SCMA | Southern Community Media Association

Member station 5 TCB who recently lost their production area and all their production equipment have once again proven you cannot keep the spirit of volunteers in community broadcasting down.

The CEO of SCMA went to Bordertown on Saturday June 12^th to roll up his sleeves and assist the station to re establish a production area and to take some badly needed software to the station to get them back into the business of producing their stations needs in house.

Picture: (Left) The Temporary Production room established over the long weekend. There is still more equipment to come but this is a big start

There is a real spirit within the station and its volunteers and even though the production area is devastated and the remainder of the station smells like a bon fire they are setting about the business of being a community broadcaster.

Damage within the station was restricted to the production area thanks to some quick thinking by station staff. While the loss is huge with not only computers, panels, software and all you need to run a production studio destroyed the loss also included memorabilia, station history, CD’s , paperwork and so much more.

With a bit of scaping and searching we managed to find enough equipment to set up a temporary production area within the disused news production booth. While the equipment may have seen better days and wouldn’t be on any wish list the bottom line is 5 TCB are now fully capable of producing whatever they need  from the temporary studio until such time as the production area can be rebuilt and re equipped.

As always I found a band of dedicated volunteers willing to assist and get the job done with a smile, a joke and some hard work along with a bit of creative lateral thinking.

You will see by the pictures within this article that they were extremely lucky that the fire remained contained within the production area.

Congratulations to the crew at 5 TCB on how well they are dealing with the damage and disruption that the fire has caused.

The Latest news from the battle front that is member station 5 TCB Bordertown is that after some hard work from the dedicated team they have returned to air just over 25 hours after fire destroyed the production area and put the station off air.

Station manager Barry Hayman confirmed via phone that the station had returned to air this afternoon after electricians isolated the production area and restored power to the remainder of the station. While the production area has been destroyed the remainder of the station has only suffered smoke damage and a little water damage.

The stations committed group of volunteers and staff are working hard to resume normal programming at the station and establish a temporary production area. As always the show must go on and the team at 5 TCB have had their share of drama over the last 12 to 18 month and the show has remained on.

SCMA will continue to keep you updated as more information comes to hand from 5 TCB.

A lot of work in the future will need to go into the reconstruction of the Production area of the station, so if you would like to donate to 5TCB at this time of need please donate using PayPal at www.melomania.com.au (Melomania is a 5TCB program that’s inlcuded a donate link on their website)

Tuesday, 8th May 2010

A fire believed to have been started by an electrical fault in the production studio, began at approximately 2pm this afternoon at the premises of Bordertown fm radio station, 5tcb. At 2.30 pm the Bordertown fire brigade was called out, followed by both the Wolseley and Mundulla units as backup. The Bordertown ambulance also attended as a precaution.

Station manager Barry Hayman and board member Wally Milne, who were in the building, had noticed a strong smell of burning and called the fire brigade. Luckily the room where the fire had started was poorly ventilated and the door was kept closed, keeping the fire both contained and oxygen starved. The fire was apparently very intense, producing dense acrid smoke.

Luckily no-one was injured, although volunteer Joan Exton was checked by ambulance staff for the effects of smoke inhalation.

All the production equipment in the room appears to have been destroyed, but the actual fire was contained to that area, with the rest of the building suffering varying degrees of smoke damage.The building will remain sealed until an investigative team arrives from Adelaide later tonight. It is believed the equipment lost was insured.

Wally Milne spoke to BorderOnline about the incident and was understandably upset and shaken by the drama, “Barry hit the main switches as soon as we realised what was happening and just cut everything off, we had no time to say anything on air.” 5tcb went off the air at about 2pm and will not resume until the investigation is complete and the building is able to be accessed by staff.

Source: BorderOnline

If you’d like to help out 5TCB with anything please contact Ray Hazen using the details on our contact us page.

Alternatively, you can make a financial contribution by donating via PayPal at the ‘Melomania’ website (5TCB Program) www.melomania.com.au

“I personally and on behalf of 5 TCB would also like to thank all member stations. It’s due to the SCMA and member stations like yourselves that community radio is what it is today.”

Sardia (scad) Kakoschke 5TCB Bordertown S.A

The SCMA jumped on board with 5TCB Bordertown by throwing our CEO into “The 48 Hour Lockdown” an amazing event to support 5TCB and The Leukaemia Foundation.

Ray Hazen, CEO of SCMA was Locked Down! for 48 Hours in the Studios of 5TCB in an effort to fund raise for two important community organisations.

No Sleep! No Connection to the outside world, Ray, Scad & Mandy locked down! It was a challanage that was answered with massive success.

Over $3000 was raised from donations locally, nationally and internationally thanks to the success of streaming online.

The SCMA assisted 5TCB by facilitating the online streaming which saw huge interest in the event.

It’s the “Can Do” attitude of the SCMA that adds that little bit extra for the benefit of members.