About 2PMQ 99.9 FM Rhema FM

2PMQ 99.9 FM Rhema FM

Overview

Rhema FM 99.9, call sign 2PMQ, is the Christian community radio station for Port Macquarie and the surrounding Mid North Coast of New South Wales. Broadcasting on 99.9 MHz FM, it is one of the family of independent Australian stations that carry the Rhema name — each owned and programmed locally, but sharing a common format of contemporary Christian music, short teaching and family-oriented segments, and a strongly local presence. The station describes its own purpose plainly: located in Port Macquarie and reaching throughout the Mid North Coast, it says Rhema 99.9 "changes lives, builds up families and influences communities in a positive way". Its published vision is to present and spread the message of Jesus Christ positively and attractively, and its mission is to broadcast Christian material that is relevant, inspiring and appealing while also challenging, alongside an active local presence supporting and participating in community organisations, events and activities. It operates as a non-profit community broadcaster from Rhema House in Hastings River Drive, Port Macquarie.

History

The Rhema name has a documented history that the Port Macquarie station shares. "Rhema" is the ancient Greek word for a spoken word or utterance, and the name was taken from New Zealand's Rhema network, whose flagship station made its first official broadcast in November 1978. In 1987, figures from the New Zealand organisation helped establish United Christian Broadcasters (UCB) to support similar stations in other countries, and UCB's Australian branch went on to help establish many local Christian stations, a large number of them bearing the Rhema name and logo as a condition of affiliation. Stations such as Rhema FM Newcastle, Rhema FM on the Central Coast and, in the neighbouring Manning and Great Lakes district, Rhema FM 106.5, all grew from that movement. In time UCB stepped back from its co-ordinating role to concentrate on its own Vision Radio Network, leaving each Rhema station fully independent and locally run; the stations remain connected to one another as members of Christian Media Australia, the peak body for Christian media.

The 1990s were the growth decade for that movement on the New South Wales coast: to take the nearest example, the Manning Great Lakes Rhema service began broadcasting as Radio Rhema in March 1994 on temporary licences, a typical path for UCB-assisted start-ups of the period, which commonly began with temporary community broadcasting licences before settling on their permanent frequencies.

The Port Macquarie service is one of the stations that has kept the Rhema name. Detailed published records of its earliest years are limited — the station does not prominently publish a first-air date in the sources available — but its presence in the district is well documented over a long period: regional arts and media directories have listed Rhema 99.9 at its Hastings River Drive address among the Mid North Coast's community stations for years, alongside neighbours such as 2WAY FM in Wauchope and Tank FM in Kempsey, and national program suppliers continue to list the station as an active outlet. What is clear from its own statements is continuity of purpose: a locally run Christian voice for the Hastings and Camden Haven districts, operated from its own premises, Rhema House.

Programming and Content

Programming on Rhema FM follows the format typical of the Rhema family of stations, loosely modelled on commercial radio presentation but infused with Christian content: contemporary Christian music makes up the bulk of the schedule, interspersed with short, widely accepted Christian segments of the kind exemplified by Focus on the Family, together with locally presented programs serving Port Macquarie listeners. The station's mission statement commits it to material that is "relevant, inspiring and appealing whilst also challenging", and its community-facing role shows in its support for local churches, community organisations and events, which the station treats as part of its broadcasting purpose rather than an add-on.

An example of the networked and syndicated content on the station is Messages of Hope, the Lutheran Media program carried by stations across Australia: its published station guide lists Rhema 99.9 Port Macquarie taking the program on Sundays at 8:30am and throughout the week. That combination — local announcers and local community involvement, contemporary Christian music, and a layer of syndicated teaching and encouragement segments — is the standard Rhema pattern described by Wikipedia's overview of the Rhema stations, and it is the pattern the Port Macquarie station's own vision and mission statements describe.

Audience and Reach

Rhema 99.9's audience is the Christian community — and the Christian-curious — of Port Macquarie and the wider Mid North Coast. The syndicated program guide that lists the station maps its listening area town by town: Port Macquarie itself and Settlement City, Lake Cathie, Bonny Hills, North Haven, Laurieton and Dunbogan in the Camden Haven, Kew and Kendall, Wauchope and its hinterland villages such as King Creek, Beechwood, Telegraph Point, Rollands Plains, Long Flat and Comboyne, and north to Kempsey, South West Rocks, Crescent Head, Hat Head, Gladstone, Frederickton and Sancrox, with newer Port Macquarie growth areas such as Sovereign Hills and Thrumster also named. That is a substantial regional footprint across the Hastings, Camden Haven and Macleay districts. As a community station, Rhema 99.9 is not measured in commercial ratings surveys and publishes no audience figures; its reach within its niche rests on being the district's dedicated Christian service, present in the community through local events and organisations as well as on the dial.

Digital Presence

The station's website is at rhema999.com.au, its main digital home for program information, station news and contact details. One caution for listeners following older printed or web directories: a number of older listings give the station's web address as rhema.fm, a domain that today belongs to a different station in the Rhema family, Rhema Wide Bay 105.1 in Queensland — the Port Macquarie station should be reached through rhema999.com.au. The station's details also appear in national radio and program directories, including the syndicated program listings that confirm its current schedule, and its following is sustained in the conventional community-radio way through its presence at local events and through church and community networks across its listening area.

Ownership and Organisation

Like every station in the Rhema family, Rhema FM Port Macquarie is independent: Wikipedia's account of the Rhema stations stresses that each is run and programmed locally, whatever shared branding and history they have. The Port Macquarie station operates as a non-profit organisation — business directories categorise it as a radio station, religious centre and non-profit — and it supports itself in the usual community broadcasting way, through listener and member support, sponsorship and donations, publishing an Australian Business Number, 58 497 637 679, in its contact details. Since United Christian Broadcasters gave up its co-ordinating role to focus on its own broadcasting, the station's link to the wider Rhema family is through shared identity and through Christian Media Australia (formerly the Association of Christian Broadcasters), the peak body to which Rhema stations and UCB's Vision Radio Network both belong. Day-to-day, the station works from Rhema House in Port Macquarie, where its office hours have been listed as 9am to 5pm, Tuesday to Friday.

Contact and Availability

Rhema FM can be heard on 99.9 FM across Port Macquarie and the Mid North Coast, and online via rhema999.com.au. The station's home is Rhema House, 198 Hastings River Drive, Port Macquarie, New South Wales. Postal correspondence goes to PO Box 5725, Port Macquarie NSW 2444. The station can be telephoned on 02 6584 1246, and its published fax number is 02 6584 9388. Office hours have been listed as 9:00am to 5:00pm, Tuesday to Friday.