Harvey radio team heading to Sunshine State, nominated for prestigious awards

After 20 years of hitting the airwaves, a Harvey institution is heading to the Sunshine Coast with a community broadcaster award in its sights.

The team at Harvey Community Radio will travel to Queensland in October, taking part in the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia 2024 Conference, with hopes to come home with two prestigious awards.

The station’s Angela Vitalone has been nominated for the excellence in multicultural content and engagement award for her Italian show Musica Viva, which has been running for close to 20 years with 800 shows under its belt.

Station chair David Marshall is also up to be placed on the Community Broadcasting Honour Roll for his more-than two decades of service to the station since its inception.

The prestigious honour roll is only bestowed upon the individuals who have dedicated more than 15 years to a single community radio station.

Station manger Ian Taylor said both nominations were well deserved.

“I can’t really say much more than it’s just outstanding,” he said.

“The longevity of it, sticking with it, I’m really hoping it comes to fruition.”

Mr Marshall said this was not the first time the station had been nominated for the awards, but it would be the first time in 20 years the station had made the voyage to the CBAA conference.

He said five representatives would be heading over this year to take part in the conference, with himself and Mr Taylor part of the convoy.

Also heading east is host of Gnaala Kort Boodja Lesley Ugle representing the station’s First Nations broadcasting. Sue Marshall, representing the station’s radio for the print handicapped show, and Ms Vitalone representing the station’s ethnic broadcasting, will also travel.

Mr Marshall said when the station first went to air in June 2004, the CBAA had its conference in Perth, leading the newly founded station to attend the event “en masse”.

However, since then, the conference has yet to return.

Mr Marshall said he was hopeful their big group, along with other representatives from community radio stations across WA, could advocate for the CBAA to turn its attention back to WA in the future.

Mr Taylor said he was eager to mix with other community radio broadcasters.

“It’ll be great to meet, mix and learn how they do things compared to what we do here,” he said.

“It’ll be great to get over there and represent WA and our station.”