{"id":489477,"date":"2026-02-19T05:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T05:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489477\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T05:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T05:43:09","slug":"when-the-power-of-local-radio-goes-well-beyond-the-signal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489477\/","title":{"rendered":"When the power of local radio goes well beyond the signal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                    <img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-3621.png\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Last week, Blair Woodcock was given a stark reminder of why the power of local radio goes well beyond just the signal.<\/p>\n<p>Driving into the Victorian regional city of Bendigo during a work trip, SCA\u2019s Head of Regional Content found himself surrounded by scenes of devastation from the recent bushfires.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlong stretches of highway, scorched trees and blackened ground still frame the landscape,\u201d Woodcock posted to LinkedIn. \u201cThe scale of it is hard to ignore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnly weeks ago, homes and properties were devastated across the region. In the middle of it all, our local radio transmitter was also destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the emergency, local radio stations united as one to help each other out.<\/p>\n<p>When a fast-moving grassfire severely damaged two transmission sites on Mount Alexander, local community station Phoenix FM and Vision Australia Radio (Bendigo) <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/radioinfo.com.au\/news\/abc-and-sca-stations-off-air-as-fires-knock-out-the-mount-alexander-transmitter-site\/\">agreed to rebroadcast<\/a> ABC Local Radio\u2019s emergency coverage.<\/p>\n<p>Woodcock says \u201cThanks to BAI and our engineering teams, we were back on air within days. But even before that happened, the strength of local radio was already showing through.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Woodcock says across the market, people stepped up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLong-standing Triple M Breakfast host Bryan Coghlan returned early from leave. With no transmitter yet, he leaned on what mattered most, his connection to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStories of hardship and support were shared through our social channels when people needed information and reassurance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one had to do it. They did it because they knew it mattered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA genuine thank you to everyone across the Bendigo market who showed up when it counted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, Blair Woodcock was given a stark reminder of why the power of local radio goes well&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[6972,64,63,247396,247397,134,220116,136,247398,15079,45262,247399,247400],"class_list":["post-489477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-abc-radio","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blair-woodcock","tag-bryan-coghlan","tag-entertainment","tag-hit-network","tag-music","tag-phoenix-fm","tag-sca","tag-triple-m","tag-triple-m-bendigo","tag-vision-australia-radio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}