Our People: Staff and Board

Santhosh Nagaiah [President]

Santosh Nagaiah is a community media leader and President of CMS Radio, one of Australia’s full-time multicultural radio stations. He brings together strategic thinking, community engagement, and hands-on media experience to strengthen CMS’s role as a platform for diverse voices in Canberra.
With a background spanning technology sales, partnerships, and community broadcasting, Santosh has worked closely with multicultural organisations, volunteers, and broadcasters to expand CMS’s reach, sustainability, and digital presence. He has been actively involved in developing new programs, strengthening external partnerships, and supporting long-term organisational planning.

Santosh is passionate about inclusive storytelling, youth engagement, and building a resilient future for multicultural media through collaboration, innovation, and strong governance.

Dr Songfa Liu [Vice President]

Dr Songfa Liu is a retired senior public servant after working for the commonwealth government in Canberra. He is a long time supporter and broadcaster for community broadcasting and current the coordinator for CMS’ Mandarin program “Chinese Morning”. He served as treasurer for CMS for five years before becoming president in 2020. He is also a board member for ArtSound FM radio station in Canberra.

Jim Saragas [Vice President]

Jim Saragas has served CMS in many positions on the executive committee since the very beginning. Being involved very heavily since the radio studios were built. For Jim, radio is life. He started broadcasting in his teenage years in a very small studio on the island of Lesvos in Greece. Now at CMS Radio, he coordinates the Greek Radio Program and the Cyprus Radio Program and he proudly holds the position of Vice President on the executive committee.

Lavinia Naufahu- Tunitau [Secretary]

Born and raised in Tonga, Naite moved to Australia in early 2018 with my husband and daughter. Back home in Tonga, Naite was very much involved in the hospitality and tourism industry, where her husband and she managed a family business for many years. She never had any inkling of radio experience until her mother-in-law (Lavinia) slowly introduced her to CMS FM 91.1 in 2018. She started as a broadcaster for the Tongan radio program, Le’o ‘o Tonga (Voice of Tonga) in late 2018 and it has been quite an experience for and she loves how much she has learnt! Naite is currently the Assistant Secretary of the CMS Board. She is currently working in the community service industry as a carer/support worker and studying at the same time. She also works as an interpreter and translator (legal and medical) whenever available. This correlates well with being a radio broadcaster as the radio program broadcasts in both English and Tongan language.

Naite Elizabeth Hausia [Assistant Secretary]

Born and raised in Tonga, Naite moved to Australia in early 2018 with my husband and daughter.

Back home in Tonga, Naite was very much involved in the hospitality and tourism industry, where her husband and she managed a family business for many years. She never had any inkling of radio experience until her mother-in-law (Lavinia) slowly introduced her to CMS FM 91.1 in 2018. She started as a broadcaster for the Tongan radio program, Le’o ‘o Tonga (Voice of Tonga) in late 2018 and it has been quite an experience for and she loves how much she has learnt!

Naite is currently the Assistant Secretary of the CMS Board. She is currently working in the community service industry as a carer/support worker and studying at the same time. She also works as an interpreter and translator (legal and medical) whenever available. This correlates well with being a radio broadcaster as the radio program broadcasts in both English and Tongan language.

Pradeep Timalsina [Member]

Pradeep Timalsina, originally from Nepal, holds a Master’s degree in Mental Health Nursing from the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. His journey began in his teenage years when he embarked on a radio career. He spearheaded a Health Educational Radio Program on Radio Nepal FM 100. Beyond healthcare, Pradeep has an artistic side. He contributed to several commercial feature films in Nepal, including Hollywood and Bollywood productions, serving as a Chief Assistant Director.

In Australia, he furthered his engagement with the Nepali community. He launched the Nepali Radio Program ‘Man Ta Mero Nepali Ho’ on NorthShore Radio FM 99.1. He started with radio, hosting the Nepali Radio program at North Shore Radio FM93.1 in Sydney. He then became a pioneer on television, producing the first weekly Nepali Television program on Television Sydney channel 41 in 2012. He even started his own program, My Nepal Television, showing his creativity and determination. In 2014, he brought his voice to CMS Radio FM 91.1 in Canberra, where he became a familiar presence, telling stories and sharing moments with listeners. He is also one of the news readers at the Multilingual National News, bringing weekly Nepali news to distant lands.

Karen Adams-Barker [Finance Officer]

Karen has been working with CMS radio since January 2015, supporting Finance Administration. Karen has been supporting Non Profit Organisations in varied roles for over 20 years, as an employee or volunteer. Before this time, Karen worked as a Registered Nurse for 10 years. When not working, Karen enjoys a range of hobbies, in particular participating in outdoor activities with her family (such as exploring local Canberra nature walks & bike riding), and more recently, dragon boat paddling with Dragons Abreast Canberra (a wonderful group of people who are Breast Cancer survivors or supporters).

Manish Raj [Operations Manager]

Manish Raj started his journey as a Community Radio Broadcaster back in 2004 on 2XX. He founded and developed Hindi Language Radio Manpasand on CMS FM 91.1 Radio in September 2006. He has served on the CMS/EBC Executive committee for 10+ years and actively contributed to the issues relating to station management and other technical aspects given his background in Electronics & Communications Engineering.

After 25 years of Federal Public Service Engineering job, Manish took an early retirement at the age of 52, to pursue his passion for radio and community service. Manish actively participates and promotes local talent, multicultural events, ethnic festivals and what’s happening in our ethnic and multicultural community in the ACT and surrounding regions.

As a Producer, Coordinator and Broadcaster he has won multiple awards; received an award in 2018 from then MP Gai Brodtmann as a recognition of his Community and Media work for Canberra; received an outstanding Community Volunteer award from then Minister for Community & Multicultural affairs, Ms. Joy Burch. His program, Radio Manpasand has won ACT Multicultural Award 2023 for “Multicultural Arts, Media or Culture”; CBAA Award 2022 for “Excellence in Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasting” and NEMBC Award 2014 for ‘Program of the Year award’. His tag line is “Keep going, keep listening – with a dash of spice”.

Marvin Jiang [Technical Officer]

Marvin Jiang is an accomplished Technical Officer with 13 years of versatile experience in the IT field, spanning technical support and business analysis. With a background encompassing industries ranging from e-commerce to AI and diverse online services, Marvin deeply understands technology’s intersection with business growth. His journey began as a proficient Technical Support Specialist, honing his problem-solving skills and communication finesse. This foundation led him to excel as a Business Analyst, seamlessly blending his technical prowess with strategic insights to optimize processes across industries.

Chris Deacon [Technology Manager]

With 50 years of experience in the communications field, Chris is one of the pioneers of community radio in Australia. He was a co-founder of Campus Community Radio ANU, 2XX, and ArtSound FM and, a foundation Board member of Technorama Inc., the national association of community broadcasting engineers and a grant assessor to the Community Broadcasting Foundation. He has contributed in voluntary Board, management, programming and technical roles since the early 1970s.

He is currently Technology Manager at CMS and ArtSound. In recent years he has provided technical services including remote operation during the Covid-19 pandemic, automated program management, transmission site relocation and upgrades, digital radio implementation, rebuild of studios and outside broadcast facilities, grant support and strategic advisory services to the Board.

For his work in community radio, he received an Order of Australia (2009), the Technorama Life Achievement Award (2018), the Lifetime Service Award Australian Not-for-Profit Technology Awards (2021) and several Community Broadcasting Association awards for excellence in broadcast programming and engineering.