THE community radio show that connects residents of Corumbene Care with the wider world has a major milestone coming up. Tyga-FM Corumbene Radio Hour producer Bruce Lamb said the twice-weekly show would play its 10,000th request by the end of this year.
The program has been so successful that it now runs for an hour and a half. It started in 2015 with a handful of song requests from Corumbene and a playlist of other songs Mr Lamb thought would appeal to the listeners.
Corumbene resident John Crowle came on board as a presenter not long after the first broadcast and continues in the role today, now assisted by Madge Lathey on alternate weeks. Others involved in the early days were Barbara Davis, Ian Gordon and Lyn Ball.
Until the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the program was pre-recorded on site at Corumbene for each week’s broadcast. Since then it has been done via telephone link, with Mr Crowle and Mrs Lathey reading out the requests over the phone. Mr Lamb puts it all together ready for each Monday’s 9.30am broadcast. The show is repeated at 2pm on Saturdays.
Mr Crowle has been recording the song requests each fortnight and has collated the playlists each week since 2015. For this community contribution he was named one of the New Norfolk and Derwent Valley News Community Achiever Award recipients last year.
“Our listening audience goes well beyond the Derwent Valley,” Mr Lamb said. Recently there was a request from the family of a resident who came from Ireland. “A phone link was used to record the brother of the resident so that he made the song request himself. Corumbene staff were able to video the surprise of the resident when she heard her brother’s voice making the request, and it was sent to the family. Many tears of joy flowed.”
Mr Lamb expressed his thanks to the Corumbene wellness and lifestyle team for the ongoing support received for the program. “By the end of this year we will have seen our 10,000th request for the program. More than half of the residents participate in the request list each week.”
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