Since 1976 Melborune based community station (and Australian music icon) Triple R 102.7FM has been brightening Melbourne’s musical and cultural landscape with original and independent ideas, music and programming.
In a time of media monopolies, they create artful radio that encompasses many local and passionate voices. Having kicked off on the 14th and running right through to the 23rd is Triple R’s annual fundraiser Radiothon – a time to celebrate all of their amazing volunteer broadcasters, our diverse programming, lack of play listing, behind-the-scenes volunteers, subscribers and most importantly independence. This year Radiothon 2015 is the time to Paint the Town Triple R!
To celebrate Triple R and to encourage fans to dig deep and help support the station so it can continue to run, we caught up with some local cultural icons (and passionate Triple R fans) to chat discuss what’s so great about this amazing station. If you’d like to be a part of Triple R pop by rrr.org.au for more info and to become a subscriber.
Ben & Guy – Chapter Music
How you discovered community radio: [Guy] “I started listening to Perth station 6UVS FM in the late 80s because I was a huge science fiction nerd aged 13-16 and they had a science fiction show. Then around 16 I went through a Goth phase and listened to UVS for their show Stereogoround, where Gothic kids wrote letters in and requested songs, and the announcers read out the letters, played the songs and made fun of the listeners (kinda like a pre-internet Mess+Noise discussion board!).
A friend of mine was dating one of the Stereogoround announcers and said they were looking for new presenters, so I tagged along to a show in 1990 during my last year of high school, and have been involved in community radio ever since!
6UVS FM became RTR FM, whose station manager Kath Letch left in the mid 90s to become Triple R station manager, so when I moved to Melbourne in 1995 I went straight to Triple R and Kath helped me get involved there.”
How community radio has supported you: [Ben] “I started doing graveyards in 1994 and the next year was an occasional presenter on Room With A View as part of the media degree I was studying at RMIT. Pretty soon after that Guy and I started filling in on other shows and by 2000 we hosted our own show Untune The Sky for a couple of years. We still occasionally do fill ins, usually for Strange Holiday when Andras is off on tour. I also worked part time at the station in 2002 as assistant to the Music Director.”
“I don’t think our label could have survived without Triple R”[Guy] “I don’t think our label could have survived without Triple R. The station has been so incredibly supportive of what we do, but it has also been instrumental in creating a culture in Melbourne that appreciates interesting, adventurous music. Melbourne music fans get raised on Triple R, and without it they wouldn’t have such finely attuned ears, so that in turn helps our label releases find an audience!”
Why people need to support Triple R: [Guy] “I don’t think our label could have survived without Triple R. The station has been so incredibly supportive of what we do, but it has also been instrumental in creating a culture in Melbourne that appreciates interesting, adventurous music. Melbourne music fans get raised on Triple R, and without it they wouldn’t have such finely attuned ears, so that in turn helps our label releases find an audience!”
Favourite acts you’ve discovered thanks to Triple R: [Ben] “There are too many to mention but I have a really vivid memory of lying on my bedroom floor when I was 17 and hearing Helmet On by East River Pipe for the first time on Jason Reynolds’ show Witch In The Colours. It was the first time I’d heard an indie pop song explicitly and unapologetically about gay experience and it resonated so deeply with me. It really brought home to me the power that radio has to provide people with a sense of connection and community.”
Laura Jean – Musician
How you discovered community radio: “I started listening to RRR as soon as I moved to Melbourne when I was 19 in 2001. Everyone seemed to listen to it. Then I did work for the dole at PBS and met people that would continue to influence my life years later.”
How community radio has supported you: “I have volunteered for RRR over the years and three of four of my albums have been album of the week in 2006, 2011 and 2014. This kind of support is mind blowing to me. It’s allowed me to build an audience for my music. It’s a major hub for my community.”
Why people need to support Triple R: “It’s one of the last community mediums corporations cannot infiltrate.”
Favourite acts you’ve discovered thanks to Triple R: “Kes”
Christos Tsiolkas- – Author & Superfluity Presenter
How you discovered community radio:
I was in high school, year ten if memory serves me right, and I was studying while listening to radio. Annoyed at the constant barrage of commercials and inane, hysterical DJ chatter, I was turning the FM dial and I came across a voice and an expression I never heard before.
It was Patti Smith, from Horses, and I remember the room seemed to disappear, that I was lost in her voice and the strange elliptic lyric. It was – I don’t think I am being over-dramatic – a life changing moment in that it made me realise how much more there was to hear and experience in the world. It was a glimpse of a life to be lived outside the conformity, and what then seemed to me to be, the straight-jacket of suburban life. I had my radio constantly tuned to RRR from that moment. Through RRR I was exposed to the world of music, of film, first heard of a gay rights demonstration, through RRR I started my first tentative steps towards finding my tribes.
How community radio has supported you: “It made me aware of a world and a politics and cultural spaces that were not limited by either mainstream populism nor by commercial sanction. It opened up the world of feminism, politics, art and film to me. Filmbuffs Forecast, for example, was a guide to the art of film. I would hear them mention a film and I would do my damnest to hunt it out. Aural Text is another show I have to do a big shout out to. That show made me a better reader.
As a writer, RRR has always been extremely supportive of my work, something I am so very grateful for. I know that all my fellow writers feel the same way. I love the ferocious way that the station, the volunteers, the djs support the local cultural scenes. I do think that the dynamic vitality of community radio is one of Melbourne’s great strengths.
I am part of a show on RRR, Superfluity on Tuesday nights. Casey, Julz, Scott and I have been doing it for five years now. It is still a thrill to have a show on a station I love, one that allows us to get away with playing and saying what we want. The listeners are so generous, so supportive even of our cheesiest moments. It feels like a gift. I owe so much to the station I hope in a small way I can give back now.
The work that all community radio does in Melbourne is exceptional in supporting local artists. I know that through my own experience as a writer, and I know it through the astonishing range of art, theatre, music, films and books that local radio has opened up to me as a listener.
RRR allows artists, musicians, to talk about their work and to present their work, opportunities that are not there in the commercial media world. Community radio gives you time, that is so incredibly rare in contemporary media. I think the dynamism of Melbourne’s music scene, for example, the strength of our music over forty years now is inseparable from its championing by community radio. I have many friends in different cities around the world, many of them artists themselves, and they all are envious of the strength of community radio in Melbourne. We shouldn’t take it for granted.”
Why people need to support Triple R: “Because it is independent, it isn’t reliant on either commercial bean-counting nor on government sanction. That is incredibly important, it allows for challenge, argument, debate and experimentation.
I think that community radio has an advantage over all other traditional media in the new digital age precisely because it is keyed in to the strength and diversity of our communities. I can, of course, hunt for things I am interested in on the internet, but the danger there is that I don’t move out of my comfort zone, that I end up listening to things I know I’ll like, to voices I know I will agree with.
“RRR allows artists, musicians, to talk about their work and to present their work, opportunities that are not there in the commercial media world.”What I’ve always loved about community radio is the accidental, coming across a piece of music or a point of view that astonishes me or makes me have to think anew. It is one of the strengths of community radio that the people who work on the shows are there because of their love for art, music, film, whatever. I listen to Local and or General or Leisure Link or Spoke or Maps or Multi-Storied or Plato’s Cave and I know that I am being guided into the worlds of music or politics or film or writing by people who care passionately, who have done the hard work of exploring what is out there or what needs to be championed. That’s what is gold about community radio.”
Favourite acts you’ve discovered thanks to Triple R: “Patti Smith, of course. More recently I was in the kitchen, chopping up veggies for a stock and the most electrifying, sensuous music came on: I couldn’t stop dancing. It was Tinariwen, on Beat Orgy. Thank you Steve Cross, you are a hero!
I can’t count the number of great artists Denise Hylands on Twang has introduced me to, she too is a hero. But if I had to mention one, it would be Mary Gauthier’s Mercy Now, one of the outstanding singer-songwriter albums of the decade. And many many moons ago, when I was still a high school student, someone on a graveyard shift played Womack and Womack’s ‘Love Wars’. I can’t recall who it was but if you are out there reading this, just know I will love you forever. That track will come with me to whatever desert island I end up on.”
Jenny Branagan – NUN
How you discovered community radio: “I am from a generation that did not have the Internet growing up. So my formative musical years came from tape swaps- these tapes would circulate regularly and would be the culmination of hours spent next to the radio with your fingers at the ready to press record. The pause button being key in giving your mix tape a smoother transition as opposed to the clunky sound of the stop button.
Radio was the main source of entertainment in my house growing up- my parents always had a radio on or ‘wireless’ as they refer to it as, usually straight up commercial classic 50’s 60s hits channels. This source of entertainment in the Branagan household doubled up as a home security system for wiley burglars- the logic behind this would be under the guise that if a radio was left on- blaring out of the kitchen a burglar would presume there was someone home & break into the house next door instead. To this day they still use this fool -proof method of security.
I was given a radio and tape deck at an early age- it was purchased from a place called Powercity in Dublin- I used to love that place also because they offered face painting for kids while parents purchased electrical goods. Everything looked grey and it smelled like batteries in there- that sounds creepy and a little serial killer-ish doesn’t it.
“community radio is a cultural education and an exchange that is and always will be both vital and relevant in supporting a healthy cultural environment”I guess when I was really young it was glimpses of pirate radio in Ireland on the dial- but my real awareness of community radio was 4ZZZ in Brisbane in the early 90s. I would stay up all hours and go to school the next day bleary eyed after listening the 4ZZZ trying to catch songs I had never heard of before. 4ZZZ was the first time I heard John Cooper Clarke, I remember that voice distinctively and the strange production behind it- its funny because I really remember hearing him as a kid on the community radio so I guess that’s why I am bringing him up – I correlate Clarke with community radio in my brain.
Putting together my pause 4ZZZ mix tapes- often I would have no idea what the title or the band actually were – so the tapes were a collecting songs I had no name or aesthetics to match. Just like Clarke it was years later until I matched the songs form the radio and the pause mix tapes with the actual names of the artists. Well until I could afford to go to record stores and buy the LPS.”
How community radio has supported you: “I am one half of dj/promotion/radio team Psychedelic Coven; the other half is my best mate, Kate Reid who also runs a killer label called (It Records).
Kate and I used to do a radio show on the Internet station that had a short but potent life here in Melbourne, Radio Valerie. After RV finished up we took Psychedelic Coven to 3RRR luckily they wanted us (we were actually quite terrible) enough to start doing some Graveyard shifts, which lead to summer fill ins, specials, the odd Tabula Rasa and a good few Max Headrooms. I think a highlight for both Kate and myself would be getting to interview the awe inspiring Gudrun Gut – I was so nervous because I am such a fan. We also do a monthly guest spot on broadcaster extraordinaire Annaliese Replica’s show Neon Sunset.
I have a close relationship with 3RRR as both an occasional volunteer broadcaster but also with the support that 3RRR show the bands I am in. It is such a fantastic facility- honestly I have been to quite a few community radio stations and RRR is basically a dream. The studios are fantastic and THAT performance space! Incredible. Getting to play the performance space with NUN last year was such a special time. The dedication that all staff and volunteers have to creating such a professional space is really something to witness. Anyone that ever steps foot in the place instantly picks up on that…
With the band side of things Nun were lucky enough to get Triple R album of the week last year when our record came out. We don’t have a booker or any of that, we do it all ourselves as do most of our mates bands. We certainly would not have been asked to play some of the shows we have if it had not been for people and promoters hearing our music on RRR. Any pursuits Nun and Psychedelic Coven have embarked on RRR have been they’re supporting us!”
Why people need to support Triple R: “If you are reading this then community radio is relevant to you and you should support it. Independent media sources breathes more sources and avenues. It would be awful if radio were only a platform for beige music and content.
It would be awful not to be able turn on the radio during the day or the middle of the night and listen to presenters play weird and wonderful bangers with no agenda other that the only agenda that counts – their own. Just the thought of young people not having the likes of shows like Teenage Hate to listen too is upsetting- community radio is a cultural education and an exchange that is and always will be both vital and relevant in supporting a healthy cultural environment.”
Favourite acts you’ve discovered thanks to Triple R: “Gosh there is too many!! Hearing Liam Kenny’s masterpiece cover of Cohen’s Avalanche made my heart jump- the way the sounds in that song cut through everything-relentless and electric – hearing that on the actual radio is a treat….
Too many songs and bands to mention here so I have to think of the best shows. The one that schools me every Monday would be Serious Joe’s Astral Glamour show – Joe literally blows my mind every Monday with bangers and oddities I have never heard before. Another highlight that comes to mind (this might seem biased but I don’t mean it to be) is the time Kate Reid co-hosted Teenage Hate with Rich Stanley with an Oz Rock Special. This slayed, a true education- the type of show that you need to immediately research every track on the playlist and hunt down the records!!!
Neon Sunset also provides a platform for so many great local acts and Oz independent labels to be heard; Cool Death Records, It Records, Aarght, Trapdoor Tapes, Heavy Chains, No Patience… you know a prime time 7PM radio spot where you can hear all of this great current music mixed in with Thin Lizzy – that is the way it should be.”
Sophie Miles – Mistletone
How you discovered community radio: “I started volunteering at 3CR at age 15 and did my first graveyard shift there, then started doing shows on PBS when I was 17.
From day one I loved the ethos and atmosphere of community radio, the intimacy of each announcer sharing their record collection with their audience, and the solidarity of working in a diverse group of people with a collective spirit. Community radio people are the best people; they have a humility and openness and inquisitiveness about music that lasts a lifetime. It’s a formative influence on the way people listen and for me it put my feet on the first steps of a never-ending journey.
Some of the wisdom passed on to me by PBS people; Mick Geyer told me that doing a radio show was learning about music in public; and Dom Molumby told me that real music lovers are the ones who are always learning and always asking questions, because the more you know, the more you realise how much there is to know. That to me is the real spirit of community radio, volunteer announcers who approach music with a “beginner’s mind” and share that curiosity and love with listeners. ”
How community radio has supported you: “I am very honoured to do fill-in shows on RRR from time to time. It is always a joy to fill the shoes of the people I admire who do amazing shows each week. I really love the process of choosing songs to play on the radio and doing the research to share with listeners.
“If it were not for RRR, there’s no way Mistletone could release the music we do or promote the tours that we do.”[/do]
The feedback from RRR listeners is amazing, there are so many warm-hearted people listening in who take the trouble to phone up and say that they enjoyed hearing a particular song and I can’t tell you how great that makes you feel when you are on air. (If you’ve never phoned up your favourite announcer and thanked them, do it soon, it’s a little thing you can do to make them feel amazing!).
On a personal level, I would never go a day without listening to RRR, it is the soundtrack to my working day and makes me feel connected and appreciative of everything that’s going on culturally in this city. As an indie label owner and promoter, I can honestly say that RRR means more to me than all the other music media combined.
If it were not for RRR, there’s no way Mistletone could release the music we do or promote the tours that we do. RRR has nurtured a music loving community in Melbourne and that means that there are people out there whose ears are open to music that’s outside the mainstream, and who are up for supporting it by buying records and going to shows.”
Why people need to support Triple R: “Because it’s the beating heart of our culture and we would be lost without it.”
Favourite acts you’ve discovered thanks to Triple R: “This year alone, I’ve fallen in love with so many local artists that I heard on RRR, to name just a few — Totally Mild, Aldous Harding, Superstar, Sui Zhen, Deaf Wish, Lehmann B Smith — and listening to shows like Astral Glamour, Strange Holiday and Beat Orgy keep blowing my mind and turning me on to so many gems from the past and present, in that generous spirit of “learning in public” which I am always so grateful to hear.”
Jas Moore – Local &/Or General Presenter
How you discovered community radio: “I kept seeing these RRR bumper stickers in my hometown of Albury, and became very curious. Once I settled in Melbourne Triple R was at the top of my priorities to investigate and was BLOWN AWAY the first time I tuned in. Five incredible tracks back-to-back on Clem Bastow’s show. Then I went to the Community Cup and I was madly in love.”
How community radio has supported you: “I’m extremely humbled to be the current host of the long-standing program Local &/or General, the show where we like to shine a light on emerging Melbourne, Australian and Antipodean talent.
Triple R is an inspiration for me. How incredible we can have subscribers pay a small fee so that volunteers can program music and educational pieces free of government or commercial interests. THIS IS AMAZING!”
Why people need to support Triple R: “I think that Melbourne fosters creative talent better than any city that I’ve been to, and I think Triple R has played a big, big part in this. It’s been incredible to see the progression of local acts like D.D Dumbo, Courtney Barnett, King Gizz, GL and Client Liaison since hearing their demos for the time at the station.
“Once I settled in Melbourne Triple R was at the top of my priorities to investigate and was BLOWN AWAY”[/do]
I get goosebumps and a little giddy when I speak with music people overseas who all speak about the above acts in such high regard. We live in such a fickle money driven world at the moment, it’s so nice that Triple R exists and and is driven by LOVE. Triple R is good for your soul!”
Favourite acts you’ve discovered thanks to Triple R: “Basically almost all of the CDs/records I’ve ever brought. I love learning about a wide variety of genres from the likes of Hood Pass (hip hop), Where Yo Is (boogie woogie), Twang (alt-country), Strange Holiday (electronic), Stolen Moments (jazz), Teenage Hate (punk + garage). The whole grid is incredible!
I reckon worth keeping an eye on the likes of Cleopold, GL, Habits, Katie Dey, Leah Senior, Jaala, Slum Sociable, Crêpes, RaRa, Klo, Good Morning and loads more you can check out listening to the show”
Elizabeth McCarthy – Triple R Talks Producer
How you discovered community radio: “I was lucky enough to have a Dad who was always listening to 3CR, another excellent Melbourne community station, when I was growing up, so I feel that community radio is in my DNA. But because I was captivated by the Top 40 until the age of around 15, I was also listening to lots of commercial radio.
In my mid-teens I decided the Top 40 was no longer communicating to, or for, me. The music was increasingly spurious, repetitive, listless. So I clocked the dial a few times and found 3RRR. Human beings who were smarter than me were turning me onto all manner of challenging, debaucherous music, and lawless ideas. My mind was infinitely blown.”
How community radio has supported you: “For the past 15 years, I have presented music programs. Three years ago I was employed as 3RRR’s full-time Talks Producer, which means I work across 15 talk shows, creating content and organizing interviews for our talks presenters. In addition to this, eighteen months ago I began presenting a writing and arts program each Wednesday called “Multi-Storied”.
3RRR has changed, and saved, my life several times over. I was an obsessive listener, who became a volunteer, who became a presenter, and I now have the privilege of being employed as the station’s Talks Producer. I feel kinda married to it; it lives all over me. In my role as Talks Producer I get to collaborate with an array of talented, inquisitive, fearless presenters who constantly inspire me. The people I work with in our Programming team are passionate, obsessive and headstrong in our pursuit of creating a unique listening experience.”
“My entire record collection is made up of bands I first heard on 3RRR.”Why people need to support Triple R: “The relationship between media, art, music, and ideas is as crucial as ever. The internet, in its infancy, has simultaneously changed everything, and yet nothing at all. The highly-financed, status-quo voices still dominate, and even if they aren’t speaking for you, they set the agenda.
To put it mildly, 3RRRFM agitates the mainstream agenda on multiple fronts. We are defiant of the status-quo, and challenge dominant ideas and dominant culture. Support us if you believe in different voices in art, music, and ideas. If you believe in an opposition, in an antidote, to a crowded media landscape that espouses the predictable, then 3RRR is your station. But really, support us if you enjoy us – 3RRR is about great music, art and ideas by both new and established artists, writers, and cultural agitators.”
Favourite acts you’ve discovered thanks to Triple R: “My entire record collection is made up of bands I first heard on 3RRR. From NWA to God and The Breeders, Neneh Cherry and Teeth And Tongue and Eddy Current, Love Of Diagrams, The Dacios, Jen Cloher, PJ Harvey, M Ward, Lost Animal, Joelistics, Dirt Child,
That snapshot is slim pickings. Come over, I’ll pour you a glass of red or brew you a nice cup of tea, and tell you all about it!”
