Investing in Youth #3 – Secondary Students Charles, Nyssa and Ada

Three of our young (quiet) achievers are racking up their on-air experience despite their young age. Charles Wallen (Year 9), Ada Tracy (Year 8) and Nyssa Overall (Year 8) are entering their 5th, 4th and 3rd years respectively .

Charles started on air in the second half of 2019 aged 9 years old. His show is called Monthly Music and generally runs for 45-60 minutes, airing every 3 months live from our Beechworth studio, a frequency he has kept up for around 5 years now. He fondly recalled interviewing a fave band at the time Mighty Duke and the Lords at Beechworth Spring Music Festival in November 2019 when just 9 years old.

Ada and Nyssa each started off as Yackanadandah Primary School students, Ada in Year 5 and the following year Nyssa joined her. The girls enjoy sharing their love of reading and all things literature with their audience.

In 2022 they graduated from Primary School and headed to different Secondary Schools. Ada attends Marian College Myrtleford, whilst Nyssa is at Beechworth Secondary College. Despite attending different schools, these great friends collaborate on their radio program throughout the fortnight and present Ada and Nyssa’s Book Talk live from the Yackandandah studio every fortnight – a show they commenced in Term 2 2023. Their show is gathering some impressive momentum as they have explored themes such as fables, memoirs and the horror genre, to name just a few.

Indigo FM President Scott Landells caught up with Charles, Nyssa and Ada recently to get the lowdown on their radio experience.

Thinking back to when you each first started on your radio journey, can you recall what you expected from those early shows? How does it feel to have been hosting your own radio show for the past few years?

Charles: “I think my major motivation or inspiration was probably my Dad Doug, since he had a show and I often came to the station with him to see how everything was done, so I thought it would be a great idea for me to do one myself.”

Ada: “Honestly I was really nervous, cos I thought I would have nothing to talk about. I remember the first radio show and I was prepping and I thought ‘OK, I have all these things that I have to talk about’ so then it was just like an easy conversation with a friend.”

Nyssa: “I remember the first radio show that I did was with four of my friends and it was very chaotic and I can’t believe that I’ve been hosting it for two years.”

What aspects do you enjoy most about it?

Charles: “I enjoy being in the studio, letting people listen to what I’m listening to, sharing the music that I like, cos some of it’s unknown stuff that I hear about through particularly my Dad and there’s some more known stuff and I just like to spread around different genres.”

Ada: “I really like talking to other people (ie the invisible audience) and not knowing who they are.”

Nyssa: “Talking to Ada cos she’s my best friend.”

Do you have any tips for other young people out there when it comes to exploring their interest in music via radio / podcasting?

Charles: “Don’t wait and think about it, just go straight into it. You are guaranteed to enjoy it. Just do it however you want to and make it as good as you can to suit yourself. If you enjoy it, then keep doing it.”

Ada: “I think just follow what you love.”

Nyssa: “Just start it. Start it early and you can learn along the way.”

What music should we be checking out in 2024?

Charles: “Oooh this is a hard one. I reckon less known indie rock because it’s been getting a lot better from what I’ve heard, getting to a few gigs and stuff. I’ve been really enjoying what I’ve been listening to so I might play some more of it on Monthly Music cos I think everyone else will enjoy it as well.”

What books should we be checking out in 2024?

Ada relaxing at home during the school holidays

Ada: “I’m reading ‘June’ right now and I really recommend that and if you’re into Horror then I definitely recommend ‘It’ by Stephen King. That was a really good book.”

Nyssa: “‘Heartstopper’ that’s a really good book and Katrina Nannestad, the author, she does a lot of really good books.”

You can catch Ada & Nyssa’s Book Show every Friday from 4:30-5:30pm via our website audio player, where the show goes live each fortnight and is repeated on the alternate fortnight.

Recent podcasts are here:

You can catch Monthly Music with Charles on the first Sunday of each month from 11am-noon via our website audio player, where the show goes live approximately each quarter and is repeated on the alternate first Sunday of the month.

Recent podcasts are here:

First National Beechworth renews Sponsorship

(L-R) Scott Lande;lls, Janet Friend and Tony Stockdale.
(L-R) Scott Lande;lls, Janet Friend and Tony Stockdale.

Indigo FM is very excited to announce a three year extension of their sponsorship with First National Beechworth – Bonnici & Associates.

First National Beechworth’s support back in early 2021 was critical in enabling the 100% volunteer run radio station to set up live streaming. This latest extension is also earmarked for “tech tools” – specifically a website refresh as well as undertaking exploration into the world of radio apps.

Current Indigo FM President Scott Landells was very enthusiastic about the tremendous support from First National Beechworth Bonnici and Associates.

“The team at First National are big fans of the opportunities it provides for local primary schools to engage with radio. Indigo FM has developed programs with Yackandandah and Wooragee Primary Schools and will be introducing Chiltern Primary School to the programming in 2024. Indigo FM has plans to expand this program through the next couple of years with the use of a mobile podcast unit,” Landells said.

“They also understand that in 2024, technology is critical in accessing and connecting with our radio audiences and does come with some considerable overheads. Their 3 year sponsorship extension allows us to enthusiastically pursue our opportunities.”

Live streaming has been a big boost to assist Indigo FM to overcome it’s FM transmission signal limitations, which are a direct result of it’s licensing conditions from ACMA (the Australian Communications and Media Authority).

Tony Stockdale from First National Beechworth is very keen to bring their strong brand on board to support Indigo FM.

“Here at First National Beechworth, we love the opportunities Indigo FM provide for our community, including allowing our local primary schools to dip their toes into radio presenting!,” Stockdale said.

“From a marketing viewpoint they also offer considerable reach across both FM and digital platforms through North- East Victoria, to cut through to our community. We want to spread the message that we’re local, we go the extra mile, and we offer a genuine, no-stress real estate experience throughout the entire Indigo region.”

Indigo FM offers a fresh local sound, now live streaming globally via our website. You can listen online at indigofmradio.com or tune into Beechworth, Yackandandah or Kiewa-Tangam on 88.0 FM.”

Season’s Greetings

We’d like to say Merry Christmas and thanks for your support throughout 2023. Feel free to tune in any time to our 88.0 FM sites, our stream @ Indigo FM Online or a podcast. You can find them here.

2023 was another busy fun year. Our podcasts were again very popular and received thousands of plays and downloads.

And we now celebrate a 2nd year of live streaming under our belts which we offer in addition to each of our 88.0 FM sites.

Xmas Playlist On Air Now!
From 00:01 Saturday 23 December we switch across to a Xmas Playlist of around 270 songs that will run for the next five days. It’s on air at each site as well as @ Indigo FM Online. You can view it here Xmas Playlist 2023.

Rather than traditional cheesy, uninspiring Christmas Carols, we have selected the many fun and quirky songs that have been written and recorded about Christmas over the years. 

Many presenters will also be re-charging their batteries although a few will opt to continue through the festive season. These next few days we have a special program schedule – see below or by clicking this link. It includes a mix of current and shows from our archives for your enjoyment. These include:

  • A Funky Christmas with Chris and Lauren (2014)
  • CLAP (Chiltern Players) Christmas Carol Special (2020)
  • Eclectic Avenue Christmas Extravaganza (2023, 2022, 2020 and 2015)
  • Tiff’s Christmas Special (2023)
  • Yackandandah Primary School Year 6 graduates – Viv, Gabs and Jack (2023)
  • Chiltern Street Party (Dec 2023)
  • Yackandandah Christmas Fair (Dec 2023)
  • Bullfrog’s Roadhouse Stocking Stuffer
  • various end of year reviews from D3aN0 (Callisto Rising 2023), Scott (Everyone Deserves Music 2022) and the team at Aussie Music Weekly (2023).

Tune in here

Investing in Youth # 2: Rising Up With Future Proof

Here at Indigo FM we are very proud of the work we do with young people across Indigo Shire. There are a range of partnerships in place some of which are long-term (ie Yackandandah Primary School) as well as some that are quite new. ‘Rising Up With Future Proof’ is a great example of the latter.

From early June 2023, we have met up with Indigo Shire’s Youth Resilience Peer Worker Ella Cheeseman, on a monthly basis to help her record an interview with a variety of young people, who are involved in leadership and building resilience for other young people in their communities.

From left Ella, Lara and Chloe gather to create the first Future Proof Podcast in June 2023
From left Ella, Lara and Chloe gather to create the first Future Proof Podcast in June 2023

Ella expanded on the podcast series in a recent catch up. “The collaboration and relationship between Indigo FM and the Future Proof program has been instrumental in reaching our Future Proof goals. Creating a podcast with Indigo FM has allowed us to establish a youth-led project and engage meaningfully with local young people while simultaneously connecting them with community members and shedding light on the issues most important to young people in the Indigo Shire. This relationship has allowed us to connect with those who might not want to come to in-person events, and perhaps will not engage with Future Proof otherwise.”

To date, 7 podcast episodes have been produced, which you can tune into below via the podomatic links. Each episode is approximately 15-25 minutes long.

For relevant links for Future Proof, see below:

72 Hour Radio Marathon kicks off

As part of our annual Radiothon, Indigo FM is coordinating a 72 hour Radio Marathon across our 3 sites. The 2023 Radio Marathon kicks off at Tangambalanga from 4pm Thursday 23 November and will conclude 4pm Sunday 26 November at Yackandandah.

At our Kiewa-Tangam site today, we have Scott commencing the marathon with a 2 hour Elvis Costello special looking at his first 10 albums that covered the 10 year period 1977-86. That’s followed by highlights from the 2023 Kiewa Valley Primary School Fete and then Ross brings us 2 hours of TV & Film Soundtracks with “Felix and Snufkin”. There are many highlights and a few surprises including Greg’s 2 hour “Artists Touring Australia” (2pm Fri), Tiff’s 2 hour Rolling Stones special (6am Sat). Bron and Ange will bring you Heaven and Hell (4pm Sat), Scott has a 2 hour look at Boston alterna rock legends Pixies (10pm Sat) .

The schedules are below…..

To tune in and catch all the continuous radio action, head to the audio player on our website or click this link

Our Radiothon runs for the entire month of November and pushes to early December concluding at the Yackandandah Christmas Fair. It’s our annual promotion whereby we share the best kept secret of NE Victoria onto the radios, media players, devices and events of the awesome array of villages and towns Indigo Shire and the Indigo FM universe as we seek your support for 2024.

Our Major Prizes are:

  • A framed High Country Photographic Artwork from Kev McGennan
  • Tickets to 2024 Yackandandah Folk Festival
  • Tickets to 2024 Stanley Spring Ditch
  • Tickets to 2024 High Country Hop in Beechworth.

We seek to recruit new presenters and convert casual listeners to financial members to keep us healthy and resourced to tackle the various challenges that lie ahead. You can join up here or find out more about our Radiothon here.

Radiothon 10 kicks off!

Indigo FM’s 2023 Radiothon begins today Wednesday 1 November and will run through the month of November, concluding Sunday 3 December at the Yackandandah Community Christmas Fair. It’s our annual promotion whereby we share the best kept secret of NE Victoria onto the radios, media players, devices and events of the awesome array of villages and towns Indigo Shire and the Indigo FM universe as we seek your support for 2024.

This year’s Radiothon artwork was designed by Felicity Rule (of Don’t Touch My Walkman fame) who has done a handful of our Radiothon posters since 2017. Look out for it online and around town in shop windows during November. Our Major Prizes are:

  • A framed High Country Photographic Artwork from Kev McGennan
  • Tickets to 2024 Yackandandah Folk Festival
  • Tickets to 2024 Stanley Spring Ditch
  • Tickets to 2024 High Country Hop in Beechworth.

Thanks so much to the sponsors of our 4 Major Prizes for their generous support.

Our Radiothon is our annual Membershio Drive. Members receive regular updates about our activities and in the case of Business or Community Groups – on-air announcements promoting their activities. You can join up or renew your Membership here.

Markets

We still have a couple of events and markets we’ll be attending during our Radiothon with our range of merch that includes, keep cups, stickers, trucker caps, t-shirts and hoodies.

These include:

  • Fri 1 Dec – Chiltern Street Parade – from 5-8:30pm
  • Sun 3 Dec – Yackandandah Community Christmas Fair – from 9am-1:30pm

Radio Marathons

Thu 23 Nov – Sun 26 Nov will see each of our 3 sites collaborate on a massive 72 hour Radio Marathon.

The action begins at 4pm at our Kiewa-Tangam site, concluding same time Sunday 26 Nov at Yackandandah.

The schedule is below:

  • Kiewa-Tangam from 4pm Thu 23 Nov – 4pm Fri 24 Nov
  • Beechworth from 4pm Fri 24 Nov – 4pm Sat 25 Nov
  • Yackandandah from 4pm Sat 25 Nov – 4pm Sun 26 Nov

Live Streaming

This Radiothon we celebrate 1 year of live streaming! For all the links and other info, head to our Streaming page on our website.

We’ll be in touch as the month unfolds with more updates – in the meantime Happy Radiothon 2023!

Making RADIOWAVES

Poster design by Lydia Forster
Poster by Lydia Forster

Indigo FM invites you to our 2023 Radiothon Launch Party RADIOWAVES at Beechworth Memorial Hall on Saturday 4 November.

This live music event will feature Eastbound Buzz and This Way North – each with a big sound sure to fill up the acoustics of Beechworth’s iconic Memorial Hall.

Also on the bill is Euroa’s Neale Williams and Yackandandah’s Candice McLeod.

To celebrate our 2023 Radiothon, Indigo FM is offering all attendees at RADIOWAVES the option to also become a member of Indigo FM for 2024, which is included in the $30 ticket price. The same offer applies to our Concession and Family Membership categories.

Indigo FM’s Marketing team have been super busy behind the scenes for a couple of months organising this event. President Scott Landells praised the work of key official Tiff Ellis who led a successful Arts grant application and is now bringing RADIOWAVES to fruition.

RADIOWAVES is largely due to Tiff’s passion for live music and her creative thinking. She convinced our Marketing team and Committee of Management to pursue this opportunity and has been willing to do the bulk of the work. In a volunteer run organisation that kind of attitude and energy is so valuable. Beechworth Memorial Hall is an awesome venue, and holds a couple of hundred people and we’re looking forward to seeing it full on 4 November”, Landells offered.

“We’re also excited by a band of enthusiastic, skilled volunteers behind the scenes who have quickly come on board to assist staging RADIOWAVES. And we’re incredibly grateful to Regional Arts Victoria whose grant is making it all possible.”

Eastbound Buzz

The artists collectively cover a range of styles from the pin-drop intimate folk of Candice McLeod to the literal wall-of-sound of Melbourne 5 piece Eastbound Buzz.

This Way North

Yackandandah’s This Way North are a dynamic duo with a big sound and Neale Williams will offer something quite unique with his repertoire of life on the road stories in a blues and roots style.

Tickets can be purchased through Humanitix here. So jump online and get yours early as well as a Membership to Indigo FM for 2024.

All enquiries regarding RADIOWAVES can be directed to [email protected]

If you can’t make it along to RADIOWAVES – head over to our Membership page and peruse our Membership options.

This project is made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, which supports the arts in regional and remote Australia. Radiowaves is supported by the Australian Government’s Arts and Cultural Development Program, Regional Arts Australia and Regional Arts Victoria.

We have some awesome Radiothon prizes too, for all new and renewing members including:

  • a framed A3 size Victorian High Country Photographic Artwork from Kev McGennan
  • tickets to 2024 Spring Ditch in Stanley (2 March)
  • tickets to 2024 Yackandandah Folk Festival (22-24 March)
  • tickets to 2024 High Country Hop (23 March)

The above prizes will be drawn in early December.

Team-first at Indigo FM

Indigo FM’s 2023 Annual General Meeting was held yesterday in Wooragee at the Community Centre.

Members voted to elect a similar group to manage the affairs of Indigo FM for the next year with office-bearers being:

  • President – Scott Landells
  • Vice-President – Greg Clydesdale
  • Secretary – Tiffany Ellis
  • Treasurer – Greg Bourke
  • General Committee – Nigel Jones and Phil Fraser

One further General Committee positions remains open for the Committee to fill throughout 2023-24.

Members heard that Indigo FM had a successful year financially as well as with the many community projects we are involved with right across Indigo Shire – literally with our live music events from Kergunyah to Wahgunyah.

Our schools program has grown with regular podcasts from Wooragee Primary School joining the Yackandandah Primary School suite of weekly programs. Watch this space as more schools are coming on board in 2024!

Our live streams were bedded down in 2023 which was a long term goal ticked off.

Our Podcasts continued to record very strong audience numbers.

Indigo FM continues to be very well served by our Marketing and Tech-Programming Sub-Committees as these groups handle a range of projects.

We’re super excited about the year ahead and look forward to sharing them with you.

Click here to read our 2022-23 Financial Statement and President’s Report

2023 Annual General Meeting – Sunday 1st October at Wooragee

Indigo FM is holding it’s 2023 Annual General Meeting.

Date: Sunday, 1 October 2023

Time: 5 pm – 6 pm

Venue: Wooragee Community Centre (Hall), Wooragee.

We welcome your attendance and strongly encourage anyone with an interest in helping with the running of Indigo FM to nominate for our Committee of Management. Written nominations on the form linked below may be scanned and emailed to [email protected] or mailed to The Secretary, PO Box 64, Chiltern VIC 3683. Nominations may also be lodged at the AGM.

If you can’t make it to the meeting an option to contribute to the Meeting via remote video link will be provided. If you would like another Indigo FM member to represent you by proxy, you may like to use the Proxy Form via link below.

Along with adopting Minutes from our 2022 AGM, election of Committee of Management and confirmation of Membership Fees for 2024, these are the only items of business permitted at an AGM as set out in the Model Rules.

The Agenda is below. Also our 2022-23 Statement of Income and Expenditure / Balance Sheet, President’s Report, 2022 AGM Minutes are all available via the links below.

We will hold a brief informal General Meeting following the AGM for those members who wish to participate.

Tiffany Ellis
Secretary

AGM Nomination and Proxy Form 2023

Agenda

2022 AGM Minutes

2022-23 Statement of Income and Expenditure / Balance Sheet

President’s Report

Investing in Youth # 1: Wooragee Primary School

Here at Indigo FM we have been building strong relationships with young people across Indigo Shire for over a decade and 2023 has seen us take these partnerships to exciting new heights.

In the first of a series of articles we’d like to focus on our work with Wooragee Primary School.

Wooragee Primary School is located roughly halfway between Beechworth and the turn-off to Yackandandah on the Beechworth-Wodonga Road.

It has a standout Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden as well as some wonderful natural areas for the students to explore. Olive trees grow on the front lawns and the school entrance from the car park is adorned by a striking sunflower sculpture.

In mid 2021 while reflecting on the exciting shows being created by students from Yackandandah Primary School, our team wondered how similar opportunities might be offered to smaller remote schools who didn’t have the relative luxury of an Indigo FM studio 100m down the street from their School. 

Indigo FM President Scott Landells elaborates on this off-site program. “Not every primary school has an Indigo FM site in their town. We’d heard about the Rodecaster PRO which is a portable mixer unit with microphones and headphones and thought that if we acquired one we could hit the road and produce podcasts with remote schools. We submitted a community grant application to Indigo Shire and were successful. We approached a few remote schools and Wooragee Primary School were keen to come on board.” Landells said.

“Some training took place in 2022 and in Term 1 2023 we commenced creating podcasts and it’s been a great success. The students are a delight to work with and we think some have exceptional potential to host their own regular radio program on our airwaves in the near future.

We create approximately 3 podcasts per term, the podcasts being hosted by School captain Elena who brings in a rotating set of her fellow students from Years 2-5 to share the airwaves. Thus far we have heard Toby, Arden, Alice, Artemis, Finn, Poppy and Bella on these podcasts.”

Principal Angela Gray offered her thoughts regarding the partnership with Indigo FM.

Elena, Poppy and Finn geat ready for their podcast

“The students at Wooragee Primary School are all excited to be a part of creating a podcast with Indigo FM. Students plan out their program with news from the school and the community and with the support of Elena, our school captain and Scott from Indigo FM produce a professionally made podcast.”

You can check out any of these podcasts via the links below:

The podcasts are also programmed for 9-10am Monday mornings on Indigo FM Online

If you’re reading this and from a small Indigo Shire Primary School, that’s keen to have Indigo FM create podcasts with your school, feel free to email us at [email protected] and we’ll discuss how your school can get involved.