Air time for young people

A partnership between St John of God Health Care and RTR FM 92.1, one of Perth’s most listened to community radio stations, has allowed three young people to hone their ‘on air’ skills during a recent two-day broadcasting training program.

16 December 2010

Luke Bowman, Mark Armandi and Holly Ramage, all members of the Youth Advisory Committee based at Cockburn Youth Centre, learned how to put together content for a radio program, from
conducting vox pop street interviews, to script writing and how to use a digital radio desk.

St John of God Health Care’s PR Manager, Fiona Clark, said: “We have a strong youth focus in our community programs and so were really keen to get more young people involved in community radio when we began sponsoring RTR FM earlier this year.”

RTR FM’s Sponsorship Manager, Alexa Woldan, said: “Material produced by the trainees will be used on RTR FM’s ‘Young Blood’ program, a weekly slot focusing on all things youth. And there’s always the possibility of the budding presenters becoming regular contributors to the station.”

Cockburn Youth Centre was selected due to an existing relationship between the City of Cockburn and St John of God Hospital Murdoch whose Social Outreach and Advocacy team helped initiate the project.

Fiona said: “We all brainstormed and came up with the initial idea. It’s now up to the young people and the staff at Cockburn Youth Centre to discuss how they might use the training, with one option being to use community radio to raise the profile of Youth Advisory Committee’s work.”

Cockburn Youth Centre is a thriving youth community hub whose enthusiastic Youth Advisory Committee acts as a voice for local youth interests and organises events such as the FROSH music festival.