Children broke into radio station, put on sweary show, ate chicken nuggets and dyed their hair

A group of children broke into a radio station in Western Australia's remote Kimberley region and put themselves live on air for an impromptu late-night show full of swearing. The youngsters, aged between eight and 14, broke into the buildings of the Wangki Yupurnanupurru community radio station in Fitzroy Crossing last week. The first police knew of it was a phone call from a listener, concerned at swear words being broadcast.

Station manager Angie Stahl says she had previously given the children lessons in community radio, and they worked out how to make the studio go live. "They were able to turn on all the microphones, turn on the panel and switch everything on in the right way, and decided to do a bit of a show themselves," she said. "But unfortunately their show mainly involved swearing, which was a bit punk, a bit avant-garde, but also breaches the broadcasting laws, and our codes of practice. So the cops got a call from an outlaying station ringing up to say, 'I think you've got some kids on the radio, they're busy swearing, you'd better go bust them'."



Ms Stahl said the children appear to have entered through a window in her house, which adjoins the studios. While in the house they ate some chicken nuggets and dyed their hair. "They were making themselves at home - no damage was done, they were just hanging around the house cooking some chicken nuggets, and they dyed their hair red from some hair dye I had lying around," she said. "But after just enjoying the quiet space of the house, they found the keys to the radio studio and decided to let themselves in." Not long after going on-air with their expletive-ridden jokes, police officers arrived to put a stop to the radio broadcast.

Rather than having charges pressed against them, an agreement was reached with the children, their parents and elders, for them to perform "sorry tasks". "I was quite angry at the time," Ms Stahl said. "But I'm more relaxed about it now and can see the funny side. Criminal charges might have had serious consequences for a couple of the kids, so we decided we could work it out amongst ourselves, and that worked out a lot better." Ms Stahl said the children may have a future in broadcasting. "They'd come in a couple of times before to do a couple of shows and programs, so I'd taught them the basics," she said. "So it's good to see the knowledge was used correctly."