Cam & Shaz
Community, Kindness and Connection — 18 months of local radio with Camilla Ward.
Cam & Shaz is what happened when a friendship got a microphone.
For 18 months, Camilla Ward and I co-hosted a weekly show on DCFM 88.9, Dubbo's community radio station. The whole thing was built on three words: Community, Kindness and Connection.
The segments
The show had its own furniture. Dubbo Dooo covered what was on across the region. Gooden of the Week celebrated someone doing something kind or useful — the goodens, as they became known. There was music, there was laughing, and we ended every show with gratitude.
The Goodens deserve their own footnote, because that segment is where Good Humans came from, kind of. The instinct never left: shine a light on the human you walk past regularly.
What grew out of it
Cam & Shaz finished its season, but almost nothing about it actually stopped.
Town Telly took the same instinct to a screen. Dubbo's Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever began in 2022, after we lost another loved one to cancer — red dresses, a field full of people and a Wall of Love — and it still runs every year. Good Humans carries the Goodens forward.
And Camilla's creative fingerprints are all over the Festival. She is one of my closest friends and my longest creative collaborator in Dubbo. The shows we made together taught us how to turn creativity into participation — a lesson that now sits underneath almost everything Social Gain does.
Why it mattered
Community radio is easy to underestimate. It looks small: two women, a studio, a weekly slot.
But for 18 months it was a place where local people heard their own town reflected back kindly. Where an event in a village hall got the same enthusiasm as a headline act. Where someone doing a quiet good thing got named and thanked on air.
That is not filler. That is a community telling itself its own story — and liking what it hears.
Community, Kindness and Connection was never a slogan. It was the method.
Cam & Shaz ended, but the dial never really turned off. Everything it stood for is still broadcasting through the projects it started.
Why it mattered
Community radio is easy to underestimate. It looks small: two women, a studio, a weekly slot.
But for 18 months it was a place where local people heard their own town reflected back kindly. Where an event in a village hall got the same enthusiasm as a headline act. Where someone doing a quiet good thing got named and thanked on air.
That is not filler. That is a community telling itself its own story — and liking what it hears.
Community, Kindness and Connection was never a slogan. It was the method.
Cam & Shaz ended, but the dial never really turned off. Everything it stood for is still broadcasting through the projects it started.
Why it mattered
Community radio is easy to underestimate. It looks small: two women, a studio, a weekly slot.
But for 18 months it was a place where local people heard their own town reflected back kindly. Where an event in a village hall got the same enthusiasm as a headline act. Where someone doing a quiet good thing got named and thanked on air.
That is not filler. That is a community telling itself its own story — and liking what it hears.
Community, Kindness and Connection was never a slogan. It was the method.
Cam & Shaz ended, but the dial never really turned off. Everything it stood for is still broadcasting through the projects it started.
Town Telly grew directly from Cam & Shaz.
For 18 months, Camilla Ward and I co-hosted a local radio show on DCFM 88.9 built around Community, Kindness and Connection. We talked about what was on, celebrated local "Goodens", shared music, laughed, ended with gratitude and kept finding people whose stories deserved more room.
Town Telly asked what that same instinct could look like on screen.
The premise
Town Telly was conceived as a community television pilot: arts, culture, local people, events, everyday heroes and hidden stories, presented by people who actually live here.
It was not designed to become another general news service. The goal was local visibility.
Who is making something? What is happening in the villages? Which choir is filling a room every week? What is the artist working on? Which community hero would never describe themselves that way? What should people put in the calendar? What does the region sound and look like when it tells its own story?
From radio to screen
The DNA came straight from Cam & Shaz.
The radio show had recurring devices that made local content feel light rather than worthy: Dubbo Dooo for events, Gooden of the Week for people doing something kind or useful, humour, music and a final note of gratitude.
Town Telly kept that tone and added the visual possibilities of performance, interviews, short films, community footage and one-photo storytelling.
What the pilot captured
The pilot, supported through Dubbo Regional Council's SPARC program, became a wonderful snapshot of the breadth of the local creative ecosystem.
It included Mick Davis performing "17 Again"; Camilla Ward interviewing artist Jack Randell; ORISCON at the Eisteddfod; an interview with Vicky Aland; ballet and Japanese drumming; an events calendar; Under Western Skies; Sing Out Choir; a One Photo story with Dr Emma Webster; Belle performing "Manic Pixie Dream Girl"; local authors; Kim V Goldsmith's microscopic video work; and the Wiradjuri Tourism Centre.
That list is exactly the point. None of those things belongs in one conventional media category. Together they start to look like the culture of a place.
Access was part of the brief
The original project deliberately considered people who cannot easily attend local events: people in aged care, hospital, at home, living remotely or dealing with physical, financial or geographic barriers.
A screen can bring part of the community to them. It can also let a local story travel beyond the local audience — into tourism, education, partner networks and archives.
What Town Telly became evidence for
Town Telly proved something that now sits underneath Made Out Here and Creative to Purpose: there is no shortage of local material.
The challenge is finding, producing, packaging and distributing it consistently.
That is why Town Telly remains useful even as the broader model evolves. It is both a finished pilot and a prototype for a regional media approach where local creative stories are treated as infrastructure, not filler.
Not local news. Local visibility.
Town Telly started as an experiment in community television. Its bigger legacy is the proof that this region has more than enough stories — and that people want to see themselves reflected in them.
Town Telly is an online community show created by locals for locals, and visitors to the place we call home.
Thanks to the Dubbo Regional Council SPARC Support Grant, Social Gain has funding to research the desirability, feasibility and viability of a grassroots community show.
The SPARC Support Grant program is designed to support cultural organisations and individuals to initiate and develop projects that support regional creative diversity, innovation and growth.
As part of this research, we have created a pilot episode of Town Telly that will premiere in November 2024. Read on to see what we hope to achieve.
Connecting Community
Town Telly will engage all Dubbo residents through online platforms and diverse marketing, from government channels to care homes, even the most isolated, expanding beyond local media's reach.
Grassroots Arts & Culture
Town Telly offers the opportunity for all members of our community to experience and engage with what is happening in our towns, including those with limited access to local arts, culture, and storytelling.
Region-wide Tourism
By targeting tourism channels with our unique content, we will enhance visitor experiences with diverse grassroots storytelling. We will bring our region's quieter corners to life for the benefit of our whole community both socially and economically.
By Locals for Locals
Presented by Camilla (Cam) Ward and Sharon (Shaz) Quill, Town Telly aims to boost local pride and tourism through uplifting content.
The idea grew from their first creative collaboration, The Cam & Shaz Show which ran successfully for 18 months on community radio. The show promoted community, kindness and connection in the region - a theme they live by in all areas of their lives.
Local Storytelling
By targeting tourism channels with our unique content, we will enhance visitor experiences with diverse grassroots storytelling. We will bring our region's quieter corners to life for the benefit of our whole community both socially and economically.
Every Town and Its Stories
Featuring a different town or village per episode, Town Telly will showcase the heart and soul of towns through the lens of grassroots art, craft and culture, and the characters who make one's community unique.
promoting kindness, community and connection
Camilla "Cam" Ward and Sharon "Shaz" Quill connect community in lighthearted style.
Born from a successful radio show by Camilla (Cam) Ward and Sharon (Shaz) Quill, this Social Gain project focuses on creating happier communities.
Since August 2022 their larger-than-life personas, Cam and Shaz, have been 'raising the vibe'.
Camilla Ward and Sharon Quill (Cam and Shaz) are passionate about uplifting community well-being and social cohesion through art.
The Dubbo businesswomen and performers walk the talk of the show’s theme: Community, Kindness and Connection throughout their professional, volunteer and personal lives. They are active and passionate members of the community, creating and participating in events, and volunteering for local community and artistic initiatives.