Coast FM Tasmania

Coast FM Tasmania

City of license	North-West Coast of Tasmania
Broadcast area	Tasmania, Australia
Slogan	Coast FM - local and live with more of your favourites
Frequency	88.9FM Circular Heard 104.7FM Devonport 106.1FM Across The Coast
First air date	1990 (1990)
Format	Music from the 60's until Today, News and Weather, Sport, Religion, International Music
Language	English
Callsign meaning	7DBS - 7 for Tasmania, D for Devonport, B for Burnie and S for Smithton, the stations major coverage areas.
Owner	Coastal FM Inc.
Webcast	Live Online Stream
Website	www.coastfm.org

Coast FM is a Tasmanian community radio station broadcasting all across the North-West coast from the studio in Wynyard. The station's hosts are predominately volunteers. The station has been struggling financially for some time however with new directors they are slowly getting back on their feet.

History

Coast FM was previously known as Coastal FM.

Recent Events

The stations logo when it was re-branded

Re-Branding

The station was re-branded "Coast FM - Radio for the life you live" with a modern logo between 2009-2010, however the board of Coast FM opted to revert to the stations old logo and the slogan "local and live with more of your favourites."

The Nightzone's Cancellation

The Nightzone on Coast FM's Logo

From 2006 until the end of 2010 the station had a very popular live night show known as "The Nightzone" from 7-10pm weeknights. Many youth from the community gave up their time to present this nightly show which played a mixture of current rock and pop hits as well as hits from the 90's and 00's. The show gave away prizes nightly with interactive competitions and was well known in the community. The creator of the show was very passionate and passed his passion for radio on to his crew. In early 2011, despite his departure from the station, the remainder of The Nightzone crew were willing and more than able to step up to the mark and continue the show, however, this was not to be.

The station's new board of directors decided that the station needed a new direction and in the week leading up to The Nightzone's expected return in 2011 it was announced that The Nightzone would be cut back to a once a week three hour show on a Friday night. By doing this it would make space so that other community groups could have the opportunity to submit their own shows. By the end of the week this once a week show was also removed from the Station's weekly schedule.

The Nightzone crew communicated with their fans using a Facebook page. Despite efforts by the board of Coast FM who are trying to disassociate themselves with The Nightzone, this page and its content remains as a both a testament to the many young volunteers and a place for the fans to express their dismay at Coast FM's decision to cancel the show.

Volunteering

The Station is run by a number of faithful volunteers who dedicate their time to supply programs each week.

The board of Coast FM have introduced a new policy that states that only authorised volunteers would be allowed inside the station after outside normal business hours. This policy requires volunteers to pay a security deposit for a key to the station. This policy came into place with little notification to announcers and left the station without a breakfast announcer the morning after the change, as the announcer was not able to access the studio.

Other volunteers were offered pre-recorded shows in time slots after 5pm, however this still meant that volunteers would need to pre-record during working hours, which was not an option for those studying or working full-time.

Volunteers Moving On

Coast FM has offered the chance for many people to learn skills in the industry which is evident as volunteers have moved on and secured paid positions at local commercial radio stations.

Programming

Overview

The station's programmes are aimed at the general community. A mixture of old and new music is played through the day and evening. Most programmes include news and weather as well as competitions. There are several multilingual programmes on Sunday's such as The Celtic Connection. Band and Classical music is played every Sunday morning. The Station's Sport Director brings to the area all the local sport each Saturday morning and when a major event is being held.

Metal Mass

Metal Mass is a weekly show on Coast FM. Broadcasting from midnight every Friday, the show is hosted by two young men and is an hour of metal music, news and interviews.

Frequencies

• 7DBS 88.9 MHz Broadcasts from Smithton and covers all of Circular Head.
• 7DBS 104.7 MHz Broadcasts from Devonport and covers many surrounding towns.
• 7DBS 106.1 MHz Broadcasts from Wynyard and covers the North West Coast.

Website

The stations website has been under construction for several years. Whilst it held some interactive content for some time, this content was removed and replaced by a stretched image by the new station directors at the end of 2010.

The station streams online using a free shoutcast provider.

The station also had a Facebook page that had a considerable number of followers who were quite active on the page, however in early 2011 for reasons unknown the page disappeared. The station now has a new page with several followers.

External links

• http://www.coastfm.org/ Station Website