AMillicent not-for-profit community group submitted vital paperwork to a Federal Government agency on Friday.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority had invited applications for a permanent community radio licence in December.
The Millicent community radio station 5THE-FM management committee has been busy over the past two months documenting reasons why the volunteer-run body should transition from its current temporary licence back to a permanent one.
5THE-FM was stripped of its licence in November 2022 as the previous management breached certain governance and other licence conditions.
The current management committee have been in control for the past 15 months and cleared debt, fundraised, secured sponsors and grants and rebuilt the membership and announcers numbers.
Management committee chairman David Walshaw said the application to ACMA had to be lodged by yesterday.
“It is an exhaustive process to get a permanent licence and we are not aware of any other bodies lodging licence applications,” Mr Walshaw said.
“We have enlisted the support of our industry partners like the South Australian Community Broadcasting Association and the Community Broadcasters Association of Australia.
“We had to prove to the ACMA that we are meeting community requirements.
“Looking ahead, 5THE-FM still plans to present ethnic programs again as well as sports broadcasts and to build our sponsorship and membership base.”
Mr Walshaw two of the station’s successful social and fundraising events from 2023 would be returning this year under the direction of two announcers.
“Jack Lane is staging another Spics and Specs quiz night at the Millicent War Memorial Civic and Arts Centre on March 23 while Chris Copeland is coordinating Rock The Rails again later in the year,” he said.
“Listeners to 5THE-FM can now tune into their local station all night, with local content instead of a satellite feed.
“We have switched the ‘local auto presenter’ on after the last live presentation to bring you a different playlist every night of all our presenters favourite hits.
“There will be sponsorship messages and community announcements.
“The programming will keep our listeners entertained throughout the night.
“This continues until one of our dedicated presenters returns to our studios on Railway Terrace at 6am to resume live presentations for the day.”
