ABC Kimberley is an
ABC Local Radio
ABC Local Radio is a network of publicly owned radio stations in Australia, operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
ABC Local Radio stations broadcast across the continent using terrestrial transmitters and satellites. Its programm ...
station based in
Broome, Western Australia
Broome, also known as Rubibi by the Yawuru people, is a coastal pearling and tourist town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, north of Perth. In the the population was recorded as 14,660. It is the largest town in the Kimberley re ...
, owned by the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owne ...
. Its callsign is 6BE and it transmits on
AM.
History
Before 1986, the ABC did not have any presence in the north west of Western Australia, until the construction of
6KP Karratha. As a result, the ABC realised no presence had been created in the Kimberley, and thus plans were made to trial a twelve-month ABC station based in Broome broadcasting to the region.
The station officially opened on 26 January 1990, with sole employee George Manning broadcasting from a small back-studio on 14 Napier Terrace in Broome. After the station's success, the station became a permanent broadcasting facility in 1991. In 1994 plans were made to find a new presenter to present the Kimberley Mornings program, and Desiree Sutherland, fresh out of an ABC cadetship in Sydney, got the job. More staff joined through the years, and the station assisted in creating Aboriginal
community radio
Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popu ...
stations across the Kimberley.
In 1997, a new outpost administered by Broome was established in the East Kimberley town of
Kununurra. The studio was located in a back bedroom on a house at 14 Sandalwood Street. Greg Hayes was the debutant reporter based there, before Matt Brann took over the reins in 2007. While the Broome studio was sturdy, it suffered a few leaks during emergency cyclone broadcasting, with water seeping down the walls and onto the floor.
In the late-2000s, plans were made to fit out two new studios in Broome and Kununurra and have both studios move there. The Sandalwood Street studio, while today still owned by the ABC, was stripped bare in 2010, and in 2011, ABC Kimberley moved to new premises on 23 Hammersley Street in Broome, and to 114b Coolibah Drive in Kununurra.
See also
*
Pilbara And Kimberley Aboriginal Media
Pilbara and Kimberley Aboriginal Media (PAKAM) is an Indigenous media association based in Broome, Western Australia. PAKAM broadcasts into the northern Pilbara and the Kimberley regions. As an Indigenous media producer, PAKAM relies on and cove ...
*
List of radio station callsigns in Western Australia
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:ABC Kimberley
Kimberley
Radio stations in Western Australia
Kimberley (Western Australia)