Hawkesbury Radio 89.9 (call sign: 2VTR)

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 popula ...

stations in the Hawkesbury. Hawkesbury Radio's primary purpose is to serve the residents of the Australian

City of Hawkesbury The City of Hawkesbury is a local government area of New South Wales, Australia, part of which is at the fringe of the Sydney metropolitan area, about north-west of the Sydney central business district. Hawkesbury City is named after the Hawke ...

, Hawkesbury Radio broadcasts on the frequency 89.9 FM. The station is staffed by

volunteers Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

Hawkesbury Radio was the only

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 popula ...

Station in Australia to have Broadcast rights of NRL which featured

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith that competes in the NRL. The team is based west of the centre of Sydney, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Penrit ...

NRL matches, from 1997 to 2009. In 2016 the station gained broadcast rights to

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, or simply as Wanderers) is an Australian professional soccer club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier ...

A-League matches as well as W-League, National Youth League and

FFA Cup The Australia Cup, formerly known as the FFA Cup until the 2021 season, is the national football knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia, formerly known as Football Federation Austral ...

matches involving the Wanderers Hawkesbury Radio began in 1978 with a test broadcast, gaining its full licence in 1982, one of the first local community radio licences granted. The station broadcast out of a tiny condemned building, which housed the studio and transmitter on Fitzgerald Street

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

for many years, before moving to its current site in 1992 in an adjacent building. Hawkesbury Radio originally broadcast on 89.7 MHz, but moved to its current frequency of 89.9 MHz in December 1999.

Loss of licence

In August 2017, Australian Communications Media Authority (ACMA) decided not to renew Hawkesbury Radio's fulltime permanent licence following many years of non compliance of licence conditions including maintaining/ensuring community participation.

Programming

Hawkesbury Radio keeps to a mainly AOR mix during the daytime hours. Outside of these hours, there are specialist programmes such as bluegrass, country and western music. The station also has sports programmes on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Sports coverage

For 20 years it has broadcast various live events from calling

NRL Matches from 1997-2009 and the club's reserve grade matches, to covering Windsor Wolves Ron Massey Cup Matches. Plus finals matches in NSWRL Competitions. From 2016, the station has become the community radio partner of the

, with all A-League games covered on radio and all home games of the W-League and Youth League games online. The station also broadcasts the

National Premier Leagues NSW The National Premier Leagues NSW is a semi-professional soccer competition in New South Wales, Australia. The competition is conducted by Football NSW, the organising body in New South Wales (the other being the National Premier Leagues Norther ...

competition each week in divisions 1, 2 & 3. In addition the station became the first in Australia to broadcast a

World Rugby Sevens Series The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the com ...

event in broadcasting all three days of the 2017 Sydney Sevens, and the station also broadcasts at least one game a week in the

Shute Shield The Shute Shield is a semi-professional rugby union competition in Sydney, Australia. It is the premier club competition in New South Wales. The Shute Shield is awarded to the winning team from the Sydney premiership grand final held at the end ...

Sydney club rugby competition after previously broadcasting Penrith Emus games from 2001-2003.

References

External links

{{coord missing, New South Wales Radio stations in New South Wales Community radio stations in Australia Radio stations established in 1978 1978 establishments in Australia