The funding was donated during a radiothon on-the-air radio campaign from August 16 to August 22 to fund new radio equipment for the 2WAY FM Hastings Community FM Radio Association.

The 2WAY FM 103.9 station broadcasts throughout the Hastings Valley and Greater Port Macquarie area from their studios in Cameron Street.

Vice president Steve Shields said the funding will go towards new equipment.

"It has been a huge success to update our equipment and the support of the community has been just fantastic," he said.

"The funding is going towards a new desk and control panel that we broadcast with. There has been a number of the committee and broadcasters working together for the radiothon.

"We just asked people if they would like to donate to keep us on air because our equipment is well over 20 years old, it gets used all-day everyday and it's starting to wear out.

"We had been noticing crackles in the sound and the wearing out of the slides on the panel. We are extremely pleased because it has been the most successful radiothon we have held and probably doubled the last one."

The radio station celebrated 30 years in 2016 after originally starting its first test transmissions from a caravan in Pappinbarra running on solar power. It was granted a permanent licence in 1992 becoming the one hundredth community radio station across the nation.

Over the years the studios have been located at Lighthouse Beach and on the grounds of Wauchope Hospital, before moving into a former croquet club at the current site and beginning transmissions there in 2006.

Mr Shields said community radio stations are a resource for many Australians and they should be preserved.

"We primarily cater for an older audience but we also have country music, we have a French show, a Spanish show and a Dutch show," he said.

"Most of the commercial stations have a set format, whereas we would probably play more niche music.

"We're live and local, we have people in the studio from 6am in the morning until probably midnight. We also keep music going through the night with a selection of popular music."

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