National Volunteer Week 2024 - Most Valuable Volunteer Nominee - Cassandra Johns

In this profile we’ll be heading down to Adelaide to meet Cassandra Johns in a continuation of celebrating our National Volunteer Week’s Most Valuable Volunteer nominees. Not knowing much about community radio before applying to volunteer at Fresh 92.7FM, Cassandra quickly fell in love with the station. She started as a volunteer with Wavelength, which is Fresh’s news program, and moved up the ranks to become their Co-Executive Producer and News Director.

For Cassandra, volunteering at the station has massively helped her confidence. “I have ADHD, dyslexia and pretty chronic anxiety, so with how fast-paced radio is mistakes are going to happen, so I’ve learnt to just be confident in myself and comfortable that I can’t be perfect 100% of the time” She says, “I’ve learnt to really love the nervousness that comes with being on-air and to be confident in my work.”

This particularly speaks to the imposter syndrome that Cassandra had, but she pushed herself to persevere and be confident in her work, which culminated in a special moment for her when Wavelength won the 2023 CBAA Community Radio Awards in Excellence in News & Current Affairs Programming. This was a moment that Cassandra says validated all the hard work she and her team put into Wavelength. “Sometimes it can feel like you’re in the studio all alone, especially when the callers aren't calling up, but getting responses back from [the] team telling me that they had learnt so much and them going into the world and starting their careers was such a proud moment for me.”

This award also meant a lot to Cassandra in helping her see how the program impacts her team (who are mainly university students with little journalism experience). “Previous to working at Fresh I didn’t realise how much of an impact this would make on me,” reflected Cassandra.

The program is also a source of inspiration and joy for Cassandra. She’s constantly learning something new and how it impacts South Australians, “I learnt so much about how global politics impacts South Australia but also how South Australians can help make a difference in global events.” The show’s absence of sponsors means that anyone on the team can share a topic that they’re interested in, which otherwise might not be able to be covered, “if it’s in the news and it’s important, we can talk about it.”

From starting as an intern at Fresh 92.7FM, Cassandra has found her place in community radio and loves being able to give back to the new faces that enter the station, “Every time I get a new volunteer and they’re excited and they want to learn everything, it makes me so happy because I know that they’re also going to take so much out of this experience.”

“I’ve never been in an industry where everyone is so incredibly passionate about it, and they’ll tell you every single time how much they love it.”