National Report on the
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- WAGES / HOURS : TRAINING
- Top End Regional Overview
- TEABBA Chairman
STUDIO EQUIPMENT : Technics RS-TR232 double audio cassette player/recorder, JVC HR-D210EA, VHS video player/recorder, JVC RX-150 Tuner/Amplifier, JVC monitor/receiver, 2 x Arista 20 watt, 8 ohm, indoor speakers, Shure SM58 Dynamic microphone, Sony MS4 SVHS camera, Velbon D-700 Tripod, Marantz portable cassette recorder. WAGES / HOURS : TRAINING : Geoffrey withdrew BRACS cert ‘96 Previous Operators : Tommy Morton - BRACS cert graduate ‘94 Geoff Lowe NEEDED : Urgent Matters Install new gear in new BRACS room Find new BRACS operator 97/8 equipment planned To be redetermined with new operator TOP END REGION
Top End Regional Overview This region covers the whole Top End of the Northern Territory as far south as Lajamanu in the north Tanami Desert. It takes in an original 23 BRACS communities - currently expanding to 25 (including Gapuwiyak since 1994, and now Borroloola), with 5 or more aspirant communities - and extends over three ATSIC Regions and more than 12 language groups. BRACS communities in this region have a unique support structure and broadcast voice through TEABBA (Top End Aboriginal Bush Broadcasters Association) which has an office and radio network hub studio in Darwin. TEABBA pioneered the regional BRACS radio network model which BRACS co-ordination units are now trying to establish all around the country. Originally founded in June 1989 to provide a political voice and administrative support for the newly emerging BRACS operations in the Top End, there being no pre-existing indigenous media association in the region to take on this role, TEABBA commenced broadcasting as Radio Rum Jungle from the Batchelor College Campus, 80 km south of Darwin, where many (still active) community broadcasters (“the Legends of TEABBA”) were then studying for the Associate Diploma in Broadcasting and Journalism. With the addition of a Poul Kirk 12 channel desk and a telephone interface provided by the ABC, they broadcast a multi-lingual service to the local community on the BRACS unit which had been supplied to the college for training purposes, and went out, on a time-share basis with the ABC, on the HF shower (shortwave) frequency transmitted from Katherine. Part of the programming was provided by BRACS communities, acting as correspondents, telephoning in local stories which were then broadcast over the whole area. With the move to their first Darwin studios in Rapid Creek, TEABBA established a full-time service to BRACS communities in the region through a spare audio channel on Imparja’s satellite transponder. This had been agreed to in principle at a meeting in Nhulunbuy in 1992, but access to a permanent 10 khz program line from Darwin to Imparja in Alice Springs was now possible at an initial cost of $29,000 per annum. This cost was reduced to $18,000 per annum in early 1995 with provision of an ISDN CODEC (Prima 110) from the National Indigenous Radio Service (NIRS). The first BRACS satellite broadcast was inaugurated by Frank Djirrimbipilwuy from Galiwinku in June 1994, using a little Tandy four channel mixer and reporter’s telephone link to source his programme to the network. Radio programming is now sent on a regular rostered basis from five BRACS community studios and Kormilda College over ordinary dial-up 3khz phonelines (at a community cost of $3.80 per hour) to the TEABBA studio in Darwin, from where it is sent by CODEC and ISDN line down to CAAMA and Imparja in Alice Springs and up over the Optus B3 satellite to 29 or more retransmission sites in the Top End and an estimated audience of 16,000. The service can be picked up anywhere in the Central RCTS footprint (or by authorised decoders outside it), can be relayed on the NIRS network to seven other indigenous radio stations and up to 130 community stations nationally, and continues to be receivable on shortwave right around the world. TEABBA commissioned the development of the McCubbin 8 channel mixer from EAV Technology in Melbourne in 1995 specifically for cost effective upgrade of BRACS radio studios under the Revitalisation Strategy. As phonelines and interfaces are installed in more BRACS units this network will continue to expand its community programme source capability from the 10 now connected to a potential 25 or more, and with the addition of CODECs that can increase the bandwidth available over an ordinary phoneline up to 7 khz or more, its sound quality will also improve, though TEABBA have yet to hear any complaints on these grounds from community listeners who appear to value the service highly for its local relevance and indigenous language content, regardless of the music quality. TEABBA maintained the services of a technician, Evan Wyatt, from 1993 - 1996 to carry out repair, maintenance and upgrade work on BRACS facilities and run a technical workshop on TEABBA premises with a trainee from 1995. He carried out the BRACS Revitalisation survey of Top end communities for TEABBA in 1994 and tendered to carry out the upgrade for the communities, who initially received their BRS funding direct. It appears that not all BRS funds allocated to communities ended up being spent on upgrade of production or broadcast facilities or any on training. Despite repeated calls from TEABBA Board, the BRACS Working Party, and even the national ATSIC Broadcasting section, for Top end Revitalisation funds to be administered through TEABBA in their entirety, according to the model implemented elsewhere in the country, this has still never eventuated, simply, it seems, because of personal and historical differences between personnel in the Darwin ATSIC Office and TEABBA management in previous years. This outrageous and paternalistic situation has stymied TEABBA’s efforts to carry out their proper tasks on behalf of their membership and has resulted in, at best, a fragmented implementation of the Revitalisation program in the Top End, but more than that, I’m afraid to say, it seems that there has been some extraordinary wastage, even misappropriation, of funding in this largest of all regions which the national Strategy as a whole could ill afford. Whatever financial management problems they may have had in the past, with good administrative practises in place and appropriate monitoring by ATSIC field officers, BRS funds could have been, and still should be, directed through TEABBA, as the indigenous incorporation representing BRACS interests in the region and participating in the national allocation and consultative process for this funding. TEABBA is accountable to the communities through its Board of Directors, and has the local contacts and understanding of what community broadcasters want to achieve. Their technical department had good local knowledge, experience in the installation of community broadcast equipment and up to date technical information for each site. Substantial savings could have been made with the opportunity to plan the upgrade of the region as a whole and purchase equipment in bulk, indigenous trainees could have been employed to do the installations, local operators could have been given some technical training in simple fault finding and preventative maintenance and TEABBA could have co-ordinated a programme of on-site training to supplement the Batchelor Certificate course and develop operators’ skills with on-the-job radio and video production on the new equipment. Instead, funds that had been negotiated and applied for by TEABBA, as the appropriate representative indigenous media organisation for BRACS in the region, were awarded, without calls for tender, to Telstra for two consecutive years in 1995/6 and 1996/7, and to another private non-indigenous technician in 1997/8 - surely a flagrant breach of ATSIC’s own funding procedures and guidelines. I have been unable to obtain acquittals on either BRACS or BRS funding for the region, nor is my equipment data complete, but a prima facie comparison of the funds allocated, whether direct to the communities, or through Telstra, and the amount of upgraded production equipment in place gives me great concern that money has been squandered inappropriately or misdirected entirely. Telstra, I‘m told, spent $30,000 of the capital funding conducting their own technical surveys of the Jabiru and Nhulunbuy regions when TEABBA could have provided current information from their records. Their surveys betray more concern for transmission faults and an inventory of missing original equipment than the operator’s needs for improved broadcast and production capability. Quite large sums of BRS money were allocated to some communities where there has been little or no local broadcasting and even to some non-BRACS retransmission sites, with no evidence of outcome. BRS Training co-ordination funds were previously also split up and distributed arbitrarily equally ($6,128 each) to the communities who of course could achieve nothing individually in the way of profitable training outcomes with such a sum. This meant that TEABBA were denied any prospect of delivering training to the communities who therefore have had to rely solely on the occasional Batchelor Certificate course workshop (if they have students enrolled) for on-site training. Only this year have TEABBA received BRS training funds ($110,000) but major management problems have been frustrating this long awaited opportunity to finally begin to address the enormous task of co-ordinating training to communities. Close dialogue with Batchelor College staff is critical here to mutually support each other’s efforts in this endeavour. The TEABBA Board need to be really strong now to set the organisation back on its feet, fire up that legendary spirit and really exercise their power to support the community broadcasters of the Top End. TEABBA Chairman : Bangana Wunungmurra Manager : Ella Geia Bookeeper : Vera Ah Chee Broadcasters : Marla Lewin Phone : (08) 8948 3023 Fax: (08) 8948 3027 Postal Address : PO Box 41644 Casuarina NT 0811 FUNDING :
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