The essence of volunteering is captured in these photos and all our photos in our gallery. Come and join us!

It’s amazing what a difference proper acoustic sound-proofing panels has made to our studios!

Studio 1, from which we broadcast live, was the “best-equipped” in terms of sound-proofing, out of all our studios. We had had packing foam screwed into the walls as our make-shift solution for sound-proofing. But Studio 2, in which we record our local news and do a lot of our production work, was sorely lacking. No matter how hard our newscasters and production team tried to re-position their mics or prop up some soft material around the sound desk, the echo would still find its way onto the recording. It was the same when a presenter brought in a guest to do a pre-recorded interview. Only this time, it was even more of a challenge to try and prop up the soft material because they’d be obscuring the interview guest if they did! It was a challenge for our trainers to also teach properly on microphone technique because of the distortions in the recording from bouncing sound in the studios.

So, we applied to the Community Broadcasting Foundation for a grant to improve our acoustic sound-proofing. As part of the monthly update to all members, they were informed of the application and asked to keep their fingers crossed. You can just imagine our excitement when they said yes!

A small team chose the colour of the fabric to cover the sound-proofing and the order was placed for that and all the rest of the material needed to take our studios to a whole new level of sound quality.

As soon as the materials were delivered, a call was put out to all our members who had carpentry-related experience to come in and help. If you knew how to put wood together to make a frame, how to attach that frame to the wall and were comfortable with gun staples, hammers, nails and a screw-driver, we needed your help!

A team of 14 people came together over the course of a few days to put their heads together, bang, hammer and staple pieces of wood together to house the acoustic material and to then put it up on the studio walls. Ingenuity was needed, as you can see from some of our photos, to prop their handy-work up overnight. Nothing went unused – from mops to buckets and pails and a mannequin on a hanger!

The essence of volunteering is captured fully in our photos and tells a wonderful story of the buzz and energy that is felt by all involved on the project. It’s at times like these that we are all reminded how fulfilling it is to be part of a community project. When there’s a job to be done, people come together and have some fun at the same time. This is why many of us volunteer – because it feels good. And besides, where else do you get to exercise your creativity so openly…like with the “high-tech” bracing?

It is with thanks to the CBF that we’ve been able to upgrade the acoustic panels in our studios. They’re looking snazzy and sounding great, and the feedback we’ve been getting from our volunteer members has been well worth the effort. Our news team has doubled in size, as more people have volunteered to learn about how to present our local news. And microphone technique is now much easier to teach to our ongoing stream of trainee presenters who come from all walks of life to learn how to be a radio presenter. On that subject, it’s not just about being a radio presenter…because many people tell us how they gain confidence in themselves and also become more comfortable with doing talks and presentations. A bonus “side-effect”! If you’d like to know more about our training, click here.

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