This year marks the 25th Jacaranda Festival hosted by Applecross Rotary — from our humble beginnings at Heathcote in 2000 and 2001 to the vibrant community celebration it has become today.

 

Capital Community Radio presenter, Geoff Smith, was our speaker at the 7^th October meeting, which was held at the Manning Nippers Clubrooms. Our numbers were down as a result of the changed venue but those who were present were rapt in Geoff’s presentation, which he did without the aid of notes or “screen time”. Geoff is used to ad libbing after being on air at Capital for 19 years.

 

Geoff said he was a little nervous presenting to us but at the same time, he felt comfortable because he is a volunteer at the station just the same as we are at Rotary. He has a love of community and radio.

 

Although Geoff will be 74 in a month’s time, he can remember how his love for music and his career in radio began.  He was selected for the primary school choir which was fortunate to win a competition which gave them a ten week, once a week “music for schools” program live on ABC Radio. The choir learnt the selected song the week before and presented it at the studios the following week. Geoff well remembers catching the No. 106 bus along Canning Highway.

 

Then he won a phone in competition around the same time and the prize was an on air visit to the 6IX studios for the afternoon children’s show with John Fryer. He recalls John’s very laidback approach to broadcasting, with his feet up on the desk and John leaving the studio in the middle of a record, returning with only seconds to go.

 

In 1986, when he was working for a finance company, Geoff came across Gordon O’Byrne who was the first FM Jock at 96FM. Gordon offered to arrange an interview and sound check with Geoff but the time wasn’t right. But the encounter with Gordon gave Geoff the confidence to consider it in the future.

 

In 2005 while playing at Mt Pleasant Bowling Club, Geoff met Peter Solomon, who was a presenter and subsequent life member of Capital Community Radio. Geoff became a producer, and a year later in 2006, made his first broadcast.

 

To this day, he is still nervous before a program starts, because there is always that fear of failure. But you have to have confidence in your own abilities. One way to quell the nerves, is to pin a picture of someone you love on the desk, and pretend you are only talking to them over the microphone.

 

Radio presenting is a unique occupation in that the person behind the mike has to make a conscious decision on what music to play. Each program at Capital has a different genre which limits selection and a presenter must be able to “synch” the music so that the tunes blend and complement one another. For example, he would not play Richard Clayderman followed by Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones, as they would clash. 

 

Over the years, Geoff has worked with LPs, CDs and now USBs which carry 999 songs. During his three hour Saturday Sports program, he uses two USB sticks for his general eclectic mix of tunes.

 

For every minute on air, it takes a minute and a half to prepare for the song as Geoff gives listeners the name of the track, the artist and some background such as the year it was recorded.   

 

Capital Community Radio is self-funded, although one of its major sponsors is John Hughes. The City of Melville owns the premises and is very generous to the station, although they like having the station manned from 6am to 11pm every day, because if there are any problems at Wireless Hill, the producer on duty will call to report it. Ongoing costs are new equipment and maintenance. Everyone at Capital is a volunteer and Geoff enjoys combining his love of music, volunteerism, effective communication and working with like-minded people to provide a service to listeners.

 

When President Margaret thanked Geoff for his work at Capital and his presentation to us, she and Geoff agreed that the station and Rotary need to work together more often to promote volunteerism and community service.