By Andrew Humphries
From motorbike postie to driving instructor, Debbie Bye has enjoyed an interesting and varied career.
Yet it’s in radio and, more specifically, Christian radio that the current Presbytery of Gippsland Missional Support Resource Minister and Presbytery Secretary has had the greatest impact.
Debbie’s outstanding commitment to Christian radio in Australia was recognised last year when she received a Legacy Award for Lifetime Dedication to Media at Christian Media and Arts Australia’s annual conference.
In honouring Debbie, CMAA paid tribute to one of the country’s leading lights in Christian radio.
“Debbie Bye is one of Australia’s Christian media pioneers,” CMAA said.
“Debbie truly has lived a lifetime of dedication to Christian media, and it’s our honour to celebrate her work with a CMAA Legacy award.”
Debbie’s long involvement in Christian radio began in the early 1980s as the night shift host on a Christian radio test station in Mackay, Queensland.
When the station’s board began praying for someone to train in the finer points of radio, Debbie was prompted by God to volunteer and moved for training to Hobart Christian radio station 7HFC.
Debbie then returned to Mackay, working with the ABC as a news reader, then morning host, and eventually, acting station manager.
She also helped establish Mackay’s first secular community radio station, where she produced and hosted a gospel program.
During this period she was part of the team that brought United Christian Broadcasters, better known today as Vision Christian Media, to Australia.
In 1994, Debbie moved to Sale to become station manager at ABC Gippsland, before, she says, another calling from God shifted her life in a different but exciting direction.
At a CMAA conference in 1998 she met a group of like-minded people determined to see a Christian radio station established in Gippsland.
“I had dinner with this group of people who said, ‘you need to pioneer this Christian radio station and we think God is telling us this’,” Debbie recalls.
The next step was a public meeting to gauge interest, with about 100 people attending to show support for the concept.
“So we said to them, ‘well this is going to cost a fair bit of money and we need $30,000 for a transmitter’, so we held a dessert night as a fundraiser and that night we got $57,000,” Debbie says.
“After that, there was no way we could say a Christian radio station wasn’t going to happen.”
Debbie Bye (right) with Penny Mulvey at the CMAA conference awards.
Life FM Gippsland was established in 1999 and, in nearly two decades with the station, Debbie wore numerous hats, from sales to production to administration, while continuing her first love of broadcasting.
Looking back on it all now, she can reflect on an often challenging, but nevertheless immensely rewarding, time.
Through it all, she says, she relied on a deep faith and trust in God.
And she admits, with a laugh, there were a few times when God’s help was particularly welcome.
After all, the nature of Christian radio broadcasting meant there were times when the good ship Life FM sailed precariously close to financial disaster.
“There were some difficult times and a lot of hard stuff,” Debbie recalls.
“There were a lot of times I stood before God saying, ‘we’ve got bills to pay’.”
Somehow, though, money was always found, including on one memorable occasion thanks to a stranger’s generosity.
“I can remember being in the office one day and a gentleman walked in and said, ‘can I have a look around and a chat with you?’,” Debbie recalls.
“So we sat down and we had a chat about what we were doing at Life FM, how it all started and what God’s role in it all was.
“After we chatted for about an hour he wrote a cheque, which I just put in my pocket without looking at.
“I pulled the cheque out after he had gone and it was for $10,000, and just that morning I had been praying because we had about $10,000 in bills to pay.
“I called this fellow back and asked him why he had provided such a large donation and he simply said, ‘well, God told me to’.”
More than 40 years after dipping her toe into Christian radio, Debbie continues to be amazed by its transformative power.
“I could see the worth of it immediately, because when we broadcast the word of God people have a choice whether they listen or not,” she says.
“But when people do listen, radio gets into their homes unobtrusively and presents Jesus in a way that works for them.
“When I saw that happen it really seemed as though a huge light had turned on for me.”
While a sense of modesty means the word ‘pioneer’ sits a little uneasily with Debbie, she likes to think her long contribution to Christian radio has opened a door or two for others.
And, she admits, being recognised at the CMAA conference last year, 26 years after her attendance at the 1998 conference kicked off Life FM, was a nice closing of the circle.
“I was pretty stoked to even be nominated, let alone pick up the award,” Debbie says.
“(Christian media stalwart) Penny Mulvey, who I have admired for ages, and is now the chair of CMAA, told me she knew I had to have the award and that she had to be the person to give it to me, so that was really special.
“People tell me I have been a pioneer, but I was just doing what God wanted me to do.”