Wayne Jones

I started my journey in Community Radio in 1977 aged 17yrs at 2MBS Sydney. I started doing the Midnight to Dawn Saturday program. Making lots of mistakes and with not many people listening. However, I spent 9 fun years at 2MBS where I made many friends, met some famous people and slowly improved my presentation. On arriving at Inverell in 1991, I was approached by 2CBD Glen Innes to become a Presenter there. It was a bit different from using a full-blown broadcast studio like I used at 2MBS, but it was country radio and it worked getting the message out to the Glen Innes community. Music wise I was exposed to a great deal of music from a young age, especially classical music. We always had music playing in the house and my youngest memory is sitting on my mother’s lap as she played Chopin’s Minute Waltz. Mum was a classical trained pianist who graduated from the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney in 1955. Her career in music was curtailed however when she met my father and music took a back seat to family and motherhood. As they say the rest is history. I enjoy most music including the 60’s 70’s and 80’s when I host the Morning magazine program on weekday mornings. But I also enjoy my Sunday Evening Concert program. I want to bring classical music to people who would not normally hear it and broaden their musical experience. In 2002 I was part of the working committee of 5 people who helped to establish a Community Station in Inverell. We started running on a temporary licence in 2004 with borrowed equipment from 2CBD Glen Innes running at just 5 watts at the Skybridge, Otho St building. Not much compared to todays 1,000-watt broadcast power we now have. We also received a generous donation from Mr & Mrs Bull of Inverell which enabled the group to purchase a new 500-watt Transmitter and other broadcast equipment. Now that we are in our new premises in Byron St I look back and it has been quite the journey for STA FM. I am glad I was in some small way able to help get STA FM Inverell Community Radio to where it Is today.