Broadcasting a radio program is harder than it sounds but a group of Year 9 students at Camden High School is filling the airwaves twice a week.

Student announcers Shannan E and Toni-Maree C, present a show during Monday and Friday lunch. The sound and music side is well taken care of by Joel W and Matt W.

It was the boys’ technical proficiency and the backing of school principal John Jarvis that led to the radio station’s launch in the school library last year.

Supervising teacher Ruth Kilpatrick said there had been plenty of students wanting to be involved but when it came to the reality of writing scripts and calculating timing, it turned some off. She limited her involvement when it came to putting the shows on air.

“They are perfectly capable of running it themselves,” she said of the core group.

Camden High is a big school with 1,170 students. The radio show is broadcast on 101.1FM and the school’s public address system. It entertains students with music, chat, school announcements, movie previews and interviews.

Shannan said they tried to get the students involved with segments such as singing bees and guess-the-sound competitions where they ventured into the quadrangle with wireless microphones.

The group interviewed writer Debra Oswald when she visited and they hoped to speak to the new school captains soon.

“We have definitely tried to make it different,” Shannan said.

Toni-Maree said she was “really shaky” at first but her confidence had grown.

Joel and Matt met in primary school and were about eight when they started mucking about with sounds and music. They said they were happy to be in the background but also trained new recruits to the radio station.