Episodes

  • Australian Radio Pioneer (Northside Radio, Sydney)

    Australian Radio Pioneer (Northside Radio, Sydney)
    Aug 19 2016
    By Jane Arakawa

    Listen to 'Australian Radio Pioneer Wound Up the Cat and Put the Clock Out'

    How and where you access your favourite radio programs is changing so rapidly that it can be challenging to keep up. It may be reassuring to hear that it was only about 100 years ago that radio was the new emerging technology, and an experimenter named Charles Maclurcan spent much of his time educating the general public on how to hear a radio broadcast signal.

    My passion for radio and the immediate, intimate connection it creates between us, lead me to discover more about this dedicated Australian radio pioneer and how he faced his technical hurdles and engaged his audience over various media.

    I learnt that Charles Maclurcan erected aerial masts on top of the first Wentworth Hotel located on Church Hill, Lang Street Sydney in 1911 and was communicating with incoming and outgoing ships. By early 1922 he was broadcasting an entertaining and engaging radio program each week with a program guide published in the weekly newspapers of the time. He was issued Licence No.1 in December 1922 and continued his broadcasts and experiments until 1927 when he was required to take over the management of the Wentworth Hotel until its sale in 1950.

    I discovered that some of Charles Maclurcan’s equipment was held by the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and also on display at the Radio Museum at Kurrajong, NSW. It was at Kurrajong that I first heard of an ongoing discussion among radio historians regarding which station can lay claim to holding Licence No 1 in Australia. Charles Maclurcan returned to his love of radio in his retirement and his passion and dedication resulted in the Australian Government declaring upon his death in 1957 that his call sign 2CM was never to be re-issued.

    Feb 1923 Josie Melville at Strathfield copyright 1924 - Charles Maclurcan talks to England copyright

    You will hear how Charles Maclurcan engaged his listeners through multi-media platforms of the time, why historians are debating who holds Licence No.1, and how his grandsons have respectfully and openly shared his story of radio with us.

    I now consider Charles Maclurcan to be Australia’s first multi-platform radio producer.

    If you wish to discover more about Charles Dansie Maclurcan’s radio programs, technical instructions, newspaper articles, long distance records achieved and his place in Australia’s radio history, you could start at the National Library of Australia (Trove), access reference material at the NSW State Library and Powerhouse Museum, read Ron Langhan’s book The First Twelve Months of Radio Broadcasting in Australia 1923 -1924 or Australian Radio History (5th Edition) compiled by Bruce Carty Phd and visit the Historical Radio Society of Australia.

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    28 mins
  • Red Dirt In Bondi: The Story of Building Bridges (3MDR, Melbourne)

    Red Dirt In Bondi: The Story of Building Bridges (3MDR, Melbourne)
    Aug 19 2016
    By Meeghan Bell

    Listen to Red Dirt In Bondi: The Story of Building Bridges'

    "The facts are really not at all like fish on the fishmonger's slab. They are like fish swimming about in a vast and sometimes inaccessible ocean; and what the historian catches will depend, partly on chance, but mainly on what part of the ocean he chooses to fish in and what tackle he chooses to use – these two factors being, of course, determined by the Kind of fish he wants to catch. By and large, the historian will get the kind of facts he wants. History means interpretation." - E.H. Carr

    I was sitting in the packed auditorium as Gary Foley presented 'Life of Struggle' at the 2015 Marxism Conference in Melbourne. He commanded the stage, held the audience in the palm of his hand and I listened fiercely and took notes. He spoke passionately about the history of Aboriginal resistance in Australia, of which he played a central role and shared iconic images of his life including photos with rock star Michael Hutchence (pictured below). Foley also spoke about an album he'd been involved with titled, Building Bridges - Australia Has A Black History.

    Gary Foley & Michael Hutchence, Building Bridges 1989 Bicentenary January 26th 1988 Aboriginal Protests at Sydney Harbour

    It wasn't entirely clear then of course but as I listened to Foley talk, a seed was planted and once I'd been selected to participate in the CBAA National Features and Documentary Series, the 1989 Building Bridges album and the story surrounding its creation began to absorb almost every waking moment of my life.

    'Red Dirt in Bondi' is a radio feature set in Sydney around the time of the Bicentenary, 26 January 1988. The key participants in this feature are Aboriginal activist and academic Gary Foley, the Building Bridges Cultural Construction Crew featuring Jim George, Tony Duke and Denise Officer (Andrew McMillan passed away on 28 January 2012) and singer-songwriter, Kev Carmody.

    For a rookie like myself there were significant challenges in bringing this radio story to life including the historical nature of the topic and the complex relationship between black and white Australia since 1788. Not to mention attempting an interesting and thought-provoking radio feature in under 27 minutes.

    The story of Building Bridges, involving a small group of people with the support of the Australian Music Industry, is as relevant today as it was back in '88. It is vital to keep re-telling and sharing this piece of history so that we may move towards true reconciliation in this country and achieve justice for Australia's First People.

    I would like to thank Phil Ruck, David Miller and others from 3MDR for their amazing support, the CBAA and CMTO for the wonderful opportunity but most importantly to the 'Red Dirt in Bondi' participants Jim, Gary, Tony, Denise and Kev for sharing the incredible Building Bridges story.

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    28 mins
  • Fairlight: How Australia Changed the Sound of Music (Artsound FM, Canberra)

    Fairlight: How Australia Changed the Sound of Music (Artsound FM, Canberra)
    Aug 19 2016
    By Paul Conn

    Listen to 'Fairlight: How Australia Changed the Sound of Music'

    Behind this strange claim is a story that started in a Sydney basement and ended up in recording studios around the world. Along the way, the sound of music (yes, the way music actually sounds) was changed.

    The best part is that it all started in Australia, just because two nerdy guys thought they would push the boundaries of technology 40 years ago without ever realising where it would lead.

    So what was this Fairlight? Its proper name was the Fairlight Computer Musical Instrument, or Fairlight CMI for short. As the pictures show, it was a plain looking computer with a keyboard, big floppy disks and monitor, but no hard drive or external storage. It was custom built long before today's mass manufactured personal computers, laptops, tablets and more. But this dull exterior hid what it could really do.

    It went from that Sydney basement through an amazing set of circumstances to the recording studios of Stevie Wonder, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Duran Duran, Tears For Fears, the Pet Shop Boys, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and literally hundreds of other musicians. In the end, you could not listen to radio in the late 1980s and not hear the Fairlight's sounds on nearly every song.

    And then, in the 1990s it just disappeared.

    Image of Fairlight CMI Synthesiser Image of Fairlight CMI Synthesiser

    'Fairlight: how Australia changed the sound of music' tells the story of its strange rise, its immense success and its sudden demise, as well as letting you hear plenty of the sound effects and music it was used to create.

    If you enjoy the Fairlight story and would like to see it in action, here are some great examples:

    Herbie Hancock showing children on a Sesame Street program what the Fairlight could do (entertaining and clever)

    Pet Shop Boys performing Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money) live in the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test in 1986, with two Fairlights in the keyboards array and up on the monitors

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    28 mins
  • Stand Up Ladies (Triple R, Melbourne)

    Stand Up Ladies (Triple R, Melbourne)
    Aug 19 2016
    By Hannah Reich

    Late last year I went along to an open mic night to support a friend of mine, Tash, who had just begun performing stand up comedy. She performed at a seedy backpacker bar in Melbourne’s CBD and though I laughed heartily at her set, I was shocked at what I heard coming out of the mouth of the MC and many other performers that night. At times I wanted to walk out, to leave behind the string of racist, sexist, transphobic and ableist remarks that these guys had tried to pass off as “comedy.” It made me wonder why Tash and the other female comedian performing that night (on a set list of around 12) would stand up in a room like that and put up with that nonsense.

    So this documentary asks the question: If there are countless funny ladies proving that the old adage that women aren’t funny is totally wrong, why are there still a lot fewer women (or female-identifying persons) at the grassroots level of the comedy world, in the open mic scene? I followed Tash to open mic nights around Melbourne and spoke with other women in the scene including comedian Lauren Bok, comedy writer Alex Neill, and Judith Lucy, the undeniable first lady of Australian comedy. My question was a hard one and the answer isn’t clear but it’s still a question worth asking. We need to keep asking these difficult questions in a world where women are still outnumbered in so many fields, where women are paid 17% less than men, and where women’s rights and voices are still being silenced. Ultimately, whatever the answer, more women need to get up, speak up and (do) stand up.

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    28 mins
  • Cracked Open (Edge Radio, Hobart)

    Cracked Open (Edge Radio, Hobart)
    Aug 19 2016
    By Britta Jorgensen

    Listen to 'Cracked Open'

    I came to this story after reading a surprising claim by Tassie's anti-battery hen campaigner Pam Clarke in an ABC news article late last year: that layer hens are no better off today than they were back in the 1980s.
    In a day and age where people are more worried about what's in their food and where it comes from than ever, where 'free range' and ‘ethically sourced' are popular buzzwords in menus and Instagram hashtags, and where more and more people are buying free range eggs from the supermarket shelf, it seemed impossible that things hadn't changed.

    The news in Tassie around that time was that yet another attempt to ban cage eggs, this time for use in the prison service, had failed.

    I wondered what was really behind all this to-ing and fro-ing. Despite an obvious push by the community to ban cage eggs, something was driving the industry to continue producing them.

    It didn't seem to make sense that here in Tassie, the ‘free range’ state, where the market scene is thriving and local farmers are proud of the way they grow their food, consumer demand for eggs produced by hens hidden away from public view in battery sheds was still going strong.

    This story takes a look behind the footage, giving some colour to an issue that’s so often painted as black and white and a voice to local figures on all sides, including the free range farmers trying to find some middle ground and perhaps a way forward.

    It cracks open what's going on in the industry right now, the way the laws aren't really protecting hens or consumers and why it matters.

    All the music in this piece is by local Hobart band and Salamanca Market regulars, The Foley Artists.

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    28 mins
  • Kabul to Kafka: Inside Australia's Community Detention Program (4ZZZ, Brisbane)

    Kabul to Kafka: Inside Australia's Community Detention Program (4ZZZ, Brisbane)
    Aug 19 2016
    By Anna Carlson

    Listen to 'Kabul to Kafka: Inside Australia's Community Detention'

    Hello, child,

    Welcome to Australia. Here are some things you'll need during your time with us.

    First, here's your boat ID number. This is so that everyone knows that you don't deserve a name. Also, yours is too hard for us to say. Next, here's your gag clause. You must keep it on at all times. If we find out that you've taken it off, we'll send you back to detention. And finally, here's your future. We've wrapped it up nice and tightly so that we can be sure that you don't open it until we tell you to. If we find out that you've tried to open it, we'll take it off you for good.

    Now, while you're in Australia, you must obey all directions from an authorised person. Who's an authorised person? I'm sorry, we are not authorised to give you that information at this time.

    Please wait patiently while your claim is assessed.

    Look, a pencil! Would you like a pencil? You could use it to draw a picture to put up in your cage. That'll make you feel better.

    What's that? You'd like to know how long you'll have to stay here?

    Sorry, Boat ID 714661X, we are not authorised to provide an exit date. It might give you too much hope...

    Drawings by children on Christmas Island, via Australian Human Rights Commission Illustration by James Foley, via jamesfoley.com.au

    Bureaucracy, boredom and the invisible cage

    In July 2015, 857 children were in immigration detention in Australia. Of those 857 children, 642 live in the community, under a program called "Community Detention." They are the "lucky" ones.

    Kabul to Kafka: Inside Australia's Community Detention program takes an inside look at what life is like for children and young adults who arrive in Australia alone. Through a collection of interviews with youth workers, caseworkers, project officers, counsellors and advocates, I look to the mundane, the everyday, to try to understand what it feels like to be a "UAM" - unaccompanied minor - in Australia.

    Right at the core of the project, however, lies a gap. When I started thinking about Kabul to Kafka, I had spoken to a number of young people who had lived in community detention and who were keen to share their stories. Once I explained the possible consequences of speaking to the media, however, almost all of my participants withdrew their consent. As a former youth worker and current community educator in Brisbane's refugee and asylum seeker communities, I was pretty unwilling to push these vulnerable and marginalised young people into a position of heightened anxiety. And so instead of direct interviews, I asked everyone I knew, to ask everyone they knew, to find stories and anecdotes from refugees and asylum seekers in community detention. These submissions make up the backbone of this documentary. They are the reason I made this work. And they are powerful. They allow us to feel, just for a moment, some of the intensity that comes of growing up in a new country, in a new city, surrounded by strangers, under the watchful gaze of the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection - the legal guardian and chief protector of young asylum seekers.

    If you feel like you’d like to speak to someone after listening to this documentary, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. They offer counselling and assistance, for free, to anyone who calls. They are a wonderful service. If this has motivated you to do something about Australia’s treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, join your local branch of the Refugee Action Collective, or contact any one of the numerous social and political organisations dedicated to softening the blow of Australia’s policies. And if you’d like any more information about this particular project, please contact Anna Carlson via Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    28 mins
  • Cathedral of a Thousand Stars (Radio Adelaide)

    Cathedral of a Thousand Stars (Radio Adelaide)
    Aug 19 2016
    By Lisa Burns

    Deep in the South Australian outback lies a place only accessible via dirt track and almost 200km from the nearest town. Out-of-towners know the small, mostly Aboriginal community of Oodnadatta as little more than a fuel fill and a quick feed. Few venture beyond the bowsers of the iconic Pink Roadhouse.

    But over at the church ground rises the Cathedral of a Thousand Stars. It’s an open-air church run by Julia Warren, a local Aboriginal woman. Julia founded the Oodnadatta Faith Community in 2007, on the same earth that missionaries from the United Aborigines Mission built the Oodnadatta Children’s Home in 1924. A slab of concrete is all that remains of the Home, but for generations past and present, its impact has been much more lasting.

    Cathedral of a Thousand Stars follows the stories of two Aboriginal women separated by time but united by place. Their stories are shaped by family, culture, survival and hope, and together they highlight the diversity of spirituality and faith in Australia.

    A heartfelt thank you to the Aunties for sharing their stories. Julia Warren (Preacher, Oodnadatta Faith Community Leader), Mona Olsson, (Yankunytjatjara Woman, Stolen Generations Survivor), Reverend Denise Champion (Adnyamathanha Woman, Minister at UAICC Port Augusta), Linda Sutton (Poet, Writer, Former Minister & Gulf FM 89.3 Broadcaster), Karina Lester (Yankunytjatjara Woman, Aboriginal Language Worker, Niece of Auntie Mona Olsson) and Merrilyn Maine (Organist at Western Link Uniting Church).

    Oodnadatta Image by Lisa Burns.png Open-air church Oodnadatta Faith Image Lisa Burns.png

    Thanks also to the Oodnadatta community, Ian Dempster from Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, Reverend Jenny Swanbury, Radio Adelaide, the CMTO trainers and mentors, and my friends and family for their ongoing support throughout the making of this feature.

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    28 mins
  • It's the Satanic Verses, Love (Vision Australia Radio, Melbourne)

    It's the Satanic Verses, Love (Vision Australia Radio, Melbourne)
    Aug 19 2016
    By Stella Glorie

    Listen to 'It's the Satanic Verses, Love'

    One of the first audio books Ruth Mercer read after joining the RVIB (Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind) library some thirty years ago was Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. The postman delivered all 32 tapes to her front door and announced “It’s the Satanic Verses, love”.

    Ruth maintains to this day that if she had tried to read it in print rather than audio form she would not have finished the book. For me, the postman's words demonstrate how Ruth and the other book group members chose to approach their blindness: with a mix of realism and humour.

    The group meet monthly in the Vision Australia office building where I work - 'just another blind bunch of old women'. It was that they were blind and older and loved books that attracted me to them. I enjoyed their company instantly. They are unafraid to laugh loudly or to use their minds, voices and opinions. I have been moved by their involved and zealous discussions about books which, more broadly, are conversations about the world in general.

    While all of them enjoy reading it is Jan who is the most passionate about books; she keenly felt the loss of her ability to read. She missed browsing through bookshops. For most book lovers, walking into a bookshop is akin to a spiritual experience, giving a sense of purpose and place. For Ruth, while she did take pleasure in books, she says it's newspapers she missed the most.

    “I always imagined that when I retired I would sit in bed every morning with my cup of tea and read The Age. Sadly, I can’t.”

    It’s the Satanic Verses, love.

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    28 mins