Young people’s shot at spinning tunes and having a voice

Sitting in the One FM studio, Cadence Verhoef looks every bit at home behind the mic and in front of the panel sliders.

Pre-recording her two-hour show about youth homelessness, you wouldn’t know it’s the 17-year-old’s first time presenting on the radio.

She was one of a handful of teenagers and early 20-somethings who were given a spin on One FM during their Youth Matters program, which helps get young people involved in community radio.

Their shows — which will cover homelessness, youth issues, animal welfare through to lighter shows and people spinning and discussing their favourite tunes — will go to air over the next few months.

“I wanted to come on to be able to talk about something that I guess I'm passionate about. I'm passionate about other people my age that have to go through this and like have to see this happen and see this happen to their friends,” Cadence said.

“I've personally seen it happen to my friends. I've had friends who are homeless or friends have gone to rehab to mental hospitals, things like that.”

She said she’d loved having the chance to come on radio and talk about the things which mattered to people her age, and had loved grappling with the technical side of radio production, letting her spin some Green Day and Paramore tracks.

“That's what really upset me a lot is that it's real life and a lot of people go, Oh, that doesn't actually happen. It does. That's why I wanted to talk about it,” she said.

One FM presenter and Youth Matters co-ordinator Di Hunter said the program aimed to get young people on community radio to give them a voice.

“When I was younger, I wish I had that opportunity to be able to develop it, you know, I’ve been on the radio for 14 years, and I've wished that I had known about it years ago because it's just a golden opportunity to come in,” she said.

She said as well as looking great on a resumé, the program let people cross paths with people they might not have been able to in their day-today lives and have a different experience engaging with their community.

The pre-recorded programs will be spread out over the next couple of months from 3pm to 5pm on One FM 98.5, with another Youth Matters program running in December. Check out the One FM Facebook page for more details.

Skilling up: Taylee Branch and Cadence Verhoef (front), with Summer Hunter, Ella Thomas and Di Hunter (middle) and Jason Welsh, Gary Donohue, Liam Attoni, Abbie Doherty-Reeve and Angie Berry (back row) taking part in the OneFM training course.