Reactivating Radio Active
The mammoth fundraising efforts of Radio Active are paying off.
In May, a Givealittle page was launched, seeking $88,600 to cement the Wellington station’s future – and with more than a month to go before its appeal closes, the organisers are well over halfway to their goal.
Now the station is holding a fundraiser next weekend to push on towards that target.
Radio Active began as Victoria University’s student station in 1977.As strong supporters of local music, its staff helped launch the music careers of acts such as Trinity Roots, Shihad, The Phoenix Foundation, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Fly My Pretties, and The Black Seeds.
Trinity Roots member Warren Maxwell says his group is putting together ‘‘something a bit different’’ to perform at this gig. He says Radio Active has always been really supportive of New Zealand music, crediting it with a lot of Trinity Roots’ success. ‘‘There always seemed to be a real community sense about Radio Active.’’
Station director and Radio Active Charitable Trust chairman Ross Steele says it has built up an audience of 45,000 weekly listeners over four decades of broadcasting.
It is ‘‘very gratifying’’ to see the support people are giving to Radio Active – both financially and emotionally, he adds.
Loop Recordings founder Michael Tucker is organising the show because he ‘‘couldn’t imagine Wellington without’’ Radio Active.
He says Radio Active is ‘‘culturally crucial’’ to Wellington because it is critical to the city’s arts community. It also offers a great platform to ‘‘grow future stars – music or newsreaders’’.
Radio Active was the first radio station to broadcast on the FM frequency when it was introduced to New Zealand in 1981. It then became one of the world’s first stations to broadcast online in 1997.
"There always seemed to be a real community sense about Radio Active."
Trinity Roots' Warren Maxwell