Adelaide’s Life FM announcers brave the elements to beat fundraising goal

Adelaide Christian radio station Life FM (107.9 FM) recently held its annual November fundraising appeal, and to prove their commitment to the cause, its flagship show hosts slept under the stars to kick start the week-long event.

Bec Spencer and Matthew Bajjali from Breakfast show Adelaide’s Good Taste Breakfast, Aiden Grant from Drive show Aiden in the Arvo and Mary-Anne (Maz) Maio from evening show The Takeover put their desire for the creature comforts aside to camp out the front of the Hendon studio, raising vital funds to keep the community radio station on the air.

Even though most had camped before, Maz never had, which prompted an idea to have the team camp out and only be afforded the essentials of a tent, mattress and pillow, amongst other creature comforts, once their individual fundraising goals were met by the public.

Part of the experience included an OB from outside the studio on the afternoon of the camp out, where Aiden challenged Maz to set up a tent (for the very first time) live on air.

Despite surviving the night and raising more for Life FM than any of the other announcers, Maz isn’t sure she’ll be setting up camp again anytime soon.

“I had a myriad of issues, including a broken tent pole (which resulted in a mad dash to Kmart!), a mattress which kept deflating overnight, and a lost set of keys, which meant I couldn’t get my pillow, sleeping bag and blanket from my car! I made do with what I could and it was an interesting experience to say the least, but I’m so glad I did it. Going on-air again the next day was another story though!”

For Bec, Matt and Aiden, the challenge wasn’t quite as drastic, but still took a toll on energy levels for the rest of the week on-air.

“The most challenging part was not imagining every bug, fox or cat attacking my swag as I tried to get to sleep!” laughed Bec.

“(We did the challenge because) it’s important for our listeners to see genuineness and authenticity from the team during appeals. Getting out of our comfort zone and putting ourselves out there in the form of a ‘challenge’ hopefully conveys our enthusiasm, care and passion in the vision and continuation of Life FM and its purpose.”

“I got maybe two hours in total of (broken) sleep and was a mess and became sick by the end of the week, but it was worth it,” said Maz.

“I go camping semi-regularly, so it wasn’t that big a deal, but I was more there to support those who weren’t much of the camping type. We’re a team and were all in it together,’ said Aiden.

“It was a fun experience. I don’t go camping much so I was very aware of all the outdoor noise, including someone blasting their car horn right outside my tent!” said Matt.

After the five-day on-air appeal, Life FM not only reached but exceeded its goal of $195,000 raised, with Adelaide givers collectively donating $208,000 and fully funding the future of the station, which aims to spread positivity and light across Adelaide and beyond.