Lime FM in Mount Gambier Enters a New Season with New Station Manager

Clare Bruce -

Lime FM in Mount Gambier, South Australia has begun a new chapter in 2023, welcoming Chris Wright into the role of station manager.

Chris’s radio career began in the 1980s when he worked as a RAAF Radio presenter, while stationed with the RAAF in Butterworth, Malaysia. He’s also done stints with 8 Top FM (Territory FM) and 97.7 in Darwin, and RHEMA FM in Mount Gambier where he spent 10 years in various roles - including hosting Breakfast, and presenting an interview-based talk show.

Above: Chris Wright, Lime FM's new station manager.

Chris describes coming into the role of station manager as “a God thing”.

“My wife and I returned to the south east in July 2022 after spending the best part of 15 years in Darwin, and the plan was to go into semi-retirement,” he said.

“In November 2022 I was invited to come onto the board of Lime FM, which I accepted. When the previous station manager resigned, it was then that God - and my wife - started telling me that I should take up the role.”

Initially he resisted the idea, and told God “a most definite no”, but it was God who had the final say.

“The Sunday before my first board meeting, the chairman of the board (who had no idea about the wrestle I had been having with God), said that he had a word for the church: it was to stop doubting, and that God will be with you,” said Chris.

“My wife touched me on the shoulder and said ‘are you listening?' That is how I came to be where I am now.”

Above: Lime FM's bright, fresh branding.

Chris said Lime FM’s vision currently is “simply to grow”, and to be positioned in the community with a hybrid format.

“Lime had gone away from its roots as a Christian radio station and we are transitioning it back to that,” he said. “Not all the way back to Rhema days, but in the middle. The feedback that we are getting has been positive.”

In addition to working in radio, Chris also spent 20 years in the RAAF, has been a correctional officer in the prison system, and worked in community services with Darwin’s Aboriginal community.

He and his wife live on a small acreage in Glencoe, 25km out of Mount Gambier, which they share with two cows, four chooks, a bull Arab cross named Bruno, and “a very cheeky Kelpie pup” named Isaiah.