Phoenix FM Celebrates its 10th Birthday!

Our celebration on Saturday 6th of January 2018 went off very well in spite of the very hot weather and a Total Fire Ban being in force.  We were in consultation with the CFA prior to the event and we ran everything by the book, had a permit for our sausage sizzle, took all the required precautions and had no problems.

A huge thanks must go to our Members/Volunteers’ Co-Ordinator, Noel Paech who co-ordinated much of the event.  We also had quite a number of our members step up and provide great support and help too.  I am not mentioning them all individually for fear of accidentally leaving someone out – but thank you to all of you.  Special thanks must go to John Pearce (a Member of our Committee of Management) and Phil Beer (a presenter) who manned our sausage sizzle for most of the time.  It would have been a hot job but it was very popular – we went through almost 7kg of sausages!

Quite a number of our foundation members came along on the day and of course we also reflected on those who had passed in the last ten years.  Our Foundation President, Geoff Morris passed away in 2013.  We were very honoured that one of his daughters, Jane came along to help us celebrate.

We extend a big thankyou to the City of Greater Bendigo for providing funding to enable to run this event at no cost to our members or the public.

We had four City of Greater Bendigo Councillors attend on the day – Cr. Andrea Metcalfe, Cr. Rod Fyffe, Cr. Matt Emond and Cr. James Williams.  We are very grateful for the support we receive from the City of Greater Bendigo

Entertainment was provided by the band “Steppin’ Back”  Phoenix FM presenter Ted Bullow is the drummer in this band.  Other members of Steppin’Back are Chris Varley (Vocals), Fred Goodwin (Lead Guitar), Craig Davis (Lead and Rhythm Guitar), Garry Lane (Rhythym Guitar), Kevin O’Hara (Bass Guitar).  There were several other performers apart from the band who all worked together – these included Floreena Forbes, Olive Bice, Neil Cox and Wendy.  Each one will be getting a Certificate of Appreciation for their genorisity of spirit and performing so well in rather difficult conditions.

Phoenix FM naturally was on air during the celebration.  We put quite a bit of the music live to air.  Val Hogan and Darren Wright made sure that there was continuity and interviews and Darren had also put together quite a lot of archival material from our early years which ws broadcast.  I think we could very well have an entry into the “Special Event” section of next years’ CBAA Awards.

On behalf of all of us here at Phoenix FM I would like to extend my most sincere thanks to everyone who have helped shape this station into what we are today.

Samual Harrison
President