RADIO 1RPH NEWS

Canberra 1125 kHz AM Wagga Wagga 89.5 MHz FM

Radio for the Print Handicapped, Canberra
Phone: 62414076, Fax: 62416566
Email: radio1rph@bigpond.com	Print Post Approved No.255003/04438
Website: http://www.radio1rph.org.au	ISSN 1036-8434

PRESIDENT’S NEWS

We are to have our AGM on Saturday 18 September at 2 PM at the Southern Cross Bowling Club in Turner. The Club has generously allowed us to use its meeting room free of charge. People attending the AGM are encouraged to have lunch at the Club prior to the meeting. This year we have moved our AGM from Thursday evening to Saturday afternoon and have located it at an inner north side venue in the hope that this will make it easy for you to attend our meeting. The AGM notice contains information on the procedure to nominate for the Committee and to participate in any election for Committee positions. If you are interested in contributing to the station as a Committee member and want to know more about the Committee please talk to me.

At its last meeting, the Committee took two major decisions for the long term future of the organization. The Committee is engaged in an ongoing discussion of how to provide, in so far as we can, for the long term replacement of our transmission equipment and the maintenance of our building. In relation to the building the Committee decided to set aside from our reserves $10,000.00 to be put into a sinking fund for the specific purpose of major and necessary maintenance for our building.

Related to this is the idea, suggested by some of our members, of having a major fundraising dinner the price of which would include a tax deductible donation of $30 to Radio 1RPH and the donations to be put into this sinking fund for the maintenance of our building. Please let me, committee members or Andrew know if you would support this dinner. I really believe we must plan for the future as our building grows older.

The other key decision taken at the latest meeting was to commit to holding a planning day for the station in February 2011. It is some time since the Committee, employees and members sat down together to consider the station’s operations and to develop a Strategic Plan for our service. I will provide more information about this initiative in the next Newsletter.

We continue our efforts to promote Radio 1RPH and its service wherever we can. Again this year we participated in the Canberra Blind Society’s Overview 2010 where we met many of our longstanding listeners and spoke to potential new listeners. Later this month, I will be speaking at a Probus Club. In promotion of our service, we do our best with participation in community activities, speaking engagements and newsletter articles. If you have any suggestions along these lines please let us know.

Phil Gibbs and Christopher Bedloe have given countless hours of listening pleasure to our listeners. I congratulate Phil and Christopher on their 25 years continuous and dedicated service to Radio 1RPH and was pleased to present each of them with a certificate of recognition of their wonderful achievements.

I look forward to seeing you at our AGM and the future functions listed in our events column.

Regards Robert Altamore OAM CM

FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT

A very pleasant evening was enjoyed by all who attended the dinner at the Quality Hotel (or Tradies) Hotel, Dickson on 16 June 2010. The dinner was organized by Mr Stuart Forsyth on behalf of the Australian Japan Society ACT for the visiting group of blind travellers from Japan.

Mr Hironori Kawahara gave a welcoming speech. Before the main meal (alternate sirloin steak/chicken breast) the diners were given a recital of songs of Japan played on a traditional Japanese instrument (lute) – an elongated instrument with strings passing through raised spines. The player plucked the strings.

My table companions were Robert and Wendy Altamore, Jean Bennett, Graeme Banks and his wife from Retina Australia, Mr Robin Poke, journalist and Ms Jan James. Dessert was either sticky date pudding or raspberry short cake. The delicious wines and soft drinks were provided by the Canberra Tradesmen’s Union Club and the Canberra Blind Society.

At the conclusion of the meal diners were entertained by a masked magician who pulled firstly different coloured scarves and then paper chains and finally a bunch of flowers from a hand-held towel. This was followed by a lady member of the Japanese group beautifully singing traditional Japanese songs. She was then accompanied by Mr Masatugu Ogawa playing the harmonica and Mrs Atsuko Goto with the recorder. They were joined by an assembled singing group singing ‘Happy, Happy’ and other traditional songs.

Members of the visiting group distributed small wooden hanging Christmas tree decorations followed by a bag of ‘lucky dips’. Mr Hironori Kawahara presented a commemorative gift to Mr Forsyth who thanked him on behalf of the Australian Japan Society of ACT and representatives of other organizations who were present.

Also attending were Janet (Jay) Roe and her partner Peter, who with his dog represented Guide Dogs ACT, Peter Granlees, President of Canberra Blind Society and David and June Ashmore.

Congratulations to two members awarded the Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow Medal

Robert Altamore, president, was honoured for his services internationally to East Timor and  outstanding services to the Australian blindness sector.

Brian Daniell, presenter and a member of the Committee, was awarded the medal for outstanding  community service to Canberra and the Southern Region by the Belconnen Rotary Club. Paul Harris founded Rotary International in 1903.

Coral Nag

From the Volunteer Representative

I love to hear stories, and thank our volunteers who have shared their experiences with us in previous newsletters. Many of you will know Camilla, having worked and relaxed with her at the radio station on many occasions. Following, two for the price of one - a profile and an adventure she had before moving to Australia.

Camilla Shaw

Congratulations to Camilla Shaw and David her husband, from your friends and colleagues at Radio 1RPH. Camilla and David became Australian Citizens on Friday 9^th July 2010, Constitution Day. The ceremony was held at the Australian Museum, where family and friends gathered to take the Oath of Allegiance and be welcomed as Australian citizens.

In December 2007, Camilla first came to Radio 1RPH for her audition to read newspapers and books to the print handicapped. In her extremely busy life, Camilla gives much of her time to the blind community. As part of a three person team her slight Scottish accent can be heard every Monday morning reading from the daily newspapers. Also as a team member, she brings Christian news to air some Sunday afternoons and she produces her own gardening programme (Gardening with Camilla) which goes to air on Fridays at 10.30am with a repeat at 9.45pm on the same day.

Camilla is a bush walker, a swimmer, and an International Folk Dancer. A prolific reader, she belongs to U3A where she joins literature and history groups. She is also a member of many gardening clubs including the Australian Native Plant Society. Her husband David volunteers at Pegasus Riding for the Disabled, and is an Education Officer at the Zoo.

She read Goodnight Mr Tom which was produced for the Print Handicapped Network in Australia and is currently working on another titled No Other View by Naomi Reed, which will be aired shortly on the Christian Perspectives program.

Camilla is also a member of many community organizations. She conducts guided tours of the Memorials on Anzac Parade, The Carillon and Old Parliament House Rose Gardens. From the many community organizations in which she is involved, we are fortunate to experience Camilla’s enthusiastic and vibrant personality, which brings a very positive energy to our team of volunteers at Radio 1RPH.

She is an enthusiastic and devout member of her church, to which she contributes unstintingly of her time and service. As a former member of The Storytellers Guild, Camilla is a popular speaker at many functions in Canberra.

Now for one of Camilla’s many stories…….

Sometime during 1998 I read an advertisement in the local free "Rag." Newspeak, a Talking Newspaper For The Blind, was seeking someone interested in theatre to present a monthly slot Coming Events about future shows, especially audio-described shows. When I turned up at The Blind Society for an audition, it was to find a roomful of young aspiring actresses. Anyway, I had prepared a sample programme to record, but did not hold out much hope. So it was a lovely surprise to receive a telephone call the following Sunday advising me that I had the job. Our adult children were with us for lunch and made comments such as ‘Well it is not as if the listeners will actually see you’.

My predecessor invited me to her home to explain what was required. Each month, I would prepare and present a ten minute slot about what was to coming to the theatres, giving background information and explaining how the audio-description worked. Thinking I could extend this, I made appointments with staff at each theatre and concert hall to introduce myself. Bravely and tentatively, I suggested that, if free tickets were forthcoming, I could also present reviews of performances and concerts.

So began a few years of regular shows and concerts with two free tickets every time. Of course, I did actually have to produce the reviews offered. For theatre, this was fine as I had some theatrical background, but the weekly Symphony Concerts were a different matter. Despite belonging to a musical family, my own knowledge was extremely limited. I studied future concert programmes avidly. I read up on each composer and the music to be played. We attended the pre-concert talks. It was great to sit in the best dress circle seats, complimentary programme in hand, and settle down to concentrate on the music. It was amazing how much I noticed. During the interval, I would scribble away, and later at home David and I would discuss the concert before I wrote the review. I always made sure to post it before reading the real music critics. No doubt, my amateurish remarks caused hilarity in the concert office, but they kept giving us free tickets. We saw some marvellous theatre performances and some dreadful ones also. It is easy to walk out of a theatre if you have not paid. Occasionally we were invited to first nights with drinks with the manager during the interval. I was handed a tiny tape recorder to prepare the item at home. Ten minutes once a month was not enough. Edinburgh boasts three theatres and at least three weekly concerts. Often I had to leave out a review. However I always sent reviews to managements of the theatres and concert halls. I loved those free tickets.

It was suggested I become an audio-presenter which involved describing the action from a sound-proofed room. Audience members heard the description through head phones. As this involved much more work I decided to stay where I was. It was fun, but my morale took a tumble when the husband of one listener said, "Oh she always fast-forwards your bit." On seeing my expression he went on to explain that his wife never attended theatre or concerts. I wonder? I visualised blind people all over the city reaching for the off switch. Radio 1RPH is run very much more professionally than Newspeak, but I did so enjoy all those free performances.

Thank you Camilla, what an exciting and busy life you lead.

Now for More: The Committee, Sunday evening readers and friends met for an afternoon tea with cake and champagne on 27 July, to celebrate 1000 episodes of Phil Gibbs program Aviation Digest. Phil has been with the station since its inception 25 years ago. He presents live newspaper readings each Sunday evening, and has done so for many years and after the readers leave he includes musical choices from his extensive library. Congratulations Phil.

Best wishes to Jack Murley for a speedy recovery from his recent hospital stay. Jack is a valued and much loved volunteer, of many years experience reading the news, and producing his own programme Jack on Shellac.

We welcome three new readers, Peter Davison, Debbie Ikins and Carla Mascarenhas. Debbie has recently arrived from America with her husband, where she was involved with community radio, and President Obama’s inauguration. Carla is a media and journalism student.

Jan Crump has joined the Christian Perspectives team as a presenter. Jan was a volunteer many years ago, and it is good to have her back – welcome Jan.

A mention of the morning Supervisors, who prepare newspapers, answer the telephone, and keep the station clean. Welcome to our latest morning supervisor Sandra Ladomirska. Thank you to John Girdlestone who worked as a morning supervisor for six years, and continues as a member of the Jazz Odyssey program, with Cyril Monahan and Ross Newton.

Welcome back from his visit to East Timor, our President, Robert Altamore, who says that he had such a wonderful time there, with so many memories. His wife Wendy is certainly pleased to have Robert back home safely after his travels.

So many of our volunteers have been travelling in the weeks since our last newsletter and I hope to have some of their tales in the next edition.

Thanks to all of you, who give tirelessly of your time and energies, year after year, as volunteers of Radio 1RPH. Christine Daniell

BACKROOM BOYS-you don’t hear the voice but they are priceless

No 1: Laurie Johnston-Producer.

My wife saw an item in the Canberra Chronicle in 2004 or 2005 about volunteers being needed at 1RPH so I rang the station and talked to Don Hunt who told me a time to be there for a bit of training. I think it was Malcolm who was the trainer on the day. There were about 5 of us in the group. Some weeks after I had finished the training I got a call to come to the station and to record a program. I remember recording John Salt with Choice magazine on a regular weekly basis and Ron Bull with Bush Poetry weekly also. After some time my wife and I went away in our van. We were away for some months and when I came back, I rang the station to let Don know I was back. I started to record John Penhallurick with the Economist and Time magazines and also did a second series of Bush Poetry with Ron Bull. Sometime later I recorded Adrian Fethers as he read from a book written by his father. When he finished the book we began to record Cosmos. After a while Adrian commenced the program Accent on Asia. Towards the middle of 2009 Andrew asked if I would be interested in editing before programs went to air - I thought for a few weeks and agreed. After spending a bit of time with both Andrew and Malcolm I began to do the editing on Thursdays. All in all I have enjoyed my time out at the station and I have met many great people who give their time.

No 2: John Howard, Programming and Patricia Howard, evening reader.

What do volunteers from 1RPH do when they are not at the station? For my wife Patricia and me during our ‘leave’ earlier in the year we went to the Philippines for Australian Business Volunteers.

We were asked to work on assignments in education at Olongapo City, Subic Bay on the west coast of the island of Luzon, about a four hour drive from Manila. Olongapo was to be our home for six weeks and was in contrast to two earlier assignments in poor, rural areas. The city population is a little smaller than Canberra’s but in much more limited space. As a consequence, there seem to be many more people, mostly young. Subic Bay was a major American Naval base until 1992 and there is a lot of evidence of their presence that remains. The eruption of Mt Pinatubo in 1991 was a major setback for the area. Many farming areas remain barren.

Our accommodation was in Granny’s Inn, a small, modern and comfortable hotel in the CBD. Opposite was the entrance to the City Mall. At the entrance to the mall was a sign behind the security guard ‘No firearms or dangerous weapons allowed’ (was there ever a weapon with was not dangerous?) Equally confronting were the armed guards at most shops including the 7/11 store and McDonald’s. At night what seemed to most of the 200,000 inhabitants took to the streets to enjoy street stalls, the cool air in the evening and the air con in all shops. Main trading was in food and mobile phones which could be bought, repaired or traded at countless stores. Every shop seemed to provide its share of loud music [sic]. Filipinos enjoyed the opportunity to broadcast their talents at the karaoke [videoke] bar from midnight until about 5.00 am. Add to all of the above noisy traffic and ubiquitous jeepneys and you have a brief description of Ologapo.

As well as living in Olongapo, there were our assignments. Patricia’s time was to be spent advising the staff at a new private school, Juventus Pre-school for the Gifted. Children were under extreme pressure to achieve academically when quite young and from our view were missing out on activities that developed pre-learning skills as well as learning through play. Play was regarded as free and undirected and not an important contribution to learning. The task was to advise and suggest ideas – it was up to the school to decide what recommendations to adopt.

I directed my energy to a government college where less privileged students [2000 of them] were given an opportunity to develop skills in a range of faculties such as Nursing, IT and Education. I provided ideas in one of the faculties, to involve greater student participation in lectures and to create more opportunities for students to use English. Courses are in English but Tagalog was used as often as possible. Gordon College occupied the former hospital so most rooms lacked amenities to provide a good learning environment or to repel the frequent temperature of 39 degrees.

At times Patricia and I were on show such as when we shared the platform with Mayor James ‘Bong’ Gordon at the flag-raising ceremony, not to mention being two of the few foreigners in the city.

We returned to Australia rather exhausted, after presenting ideas to help improve two areas of education at different ends of learning. A newspaper reported that the number of children between the ages of 6 to 12 who did not attend school had passed the one million mark but Education did not seem to rate highly in their electioneering campaign. We failed to reach any of the million but believe that we had made a worthwhile contribution towards education in the Philippines.

Join the President and friends at George Harcourt Inn, Gold Creek Road, Nicholls on Sunday 24 October at 6pm. Specials are the $10 schnitzels which are great value

From the Secretary

On Sunday, 1^st August, 2010 accompanied by Shirley Meade, the Program Director, and Malcolm Walker, the Technical Director, I attended the Southern Cross Club in Woden for their annual grant luncheon. Various amounts were handed to each organisation in the form of a cheque. The Club stated that they only give to local groups and charities. The total amount of grants given out by the club was approximately $173,000. The club did say they did not know how long the practice could continue as revenue had been down the past year. The range of organisations receiving a grant was varied including schools, people with disabilities, church groups, play groups and apparently not every organisation who applied was lucky to receive a grant.

A number of politicians were in attendance to enjoy the delicious lunch, and to meet the representatives of the organisations, including the Chief Minister who handed us our cheques, the leader of the Opposition for the ACT and other ACT Government politicians as well as Senator Gary Humphries and Annette Ellis.

Lesley Carney

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP

You can become a member or renew your subscription at any time by contacting the Station Manager at Radio 1RPH, Barton Highway, Gungahlin ACT 2912. If you wish to become a member, a form is available at our website http://www.radio1rph.org.au or from the station (Telephone (02) 6241 4076).

Fees are:

$22.00 Ordinary membership (July to June)

$11.00 Ordinary membership (Jan to June)

$16.50 Concessional membership (July to June) $8.50 Concessional membership (Jan to June)

All fees are inclusive of GST.

Donations over $2.00 are tax deductible.

Our listeners say

• Listener is a great fan of Heritage presented by Christine Daniell – hears it from 7RPH Hobart

• Caller rang with complaint about the American voices on the radio – did not allow time to investigate the complaint.

Please keep your comments coming in as volunteers are greatly encouraged by them.