HAWKESBURY Radio has breached a significant condition of its licence – encouraging community participation, according to the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
After two complaints were made to it last year, ACMA investigated and said “taking close to a year to finalise membership applications presents an unacceptable barrier to participation” and that in the year looked at, the station received 26 membership applications but only seven were approved.
While the station co-operative chairman Paul Rasmussen said the complainants were knocked back because they refused to meet with the board, ACMA said the practice of having the board meet applicants before deciding on their suitability was “unreasonable” and “overly restrictive”.
Mr Rasmussen said ACMA had not said what would happen now, only that it would be in contact.
He said ACMA was only involved because of “a very small group of people who are determined to make life hard for the station”.
Member John Bryant said he hoped the ACMA action would “rid the station of the four directors who have held control for the past 15 years”.
