Commencing broadcast in the early 2000s, it was the first community radio station in Glen Innes.

But station manager David Donnelly said it wasn’t an easy road.

An attempt to start a station 30 years ago failed due to lack of local level support.

However, in 1997 Deepwater managed to establish a community radio.

But with a small population and budget, the station struggled.

In the early 2000s volunteers approached the Glen Innes Severn Council.

Glen Innes sort community support and had a number of meetings in the Community Centre and Services Club.

“Everyone could have given up then because it was only two or three people from Deepwater, myself and a few others at those meetings,” he said.

“Fortunately, it eventually all came together with a lot of hard work from volunteers.”

Mr Donnelly said after a while it made sense to run all programs from Glen Innes and transmit to Deepwater – which remains the procedure today.

“It just wouldn’t all work without the 30 volunteers we have and all the volunteer presenters,” he said.

Station president Neville Campbell said community radio stations like 2cbd FM were one of the last forms of media left to inform the community of what’s happening locally.

“Community radio is taking over, even from the bigger stations in Inverell, where they only do three hours a day of local stuff before switching back to talkback from Sydney,” he said.

Mr Donnelly said 2cbd FM covers 12 to 15 hours per day – compared to only around three hours of local content by the syndicated stations.

“For so many people it’s really important to be able to turn on that radio and say ‘oh that’s Neville on this morning’, and ring up and request a song … it’s a real connection for the rest of the community for them’,” he said.

“Another great aspect of local radio is the benefit to our sponsors who can get a leg up into business without a huge cost.

“We are also a mechanism to let the local community know when there is an event on.

“We provide, I believe, a very, very important component to the local community.”

But, like any industry, change is imminent – and these days changes usually involve technology.

“Digital is where all the metro stations are moving but it’s going to take years to get through to community radio,” Mr Donnelly said.

“It will be a massive transition when it happens … but really for community radio to continue it’s important for the federal government supports it.”

The next major project for the team will be the development of a new transmission site on Carpenters Hill.

“Council has required us to move from where we are and we’re looking at a well-advanced plan for a transmission site on carpenters hill,” Mr Donnelly said.

“Currently we’re on low power and were not getting out to the district adequately.

“The new arrangement will allow us to lift our broadcasting power.”