Station so near, yet so far

"Station so near, yet so far", Southern News, Thursday, May 20 1999
(Article courtesy of the Southern News)

Brisbane City Council is considering an application for a new community radio station on the southside.

Brisbane City Council Finance Committee Chairman, John Campbell, said the Queensland Hospital Radio (QHR) application, established by Flora Smith, would go before civic cabinet for approval in the next month.

Ms Smith, of Moorooka, requested Council's help to site a transmitter for the station in 1997.  She said she was thrilled but wary of the news Council had identified a site.
She had received very little response from them since her original request.
"I don't want to get too excited about it because I have had so many letdowns and I still need the okay from the Australian Communications Authority," Ms Smith said.
"In 1997 I first contacted them and I have kept on their tails since then.  It has just been so frustrating."

Ms Smith has dedicated the last six years of her life to establishing the AM station.
She said she decided to start it to entertain bed-ridden patients in hospitals and other care institutions.  In that six years she had written radio programs, completed a studio schedule and tested a station website in preparation of approval.  She has also purchased equipment, copyright for music and reel to reel tapes in anticipation.

Cr Campbell said Council was still to decide whether transmitter rental fees would be changed to QHR.
"Council is considering what to do and so it will require a special decision outside normal policy to waiver the charges," Cr Campbell said.