MEDIA
PinOz on board
BROADCASTER ELECTED
TO STATION EXECUTIVE BODY
PINOZ broadcaster Mitchell Badelles was elected
recently to the board of directors at Blacktown’s
community radio station SWR Triple 9 FM.
Badelles is producer-broadcaster of Say
More Radio, arguably Australia’s only Filipino
radio show dedicated to playing Filipino
indigenous music from Filipino artists around
the world.
His election follows that of Mon Carpo
at Northside Radio station 2NSB-FM. Carpo
is producer-broadcaster of Radio Dalisay at
Northside.
SWR’s Say More Radio goes on air every
Sunday, from 8pm to 9pm.
Badelles emigrated to Sydney, Australia,
from the Philippines in 1989. He was born in
the city of Iligan, on the southern Philippine
island of Mindanao.
The broadcaster broke into community
radio in 2010, doing interviews and
newsreading for Radio Sandigan on Sydney’s
Inner West station 2RDJ-FM
He moved to another program, The MOB
Radio Show, at the station and followed The
MOB with team members Oliver Gadista and
Bless Salonga to station SWR-FM at Blacktown
a year later.
It was after Salonga and Gadista left The
Mob when Badelles went on his own with Say
More Radio program.
Born in Quezon City on April 4, 1964,
Badelles’ parents were Josefina Cecile Ramirez
Navarro and Lamberto Boza Badelles.
His maternal grandfather was famous
boxing champion Vicente ‘Ticong’ Navarro,
better known in the late 1930s and early 1940s
as ‘Speed Navarro’.
www.kalatas.com.au
Badelles grew up in a rural farm setting
in Mindanao where his family moved,
studying high school at La Salle Academy and
attending Mindanao State University in Iligan,
Ateneo de Cagayan in Cagayan de Oro City,
then San Carlos University in Cebu, and found
purpose at San Sebastian College in Manila
studying commerce with a major in banking
and finance.
His stint as San Sebastian College was
through a sports scholarship, winning gold
and silver medals at the National Collegiate
Athletic Association (NCAA) competitions in
the track and field events of shotput, javelin
and discus throw.
Badelles was an undergraduate at San
Sebastian College when he emigrated to
Sydney, Australia, in 1986.
He is currently working with Big
River Group Pty Ltd as an internal sales
representative handling internet and phone
enquiries among other duties.
Spare time is spent doing martial arts
and journalism. Badelles is a sensei (teacher/
instructor) of the Filipino martial art of
‘Balintawak’, a stick-fighting style which
he propagates through instruction and
demonstration.
He is also a writer-photographer
contributor to Filipino newspapers, in
particular the monthly Ang Kalatas, now
rebadged as AK NewsMagazine.
“As a board member of SWR, I will follow
the station’s creed, and also help to make SWR
Triple 9 FM become ‘The Station for Sydney's
West’,” Badelles said.
SWR Triple 9 FM broadcasts across the
Sydney metropolitan area all the way west to
the foot of the Blue Mountains.
The station is supported by television’s
Channel 9, is ‘official caller’ for Western
Sydney Wanderers soccer team, and is the
flagship station of the Sydney Blue Sox
baseball team. n
AK NewsMagazine, Vol 8 No 2 | NOVEMBER 2017
11