“We’re tickled pink!” Tamworth community radio station lands political scoop of the year

L-R: 88.9FM CEO George Frame, Barnaby Joyce, Matt 'Macca' MacCarthy and Pauline Hanson. Image supplied.

A Tamworth community radio station has found itself the centre of national attention, gazumping Australia’s commercial media heavyweights to land one of the biggest political scoops of the year.

This morning, high-profile politicians Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson joined 88.9FM Mornings host Matt ‘Macca’ MacCarthy for a live in-studio chat.

It was during Macca’s program that Joyce – the former Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader – confirmed his defection to join Hanson’s One Nation party.

“There will be some hurt in this decision, and I understand that,” he said. “[But] working with people such as Pauline, I think I have a fellow traveller, and I have great respect for the work Pauline has done.”

As Macca tells Radio Today, Joyce loves the local area, loves Australia and is a huge supporter of community radio.

“It was an honour to be respected enough to break one of the biggest political decisions, and all from a modest community radio station in Barnaby’s electorate.”

Macca says the station has worked hard to build relationships with local, state and federal politicians over the years.

“So when we received a message over the weekend that Barnaby wanted to come in, we jumped at it, hoping it would be the coveted announcement the nation has been waiting for. And it was!”

Macca admits it was huge surprise to see that Senator Hanson had come along as part of the presentation.

“I was like, ‘Hang on a second, this is big stuff!’”

“We’ve been trying to pry a decision from Barnaby like every other journo in the southern hemisphere, so we were tickled pink to get the gig!”

“It was all systems go and the whole 88.9 team sprang into action like we were ready to put the first man on the moon!”

88.9FM CEO George Frame says the reaction from listeners and across social media was overwhelming.

“Barnaby and Pauline requested this national  announcement be made from Tamworth, to reflect the importance that community radio plays a major part in regional areas. Plus, our reach on iHeart and steaming on Facebook coverage attracted over 5,000 views in the first 5 minutes and gave it national coverage.”

“They both were determined to have us launch the event as we represent as a community station the heart of the region. It was a great honour.”

Macca says Joyce and Hanson have been quite politically aligned for some time now, and during today’s interview, they were both were quick to bring the conversation back to issues including the removal of net zero, cost of living and better support for farmers.