Become a CMTO Trainer

Emma Ramsay is a CMTO accredited and pathways trainer. She is able to deliver courses in Station playout software, creating social media content, presentation, and script writing. She has a TAE40110 Cert IV in training and assessment, a Bachelor of Art History and Theory and a Cert IV in Screen.

Martin Corben is a media professional with diverse experience - including radio, web, video, audio and social media. His interviews and programs involving a mix of high-profile personalities and regular citizens have helped make him an award-winning journalist and program maker. He currently trains broadcasters across Australia in key skills of interviewing, reporting and presenting and delivers media spokesperson skills training to professional and Government organizations. After starting his media career in 2 BOB FM Community Radio, he joined ABC Radio as a reporter before going on to present State and National rural current affairs programs. His interviews were also heard on national ABC current affairs programs AM and PM. Martin was Regional Manager and Breakfast presenter at ABC North Coast (NSW) from 1996-2006 (#1 in market) and later moved to 702 ABC Sydney to work as a multimedia reporter, on-air presenter and Content Director.  Later at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) he initiated a nationwide regional training program in film, radio and TV skills. He has international experience in South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam and Myanmar, with an emphasis in regional and Indigenous media content.    

Hannah Murray is the former Student Services and Compliance Officer at the Community Media Training Organisation. Hannah's passion for radio started in her teenage years, completing work experience at Newcastle’s NXFM (now Hit106.9), and studying Entertainment Industry Music and Live Theatre Production as part of her schooling at Hunter School of the Performing Arts. Hannah holds a Master of Arts Management, a Bachelor of Music in Classical French Horn Performance and a Certificate II in Live Production. Prior to joining the CMTO, she worked at the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) in various administration roles, finishing up her time there with the Community Radio Network (CRN). Hannah currently volunteers at Eastside Radio in Paddington, presenting her weekly show “The Gypsy Hot Club” on Monday evenings from 6:30 - 8:00pm. She is also the newest member of the Technorama Board. When not in the studio or the office, you can most likely catch Hannah performing on French Horn in Orchestras or Chamber Music Ensembles around Australia, or with her raucous Balkan, Gypsy, Klezmer band, Baltic Bar Mitzvah.  

Jason Velleley is the CMTO National Training Manager. Jason is an accomplished community broadcaster, with over 20 years of experience in community radio. He produces the nationally syndicated CRN program Aussie Music Weekly, and for many years provided in-house presenter training in his role as Training Coordinator at 2HHH FM. Additionally, Jason's 15+ years experience in business development and management in the banking and finance industry will be crucial to resource development for the Business Development Focused Training project. He is also an Accredited Trainer for the CMTO, with a Certificate IV in Assessment and Training.

Angela Catterns is a CMTO Trainer and Mentor.  Angela is a well-known Australian media veteran, having worked in radio, TV and film.  She has broadcast on every ABC radio network – Triple J, Local Radio, Networked Local Radio, NewsRadio, Radio National and Classic FM. She has also broadcast on commercial stations in Sydney and in Washington DC. She is a public speaker and MC and has made several popular podcast series.  She is the voice of the Sydney Opera House, presents a Qantas Inflight music channel, is an Ambassador for several charities, and has lived on and off in the Northern Rivers region since 1973.  

Gavin Ivey is a CMTO Trainer and Mentor. Gavin is an experienced Program Manager with a wealth of experience in the Arts, Media and Entertainment Industries. He was involved with Gadigal Information Service Aboriginal Corporation since 1994, and has held many off and on air roles during that time. Gavin’s experience in production coordination, outside broadcast coordination and program management is instrumental to his role as a CMTO Trainer and mentor.

Sharon Davis is a CMTO Trainer and Mentor. Sharon is a multi-award winning investigative journalist and producer. As well as work for ABC TV, Radio and Online, her programs have been broadcast around the world - on the BBC, major U.S. networks and throughout Africa. She has received both international and national recognition for work. She is a four-time winner of Australia’s most prestigious journalism award, the Walkley Award. She has also won awards at the New York International Radio Festival and Chicago's Third Coast Festival as well as the United Nations Media Peace Prize on four occasions. Last year her two programs for Australian Story, 'Into The Fog of War', co-produced with Helen Grasswill, were finalists in the Walkley Awards in two categories. Sharon’s radio career began at 2SER, and she is a passionate supporter of community radio. While living in South Africa after the first democratic election, Sharon helped set up community radio stations and training throughout the country. Sharon also lectures in journalism and media at the University of Technology in Sydney.  

Heli Newton is the former CMTO Pathways Manager and is a current Pathways Trainer and Hindenburg Specialist. Heli cut his teeth in community media by volunteering at FBi Radio in broadcasting music specialist programs and lending a hand in FBi's arts and audio production teams. Aside from his contributions to community radio, Heli is a multi-instrumentalist in various projects that has seen him to play at Dark Mofo (Tasmania), Gizzfest (Victoria), Soft Centre (Sydney) and at the Sydney Opera House for Vivid LIVE (Sydney).    

Ian Crouch is a CMTO Trainer and Mentor. Ian has been involved with radio for the past 25 years. After completing Grant Goldman’s Future School of Radio course, he joined 2CCR-FM at Baulkham Hills in 1993, preparing and reading the news for the breakfast program. Ian also served on the station’s Board of Management and headed up the Technical Committee, overseeing the design and construction of Studio 2 and became the Station Manager. Ian went to AFTRS and commenced his commercial radio career in 1996. He’s worked at i98fm Wollongong, 2DU/ZOO-FM Dubbo, 2NM/Power-FM Muswellbrook and 2HD/NEW-FM Newcastle, and was seconded to the Macquarie network (2GB/3AK) to cover the 2001 federal election. Ian moved back into Community Radio in 2010, taking up the full time positon of News Director at 2NUR-FM, Newcastle. Over the past 8 years at 2NUR, Ian has trained and mentored more than 300 students studying for their Communications Degree at the University of Newcastle, with many of those going on to start their careers in broadcast journalism. He says "Being a mentor is enormously satisfying. You have the great privilege of seeing your mentee grow and develop in skill and confidence, often going on to make a significant contribution to society through the media. Producers involved in the NFDS have a brilliant opportunity to cut their teeth on a major project, which in turn gets them national exposure and recognition. From there, the sky’s the limit!"

Lynda McCaffery is a CMTO Mentor. Lynda is the Principal Producer with Beautiful Productions, the business she established in January 2016 and operates from her home office and studio in Darwin.  Lynda is an award-winning Radio Producer who got her start as a volunteer with 2SER and now has about 30 years experience in the Australian radio industry in several tiers (Community, Indigenous, Commercial and Public) – and within the tertiary education – at Monash, RMIT and James Cook Universities and Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, with Honours in Australian History and Writing Women’s History from the University of Sydney, where she also completed a second major in Psychology and graduated in 1989; her History honours thesis was titled, Don’t Call me Gurley: Cosmopolitan Magazine in Australia, 1973-1988. In addition, she has a Master of Education from James Cook University conferred in 2007 and, a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment from Charles Darwin University, awarded in  2009.

Maddy Macfarlane is a CMTO Trainer and Mentor. Maddy has been broadcasting at PBS 106.7FM in Collingwood, Naarm (Melbourne), since completing her announcer training 2006. PBS is a music-focused station, and she adores how vibrant Melbourne’s music scene is. Maddy has also become a trainer at the station, teaching their announcer course, and a course for short audio-story production aimed at folk feeling excluded from, or misrepresented by, mainstream media. She really enjoy skill-sharing, and always try to create a safe learning space – I first accessed PBS when she moved to Melbourne from the country and was seeking a sense of community, and acknowledges that there are all sorts of barriers that can make accessing a long-standing organisation challenging. Maddy says "I have loved mentoring through the NFDS. This training program is a chance for learning and experimentation, as students find their story and find their own way to tell it. Mentoring is a way to hold up a mirror for the students, and to act as a bit of a safety net or sounding board, for them to really make their unique piece while putting a whole lot of new skills to the test. There’s no ‘right’ way to tell a story, so working with students for them to find their way to tell a story is extremely rewarding."  

Stephen Stockwell is a huge fan of community radio. He cut his teeth in the newsroom at 4ZZZ in Brisbane and spent about five years as a volunteer there in various facets of the station. Stephen stopped volunteering for a couple of years when he moved to WA to work with the ABC but since returning to Brisbane he has restarted his commitment with 4ZZZ by taking up a position on the board. He says, "I’m hugely passionate about helping people share the stories of the world around them and am really excited to be able to use he skills I’ve learnt to give others this opportunity. The NFDS is an amazing opportunity for producers to hone and polish their storytelling skills in a really supportive environment. It helps raise the bar for their work and means the stories they’ll continue to tell after the NFDS will be a really impressive step up."

Kim Stewart is a CMTO Trainer and Mentor specialising in Access and Inclusion.  Kim is a social worker and radio producer at 4ZZZ 102.1fm where she became the nations first Station Advocate for People With a Disability in 2017. She coordinates the Ability Radio Project (winner of the 2015 Tony Staley Award for Excellence in Community Broadcasting), which facilitates radio training groups for people with cognitive differences. With QUT students, she produces a weekly mental health and social justice radio show, Only Human, for Zed Digital. She is a is a Doctorate of Creative Industries candidate in the Digital Media Research Centre at QUT in Brisbane. Kim’s research includes developing disability awareness training for community radio stations in conjunction with the Community Media Training Organisation, to help facilitate the increased inclusion of people with a disability in the community media sector. She has being a part of many radio training and documentary making initiatives including Radio In Colour (2015), Get A Yes! (2016) and Women On The Edge (2017) recently won a Creative Sparks grant from the Brisbane City Council to bring together musicians, radio producers and homeless people in an artistic collaboration, called "Taking radio to the community". She has a website dedicated to providing resources to help community radio better include PWD: https://crisponairblog.wordpress.com/  

Ian Hill is a CMTO Trainer and Mentor. Ian began at 2SER-FM ‘76 whilst at Macquarie Uni and found the perfect combination of music, technology and storytelling. It became obvious he wanted to make radio his full time gig so after he graduated Ian moved into the roles of producing, presenting and duty station manager. His career involved working for 8TOP-FM as Production Manager/Trainer and then managed 6NR in Perth after a stint as media lecturer at the Academy of Performing Arts. Ian was Qld manager of ABC local radio for a number of years and after leaving Brisbane rebuilt ABC Coast FM & ABC North Qld. Then worked as an independent assessor for ABC broadcasters and trainer of new broadcasters for ABC Perth. During that time he worked internationally for Blue Danube in Austria, broadcasting nationally over 8 years and lecturing at a number of Universities. He added Cert IV assessor to his skills and has been training/mentoring community broadcasters for some years. Ian says "If I’d had the mentor scheme like this CMTO one for documentaries, it would’ve been a much quicker path to well produced radio packages. As it was I had to attend an external AFTRS course to gather the skills for my ABC national series. The opportunity to now work with an enthusiastic producer to help bring their story to air is a very rewarding process."