REMEMBER the days when we had a registration sticker on our windscreen? Always a good reminder for when you had to pay your dues. Today, vehicle owners receive their invoice in the mail, email, bank app or SMS. For some people it is quite confusing. What happens when you don’t receive the mail reminder and what if you haven’t setup a reminder or changed your mobile number or bank?
Three weeks ago, the King Island Radio bus driver was informed by the local police that the registration for the bus had run out in April. The police officer kindly told the driver to take the bus back to the studio. As the registration was overdue by more than three months, the 26-year-old bus needed an inspection. King Island’s salty sea breezes had taken its toll on the old lady and retirement is her fate.
How will King Island Radio broadcast across the island now? How does the station transport audio and visual equipment to the numerous events that King Island Radio supports? Being a small island radio station, with a small population, finances are often an issue.
To just operate the station costs about $10,000 per annum, and these costs are met by advertiser/sponsorship and membership fees. Looking around for another bus or van quickly showed that most options were not financially viable. In today’s world online fundraisers are popular. “With a bit of luck, we might raise $7,000”, said King Island Radio’s, Wade Roskam.
A fundraiser was started and Events Tasmania and the King Island Senior Citizens immediately came onboard. Within five days $15,000 was raised, with the fundraiser being supported by King Island businesses and the community “We are in a happy shock”, said Roskam. “Don’t you love this island? What generosity!”
A new vehicle has been found in Northern Tasmania. A Ford Transit, in good condition, will soon arrive on the island. Eastern Line Shipping has offered to pick up the van and transport it at no cost to King Island or the radio station. The fundraising will continue.
“We have to pay off a $5,000 loan and need about $1,000 for materials to make the van ready for broadcasting,” Roskam said. For those who would like to make a small donation, there are a few options to do so.
There is the online fundraiser at https://chuffed.org/project/94330- radio-van, direct deposit at King Island Radio, Westpac, BSB 037 602 account 171 965.
You can post a cheque to King Island Radio Inc, 960 Pegarah Road, Pegarah, TAS 7256 or take your donation into the Westpac Branch in Currie