Congratulations to everyone who made our first broadcast for 2008 a success. You’ve made some of the best shows I’ve heard on USUFM in three years!

Keep your ears to the ground for info on our industry night. Last year was a great night and we’ll have some more journos and DJs for you to pester and fawn over.

If you’re keen to get recordings of your show please email me with your timeslots and I will burn it onto CD for you and let you know how to pick it up.

Once again, on behalf of the SURG team, thank you for pulling together three weeks of fantastic student radio. All of us on the board look forward to catching up during the year and to our VERGE broadcasts in September.
Cheers,

Thomas Harris-Brassil
President
Sydney University Radio Group|SURG|

SURG will be giving all new members training in the use of our studio equipment, as well as a brief and informative discussion about defamation and other legal issues with broadcasting. This is a chance for you to get to know your exec better, meet other SURG members to discuss your show plans and to hit the ground running when it comes to using the gear in the studio. There will be pizzas provided.
This workshop is compulsory for all new members who have a live timeslot. It is highly recommended for old SURG members to come along too as we’ll have some more new equipment for you to try out.

Details:

• When — Monday, 3rd March, 6:30pm
• Where — Isobel Fidler Room, Level 2, Manning House

Please RSVP as soon as possible to me, via tomhb@surgfm.org , or give me a call on 0401 834 924.

A reminder that the main mode of contact is through our online mailing list. For instructions on how to add yourself to it, head to the ‘Contact’ page. If you’re not already on this list, please make sure you do it now, as we’ll no longer be sending emails directly to members. If you have any troubles joining the list, please get in touch with us via info@surgfm.org

SURG Members,

Happy New Year!

As your secretary, I have the exciting responsibility of welcoming you to another year of membership to the coolest (most vocal!) student group around, and to inform you all that our first broadcast of the year is just around the corner!

With O-Week only a little over a month away, the planning for our first broadcast of the year is in full swing.  Tom H-B and the exec have been slaving away throughout the holidays (what holidays?) to secure better equipment and better funding to set up 2008 as SURG’s biggest and brightest year yet. Unfortunately, we won’t be on air until after O-Week, so we’ll be filling the three days of O-Week with hands-on training, workshops and recording sessions. More info on that will be coming shortly.

Broadcast starts on Monday 3rd of March and runs for three weeks. If you are interested in applying for a slot on-air then we need you, yes, you to email us with:

- your availability
- an outline of your show
- title
- description
- names of guests (if any)
- preference for 1 or 2 hour slot
- day/time preference
- mobile number

Slots fill up fast, so please get back to me asap.  You also need to be aware that the more developed the program plan, the more likely it is to be put in a prime-time position.. so think hard!  Your program can be as creative as you like, and feel free to diverge away from the conventional music-and-chat format.  If you have some ideas for panel discussions, interviews, ‘Live at the.. Bernard Eldershaw Room’.. or whatever you think would float boats around campus, we would love to have it on air.. just explain it first in your application.

This semester we’ve also put together a free beer competition supported by Explorer Publishing and Fishrock Beer. There’ll be more information coming later, but suffice to say there will be a few opportunities to score slabs of beer for very little/no effort at all, so make sure you get your friends listening to USUFM.

And another thing, 2008 is a new year (who woulda thought?), so all members will need to renew their membership.  This can be done at the SURG O-Week caravan. For this you will need an ACCESS card. No ACCESS card = No membership. In the long term, no ACCESS card means no USUFM, so support your student union and take advantage of all the benefits that being a paid-up member of USU brings.

For more info or to contact any other members of the Exec, check out the website at www.surgfm.org AND don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Looking forward to hearing your ideas!
–
Samantha Hutchinson
Secretary
Sydney University Radio Group|SURG|

The Sydney University Radio Group bids a heartfelt farewell to the retiring members of the 2007 Executive team.

Alice McClymont (President), Sophia Gerakios (Treasurer) and Michael Bridge (Public Relations Officer) leave the team after having spent the last 12 months devoting their weekends, weeknights, spare time and sanity to SURG and the University of Sydney Union’s clubs and societies programme.

Alice has been a member since 2005 and leaves the Executive team after two years spent slogging it out behind the scenes and on the air. We will (hopefully) lean on Alice’s know-how in pre-production studios during the lead up to our broadcasts in 2008 and hope she stays on-air throughout our broadcasts.

Sophia has been a member since 2006 and spent 2007 balancing the SURG books, interviewing internationally famous musicians and also managing a variety of other clubs and societies. She’s perhaps the hardest working USU club executive, and we’ll miss the energy she brings to her work at SURG.

Mike has also been a member since the beginning of 2006 and leaves a legacy of bright green t-shirts. Mike’s laid-back approach will need to be replaced somewhere along the line, because I’ll probably go mental with stress if there isn’t somebody chilling out nearby.

Thank you once again guys for all of the hard work you’ve put in over this last year. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with you all.

Alongside the three departures, SURG also welcomes three new faces and two old ones to the executive team.

Annie Mackay, secretary since April 2007, moves into the position of Vice President. Nick Pound, a long term presenter on USUFM takes on the role of Treasurer. Another long term presenter and member, Samantha Hutchinson, has taken charge of the duties of society Secretary. Finally, we welcome first year student Robert Jones, who will be making his mark around campus and Sydney in his role as Public Relations Officer.

We are all looking forward to broadcasts in 2008, the possibility/probability of a permanent studio at the Footbridge Theatre and of course, the free booze at Hermann’s Bar.

Cheers,

Thomas Harris-Brassil
President

Sydney University Radio Group|SURG|

As our AGM is being held tomorrow and a new executive team will be elected, the 2007 team have prepared an annual report for 2007. This, along with future reports, can be found on the Annual Report page, accessible from the links at the top of the page.

The Annual General Meeting of the Sydney University Radio Group will be held on Wednesday October 3rd at 5:45pm in Meeting Room 1 of the Holme Building.

At this meeting current board members will report on the past year’s progress and events and answer any questions. If you have any specific items you would like to put on the agenda, please submit these in writing by October 1st via info@surgfm.org or amcc6682@mail.usyd.edu.au

Members will also elect office bearers for 2008. Positions open for nomination at this meeting are:

- President;
- Vice President;
- Treasurer;
- Secretary; and
- Public Relations Officer.

Please note that you are eligible for nomination and election ONLY if you have an ACCESS card and are already a full member of SURG. If you’re not yet a member of SURG but would like to participate in the AGM or nominate for elections, please get in touch with us ASAP.

Please send your nominations in by 5pm, 1st October. This must be done via email to info@surgfm.org or sms/call to 0437 030 469. Nominations will also be open at the meeting for the first 30 minutes if you wish to nominate on the night.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us on info@surgfm.org or you can also email Alice with any enquiries at amcc6682@mail.usyd.edu.au

The direct line to the studio is 9563 6136

You can host interviews, call your mates or do talkback.

If you’d like to call into the studio yourself, wait until a song comes on and dial the number. With any luck, the host will pick up, have an off-air chat and then put you over the airwaves.

SURG has put together a daily news team who will provide a midday bulletin of current affairs, campus news and weather.

Tune in at midday on weekdays for the latest from the MECOSOC journalists as they keep Sydney Uni informed and entertained with their unique take on what’s happening around Uni, Sydney and the world.

This is another joint project between the Sydney University Radio Group |SURG| and the Media and Communications Society |MECOSOC| and hopefully the beginning of increasingly close ties between the two groups.

USUFM is back! We’ll be on-air again from the 27th of August until the 16th of September.

Our NEW frequency is 91.5fm - roll those dials to the right…
Join the mailing list for news and updates, email Annie for timetabling questions, and head over to the Tech pages to read up on our new studio gear.