The ABC: ABC South East NSW Bega, New South Wales, Australia
By Team MavEtJu on 31-Aug-18. Waypoint GA12699

The ABC: ABC South East NSW

The radio station went on the air in 1956, through transmitters at Bega and Cooma. The call-sign was 2BA/CP.

The staff at the Bega ABC office in those days consisted of manager/rural reporter, Fraser Brown and news editor, Herb Ford. Col Kermode was a casual sports contributor. There’s not a lot recorded about those early days, unfortunately. Broadcasts consisted of a breakfast program with news bulletins at 0630 and 0730 and another two bulletins of an evening at five to six and again at five to seven. They operated out of space rented in the Mumbulla Shire council offices in Bega Street. The main transmitter was sited just south of Bega, with a smaller, less powerful transmitter at Cooma. After going to air out of the Shire council offices, the ABC moved into the Co-Op building in Bega above what is now the Woolworths Supermarket and in 1998 moved into studio’s upstairs in the Roy Howard Building on Ayers Walkway Bega.

Collating the weather information of the day was dependent on a telex machine, which spewed out paper and regular reports. ABC South East also established a relationship with HMAS Albatross in Nowra to provide weather information when the telex machine packed it in from time to time. Current Rural Report Keva Gocher who started with the station in 1992, remembers lugging around a big 10kg reel to reel tape recorder in the field to interview farmers and rural identities. Her razer blade and splicing tape never far away for editing. These day’s interviews on the road are recorded digitally into a machine the size of pencil case and edited through a computer program.

"ABC South East has covered many stories that have touched the lives of people in the south east. We’ve watched the region grow, develop and change.

Our programs and news reports have covered fishermen lost at sea, the Thredbo landslide disaster, the south east forests dispute, fires, floods and drought. We’ve reported on shocking murders, child abductions, pollution, changing politics and the success of people, clubs and organisations."

For more historical information, please visit the About ABC South East NSW page on the ABC website.

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