Hosted by Donna Abbey, known on-air as Donskibeat, Salt Peanuts, like its name suggests, offers listeners “a mixed bowl of nuts” every Tuesday night on local broadcaster SeymourFM.
Last year, Donna was able to showcase the program to a national audience after being invited by the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia to produce a six-part series in the lead up to International Jazz Day.
At the end of March this year, it was announced that Salt Peanuts had been picked up for national syndication, hitting the air waves of stations around the country across the Community Radio Network.
“That was very, very exciting, and very humbling,” Donna said.
“It’s a regional station, so it’s nice to think that there are other people who think it’s a quality show and a quality station.”
While she’s had experience volunteering with PBS and Triple R while she was living in Melbourne, Salt Peanuts is Donna’s first on-air program.
She said the show started after she volunteered to do a voice-over for the local broadcaster, and station stalwart Cynthia Lim said her voice suited the air waves.
“She was talking about the different spots that might be open and what sort of show I’d do, and I said I’d do a jazz show,” Donna said.
“That’s how it happened — as easy as that — which is, I think, the beauty of community radio: you don’t have to have had major experience.”
Her two years at the station have been a valuable learning experience, where she’s been mentored by a diverse range of people there.
She said one of her favourite aspects of the station was the “welcoming atmosphere of it”, as well as the freedom that community radio offered.
“With community radio, you can be so free in what you’re playing,” she said.
“There’s no, ‘you must have this’, you can have whatever you like.
“(SeymourFM) embraces whatever it is that you do.”
It was no question, for Donna, when she was deciding what genre of music she would feature.
Her love for jazz is like “a childhood thing”.
“I don’t know why, maybe I was a jazz musician in another life,” she said.
“The fact that it has that freedom, there’s such a broad range of music under the jazz tree ... there’s nothing set about it, and it’s timeless.”
Salt Peanuts is now being broadcast every Friday from 6pm to 7pm across the country, alongside its regular local slot on Tuesdays between 6pm and 8pm.
Donna said she hoped the show would continue to expand.
“As the show grows, I’m particularly keen to connect with local musicians and artists,” she said.
“I’d love to feature more homegrown jazz talent and I am always open to interviews and sharing new work on air — it’s a great way to bring regional voices into a national conversation.”
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