NOWFM turns 35 today! Holding the title of regional Australia’s oldest commercial radio station, the broadcasting powerhouse has seen many changes throughout its lifetime but is still going strong.
Afternoon presenter, Greg ‘The Hat’ Henry, has been there for most of these changes, working for the station for 2 years in its early stages, before returning to clock up another 18 years with the broadcaster thus far.
“The station holds some really strong memories for me,” said Mr Henry.
“I grew up in Gunnedah and I can remember that, after years of listening to country AM radio, all of a sudden 98.3FM hit the airwaves and it was lifechanging for us in terms of being able to access our music.”
“One of my earliest memories was sitting in the waiting room at the Armidale Airport – my dad was going for his night pilot’s license at the time – and while I was waiting, they had a stereo on in the corner playing rock music on NOWFM.”
It was lifechanging in more ways than one – not only was NOWFM the first commercial FM radio station outside of a major city, it was, and remains to this day, one of the biggest in terms of its broadcast reach.
“NOWFM was unique at the time, it was really a test case,” said Mr Henry.
“When the Hawke and Keating government at the time gave every regional AM station a supplementary license, Moree’s one station became two and, in 1989, NOW FM was born.”
“They put the tower up on the top of Mount Kaputar just outside of Narrabri – that’s 1500m above sea level so the reach of signal is absolutely huge. We’ve got a listening radius of 200,000 m2.”
This means that NOWFM is tuned into as far North as Goondiwindi, all the was west to Lightning Ridge, South of Gunnedah and East to Armidale. On a good day if the weather is right, you can also pick it up in Tamworth, Dubbo or further away.
“We’re the last commercial station you’ll hear going West until you get closer to Alice Springs,” said Mr Henry.
NOWFM was originally privately owned but now falls under the banner of Super Radio Network, who own 42 commercial radio stations across Australia, including all of the commercial radio stations in the New England region.
When asked how radio stays relevant in the era of streaming, Mr Henry said it’s just as important now as it was back in the 90s.
“We live in a landscape where mobile data isn’t always a possibility, so not only do we have people listening in their homes and workplaces, but we’ve also got people listening in their tractors while they’re working a 10,000-acre paddock,” said Mr Henry.
“And I’m here to make sure that they’ve still got that warm, welcoming environment to listen to the songs they want to hear and give that shout out to their neighbours in the next field over if they want to.”
Mr Henry still runs the afternoon program from 12pm on weekdays, including the popular live request show from 12pm-2pm.
Despite falling during the COVID lockdown, the station’s 30th birthday celebrations were among Mr Henry’s fondest memories.
“We were obviously all locked away during that time, but I got approval to run a live request show on the Saturday night, so we all basically partied the night away, separate but together, with everyone making calls in and giving shout outs all night,” he said.
Now that 35 years is ticking around, the station will celebrate by doing what it does best, broadcasting to the community. Mr Henry has gone through and brought many of the cartridge-based archives into the modern era by digitising them, so the day will feature some of those memories, as we as the biggest songs of the 1990s as per the ARIA charts.
“I really just want to celebrate the fact that we’re still the rebels out there doing things a bit differently and making shows that our community wants to listen to – we’re still 100% live 11 hours a day during the week,” said Mr Henry.
“We work hard at what we do, it’s all blood, sweat and passion.”
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