We know that sometimes stations need urgent support due to unexpected emergencies, such as bushfire, storm damage, floods and drought.
We also know that opportunities arise, every so often, which can be time-limited or offer community broadcasters the chance to match funding on a project with another organisation.
Our Quick Response Grants are specifically designed to help community broadcasters to stay on air when the unexpected happens and also take advantage of valuable opportunities that may not coincide with our grant rounds.
These grants are available all year round, unlike the one-off COVID-19 Quick Response Grants which we created to help stations manage the immediate effects of social distancing requirements.
We recently approved the following requests for urgent support through our Quick Response Grants.
7EDG FM – relocating transmission equipment
Edge Radio is Hobart’s only youth radio station providing a mix of music, entertainment, and local journalistic content and information. Edge applied for support to cover the cost of moving their transmission equipment from its current location in early June. The building which housed the station’s transmission equipment was unexpectedly sold leaving them no choice but to find another location or go off air.
A CBF Quick Response Grant of $15,000 paid for the relocation of transmission equipment to a new site.
2RES Eastside Radio – new transmitters
Based in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Paddington, Eastside Radio is and arts-focussed station that has been broadcasting for over 30 years. Eastside Radio’s primary and backup transmitters were damaged due to corrosion and age. Being older than five years, meant the transmitters were no longer covered by insurance. As an interim solution, the station hired a replacement transmitter to keep them on air. At $400 per week, this was not a sustainable solution.
A CBF Quick Response grant of $5,460 paid for a new transmitter.
FameLab Community Broadcasting Project – media training, mentoring and content production
FameLab is a global science communication competition for early career STEM researchers created by Cheltenham Festival and the British Council. FameLab Australia is produced by the Foundation for the Western Australian Museum.
The Foundation have partnered with four community radio stations to deliver tailored media training and ongoing mentoring in radio content production to 48 Famelab semi-finalists. Through this project, the Foundation will connect these finalists with their local community radio stations around the country. The need for funding support had become urgent with FameLab events being held in April.
A CBF Quick Response Grant of $20,000 paid for stations to conduct media training and ongoing mentoring, and the semi-finalists to produce content that will be available to all participating stations.