The talents of commercial radio students from Charles Sturt University will be heard throughout the Central West town of Bathurst this week, as they broadcast 24 hours a day from the top of Mount Panorama on 24 Hour Power 103.9FM.

The week-long independent and professional broadcast coincides with the PROCAR 24 Hour Race on 16 – 17 November, which will utilise the station to broadcast race commentary to spectators over the weekend. 

The team of 17 third year students, who were the first students in the School of Communication commercial radio course in 2000, has been responsible for the operation, marketing, presentation and format of the radio station. 

All week the station will broadcast a mix of adult-orientated rock, designed to attract the 25 to 50 age demographic, in addition to providing local news updates and competitions – the staples of any commercial radio station. 

Operations manager Rachel Stegeman said the team has worked hard for the past few months to build the station from scratch for their week-long broadcast. 

“We don’t have a huge amount of resources, so for a small team it’s been a very big learning curve to work well with what we have got, but it’s been very beneficial for us,” she said.

“Starting this radio station from scratch has certainly been eye-opening.”

Commercial radio lecturer and well known radio announcer Bob Hughes, who is supervising the venture, said the broadcast would provide real life industry experience for the students.

“They have established a program manager , promotions coordinator, presenters, news editors – they are working on all aspects of running a commercial radio network. Coordinating and programming the actual broadcast is just on component of their work, they are also working on the organisational side as well,” he said.