email me with a précis of your contribution to info@tenfm.org.au)
During the early 1990s, there were many more announcers than we have now. Newcomers to radio were assessed and had to apply for a spot on the timetable after training. Most of the daytime slots were filled with live programs, presented by announcers behind the microphone. Eventually developing technology has allowed us to remain on air for 24/7.
While the studio now has two CD players and an on-air computer, in the early days of Ten FM, the studio was fitted out with two turntables, reel-to-reel tape recorders, and slow speed video recorders which played prerecorded programs during the early hours of the morning. Despite the risk of these programs being repeated, it was felt it was better to be transmitting program, rather than go off the air. For a while we also tapped into the program material available from the Community Radio Network satellite feed.
The range of material played on a day-to-day basis has changed as much as the equipment. The breakfast show has changed least of all but during the 1990s it was not unusual to feature sports interviews. Rather than CDs and music files from the on-air computer, announcers then had most of their material on 45s and LPs. You had to be mindful to change the speed of the turntable to suit the record and to ensure you didn’t play the following track. Announcers used colour coded record sleeves to assist their choice of music.
Program content has gone through changes as well. Ten FM often covered football matches and the Tenterfield Show with live programs, and patients in hospital and mature aged listeners were catered for with The Hospital Show. Serial radio shows such as The Castlereagh Line were also popular. Probably the biggest change that Ten FM introduced during the 1990s was to reduce country music from the daily mix, leaving only one afternoon of pure country music each week. Recently some relaxation of that policy has taken place.
Ten FM recognises the need to be flexible both in terms of emerging technology, such as Internet Audio Streaming and of the public’s changing expectations in terms of music and programming. We will continue to adapt so that we remain relevant to our sponsors and listeners. This page is a work-in-progress. If you would like to make any contribution to this history page please email me.
If you have any photos related to Ten FM, please email me.