For 90 years, 2LM has been the voice coming from radios in Northern Rivers homes, cars and workplaces, and at times of disaster, a vital connection for people needing help.

The historic station celebrated its 90th birthday today with former and current staff gathering at its Goonellabah studios to remember nine decades of local broadcasting.

The celebrations began with a special three-hour breakfast program hosted by Ruth Woodhams, featuring greetings and memories from staff, former presenters and listeners stretching back through the decades.

Among the highlights was the return to the studio of Neil Marks, who hosted 2LM breakfast for 17 years, and former presenter Kenny Woodhams.

Kenny also happens to be Ruth’s husband.

Ruth Woodhams behind the mike in the 2LM studio, with station manager Callum Jones and local news stalwart Jenny Burgess.

The pair met at 2LM after Kenny arrived at the station only about a month before Ruth. He presented the afternoon sports program and the friendship eventually became a marriage.

Ruth began planning the 90th anniversary broadcast months ago, putting the word out to former staff and watching the list of contributors grow as one former employee led her to another.

“I didn’t know what to expect, who to expect, or anything,” she said.

“Then these people just started coming in, one after the other. It was lovely because, in 90 years, a lot of people have worked here.”

90 years of voices and memories

Back for breakfast broadcast: Kenny Woodhams and Neil Marks

The morning produced stories from an era when regional radio stations were considerably bigger operations and announcers were often local celebrities.

But Ruth said the importance of local radio was demonstrated much more recently during the catastrophic 2022 Lismore floods.

With Facebook open in the studio, messages began arriving from people trapped by the rapidly rising water, including families who had made it onto their roofs.

2LM broadcast their locations while local people with boats responded.

“You’d be putting that over the radio,” Ruth recalled.

“Next thing you know, they’d be saying, ‘Yep, rescued’.”

It was an extraordinary example of the role local radio could play when normal lines of communication were overwhelmed.

For news editor Jenny Burgess, today’s celebrations brought back memories stretching to 1984, when she first joined 2LM.

Jenny, believed to be the station’s longest-serving current employee, has left and returned several times over the decades, including to have children and work elsewhere in local media.

Her memories demonstrate just how involved radio station staff once became in community life.

“We were really out in the community doing things all the time,” she said.

There were sailing races and indoor cricket matches, milking cows during Casino Beef Week and even building a 2LM raft to compete in the infamous pub raft race.

Former program manager and breakfast presenter Mark Watson remembered a station employing about 26 or 27 people during his time there.

Technology and networking have dramatically changed regional radio since then, but he said its greatest strength remained the relationship between a presenter and the person listening at home.

“You become part of people’s families,” he said.

“People have invited us into their homes. It’s probably one of the biggest things about radio.”

‘It gives community a voice’

Special guests: Lismore MP Janelle Saffin and Ballina Shire Mayor Sharon Cadwallader.

Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin said 2LM had always been about community.

“It represents community. It gives community a voice,” she said as special guests along with staff past and present gathered for birthday cake and champagne in the station boardroom.

“We live in a really diverse community … but you manage to give voice to the whole community, and I think that’s a really important thing.”

Ballina Shire Mayor Sharon Cadwallader also attended and paid tribute to the station’s contribution.

“You bring that balance, I think, to the airwaves, which is something really, really important,” she said.

“Thank you to everybody that’s involved in bringing this to our community. You’re very much valued, and I think 90 years is worth celebrating.”

Among the former staff returning for the occasion was 84-year-old Peter Crawford, who spent about a decade at 2LM and recalled an era of major outside broadcasts, including broadcasting from the showground for days at a time.

“The station to me was outside,” he said.

“We did a lot.”

He also remembered the station’s involvement in community appeals and the many announcers who passed through its doors.

“I had 10 wonderful years at 2LM,” he said.

“This station has survived, and the other stations have survived. Just stick with it, work hard.”

Looking to the future

Celebrated former staff, Robyn Ross, Peter Crawford and Mark Watson.

Regional radio looks very different from the industry Peter, Jenny and Mark remember.

The large local staffs have shrunk, technology has transformed broadcasting and much of the programming heard outside 2LM’s local breakfast show is now networked.

But 2LM is adapting too.

In recent months the station along with its sister station 2ZZZ FM have begun live streaming its local programs, taking the familiar voices from its Goonellabah studios well beyond the reach of traditional radio signals.

It meant listeners around Australia and overseas could tune in online to Ruth Woodhams’ remarkable three-hour birthday broadcast, sharing the stories, voices and memories of 90 years of 2LM.