Hutt Radio Crowdfunds For New Mixer

The Hutt Valley’s community radio station, Hutt Radio, is crowdfunding for a new sound mixer after being unable to find parts for the 22 year old unit on which it currently relies.

“Everything goes through here, it’s like the switchbox for a railway,” says General Manager Rex Widerstrom, pointing to the accurately named “Millennium”. “Without it, all we can do is program a computer to play things in sequence, which is fine if people know how to record and edit audio. But a lot don’t; they prefer to come into the studio and talk directly to their communities.”

After two years without a studio, the station thought its problems were over when the owners of Neko Ngeru Cat Café bought 215 High Street and confirmed that the station could use a room at that address. “Being adjacent to a café is ideal,” Widerstrom says. “Grab a coffee and come in and talk to the community about what you’re up to.”

Without a studio, popular programs for the Pasifika and other ethnic communities, sports shows and other content had been temporarily halted as the presenters found pre-recording a struggle. Volunteers put hundreds of hours and around $15,000 in donations was raised from people associated with the station.

But just as it was about to open its doors in June, the mixer began to fail. Parts for 22 year old technology aren’t the kind of thing you can get off the shelf, and the people with the knowledge of how to repair it are just as hard to find. Nonetheless, Hutt Radio found first one, then a third second-hand component board- but both has different issues of their own.

When the chance to be part of The Funding Network NZ and Givealittle “Generosity Generator” program arose, the station leapt at it. It’s in the midst of raising $6,524 to buy a brand new professional broadcasting digital sound mixer that will last at least the next decade, and probably beyond, and all the station to continue to offer free publicity to community groups, schools, sports clubs and others; to provide local news coverage; and to make the airwaves available for groups who want to produce their own programmes for the Hutt Valley.

More details can be found at https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/help-open-the-doors-of-hutt-radio-to-the-wider

ENDS

Contact: Rex Widerstrom 022 321 2014

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