Community Radio station Triple B FM has developed an innovative program which involves school children in the station to boost volunteers and increase contact with the local community. It is a good example of community radio achieving success at the grass roots level, which recently won a CBAA award. The Radio Access Program is called RAP FM.

RAPfm program co-ordinator Rhonda Fietz told radioinfo about the program:

During this year at Triple B we have once again seen a lot of schools involved with our Radio Access program.

Our calendar shows that it has mainly been Primary Schools that have visited us and some of the Upper Primary students from small rural schools have now participated in planning and preparing a program for three years. In one case we had Year 7 students who taught their new teacher all about compiling and presenting a good quality and interesting radio program.

I was very pleased to receive a phone call from a teacher at Golden Grove Primary to ask if it was alright for a city school to be part of RAPfm – they came to us in the Third Term as part of a media studies exercise. Looking back over the last three years we now find that we have had over 30 schools who have participated in the RAPfm project, some once, others two and three times.

This year I have also been very appreciative of the support of Fay Herrmann, the Regional Co-ordinator at Barossa Region School Industry Links (BRSIL). It had been suggested last year that I apply for an Enterprise Education grant for Roseworthy Primary School to compile a RAPfm Program. We were successful in gaining this grant and this year Fay has once again supported me to promote the RAPfm project to more schools, as a ‘real life’ experience that teachers can mark off against the SACSA curriculum. During Term Three and Four the BRSIL Project has included delivering teachers’ workshops on Community Broadcasting and an outline of the RAPfm programs. For each school that participated, I spent up to ten hours working with students on devising their programs. Sedan, Sandy Creek, Tanunda, Keyneton and Kapunda Primary Schools and Kapunda High School have all been part of this activity.

This year saw Radio Adelaide (5UV) completing and delivering its training kit to South Australian Community Broadcasters. They also embarked on the ‘SACE Radio Project’ which involved setting up guidelines and processes for taking radio training into high schools.

We hope to see some very interesting initiatives happening in Secondary Schools next year, which should lead to Year 11 and 12 students receiving accreditation for units of the Certificate II in Broadcasting (Radio).

In July Radio Adelaide invited me to be part of the ‘SACE Radio Project’, mainly because of my work with schools and RAPfm. This term my assistant, Troy Poulish and I have worked towards gaining a Cert. III in Broadcasting (Radio). In the future there will be many opportunities available to young people, if media subjects are added to the SACE curriculum in Secondary Schools. During Term Four some Year 10 students at Kapunda High have planned and recorded a RAPfm program and we are still working towards taking some of them through an assessment process, so they can gain credit for a unit in the Certificate II in Broadcasting (Radio).

I attended the National Broadcasting Conference in Canberra on 8th 9th and 10th November. The RAPfm program was entered into several categories of the C.B.A.A. Awards. It was very pleasing to see it gain a Highly Commended Award for the ‘Best and/or New idea for getting the Community involved in your Station.’

Over the past three years we have certainly heard many successful programs and Troy and I often get really excited about the quality of the work being produced by quite young students. They are highly motivated, very adventurous and creative and we know they will all continue to improve as they mature.

We hope we can continue to produce the RAPfm programs at Triple B once again next year.