RADIO Equal Network has launched a Go Fund Me appeal to keep its doors open and opportunities for people living with disabilities to participate in their program and to self represent.

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Until now the radio has been funded by its founder Chloe Reading and as the station celebrates its first birthday it also faces an uncertain future.

Ms Reading told News Of The Area, “Going forward we either crowd fund or lose the radio.”

In an eleventh hour bid, Radio Equal Network has set up the Radio Equal Voice Appeal to attempt to raise the much needed funds to see the network remain open and continue to provide the free service for people with disabilities and special needs.

Ms Reading said inclusion matters.

“There is no such thing as normal and no such thing as perfect and work with what you have and until you find that talent you don’t necessarily know what it is.

“We have applied for a National Disability Insurance Agency grant and while we wait for the outcome in April we don’t want to sit on our hands in cas that doesn’t come through,” she said.

Closing its doors would mean closing the opportunities for training locals with special needs in the radio industry.

A management spokesperson for the station said, “Radio Equal Network builds confidence and can be a start to a great career in radio.”

Part of the current programs on offer include a day program for short term respite for people living with disabilities to learn all aspects of radio broadcasting.

Ms Reading said, “We have thirty one participants and announcers and this is set to increase through our day programs and we would love to expand.”

A participant of the Network with a vision impairment said, “Hundreds of local Coffs Harbour residents living with disabilities will be left without a day program where they actually learn a skill, left without a voice, left without importance.”

Information on the Radio Equal Voice Appeal can be found on the network’s website.
www.radioequalnetwork.com/donate

By Sandra MOON