Why community radio is so desperately important

It's 12.30am on Wednesday 24th August and I'm sitting at home drinking warm sake and listening to Dominique presenting the excellent punk-ska-rockabilly show Atomic on Melbourne's community radio station 3RRR.

Should you live somewhere other than Australia, community radio may be a foreign concept to you. Take the best elements of college radio in the USA, add a dash of the sadly-missed Peel Sessions from the UK, take away any suggestion of playlisting, and you have some idea of community radio.

I'm a RRR presenter, so I'm biased, but bear in mind that I don't get paid for presenting a three-hour radio show every week - I do it cos I love it, and cos I love RRR and what it stands for.

Without this station broadcasting at 102.7 FM, Melbourne would be so less rich artistically and musically. Commercial radio stations don't play new music unless it originates from a record label who basically/effectively/actually pay them to do so. Commercial radio doesn't interview emerging visual artists whose exhibitions are fundraisers for organisations combatting the trafficking of women as sex-slaves. Commercial radio doesn't allow listeners to call up and be instantly put through to the presenter to inquire about the name of a song that has just gone to air. In my opnion, commercial radio does fuck all to support anything other than its financial interests.

3RRR supports independent artists across EVERY artform. Please subscribe during this year's annual Radiothon: http://www.rrr.org.au/subscribe.php

Postscript: A HUGE thank-you from the bottom of my heart to the 126 people who called up the station this morning to pledge a subscription to 3RRR during my show on Thurs 25th August. You're legends, each and every one of you!