Gippsland FM (3GCR) celebrated its 30th birthday in November, 2007. This event was significant for a number of reasons:
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Bev Loraine, Richard Werner Hilary Reynolds, Mario Sammut, David Ellis
Firstly, the station history has been somewhat chequered and at times tumultuous; simply surviving those challenges and prospering in more recent years is an achievement in itself;
q New and changing technology was a significant barrier over the journey and the station was eventually able to cope financially and technically despite many lean years at the start; and
q The culture and expectations of our audience had to evolve. In the early days 3GCR was the only FM radio station broadcasting in Gippsland; most of the community did not know much about FM radio and thought the station was some sort of “ham-radio” outfit; our call-sign back than was 3GCR-FM which did not help much either given that audiences were not used to such long names. In addition, many motor vehicles did not even have FM radios – so connecting with the audience was a real challenge in those times.
After thirty years, it is most notable that the station still pursues and largely delivers upon the aspirations of the station’s founders who crafted the objectives and station promise of performance way back in the mid-1970’s. Those aims were to establish a non-profit volunteer-run organisation providing an alternative radio service for the local community, complementing and supplementing the national and commercial radio networks. We have held true to our values as a real community radio station supporting the whole community and offering access to all its constituents. In doing so, Gippsland FM aims to provide a broad range of programming to meet the needs of the local community. In other words, Gippsland FM is the station for “all the people some of the time” – as opposed to other media that broadcast to “some of the people all of the time.”
Our journey parallels the wider community sector in that it was community radio that pioneered the development of FM stereo broadcasting in Australia. This is a risk the commercial sector would not take – and in 1977 when Gippsland FM (or 3GCRFM as we were then known) commenced broadcasting, it suffered from a range of problems relating to this:
§ Other local stations were still on the AM band;
§ Listeners did not appreciate that FM radio required a “TV-like” antenna for best reception; and
§ People could not listen until they procured an FM radio at home, etc.
This served to retard momentum for our sector and our station – particularly in a rural community. Whether or not history will repeat itself in regard to the next step change is arguable. However the role of community broadcasters in pioneering into new frontiers should not be lost when considering the next generation of change.
Since 1977, Gippsland FM has provided a wide range of programs to a diverse range of audiences in the local region. We have had more than 3000 volunteer presenters involved and of course many more participating as guests, assistants or casual participants. Our station has tried to meet a wide range of diverse community needs and in the process has delivered long running programs in the following areas:
§ Arts and culture;
Gippsland FM has also established a warm and co-operative relationship with the local music industry. This relationship was built over many years of support for the local industry by our station. Notably, Gippsland FM would be the only station in the region to consistently provide opportunities for local musicians to perform live to air – either from our studios or via outside broadcasts from local venues.
The more significant and enduring aspects of our broadcasting achievements include:
The station has also been a keen supporter of local festivals and has regularly presented live broadcasts from such events. We have even presented a live description of a fireworks display (try doing that on radio) and broadcast from a helicopter above a community fun-day.
We have also broadcast significant national issues when events have been held locally; examples of this include the broadcast of Prime Minister Howard’s address to a huge crowd at the Sale Football Ground (during the height of the guns debate in the mid-1990’s) and we presented the public debate held on the republic issue – moderated by Sir Ninian Stephen and featuring Dame Leonie Kramer and Professor Donald Horn in front of an audience of some 500 local people. Many other similar examples have occurred over our history.
Volunteers are our greatest asset – but sometimes they bring special challenges. In the late 1980’s, the station decided that having a reliable and good quality breakfast program was important in enhancing our credibility in the community and to establish a launching pad for other programs being presented.
However, getting volunteers out of bed at 5am was problematic; so the station decided to pay people to present the breakfast show. All went well for a while, but eventually the paid presenters even adopted the poor attendance patterns that had previously occurred, upon which the program co-ordinator reflected – “why do we have to pay them not to show-up, when we can get them not to show-up for free!”
Over its (almost) thirty year history, Gippsland FM has suffered from a lack of stability in its management, financial performance and volunteer effort required to maintain all systems operating.
It is not a coincidence that the station’s fortunes have reflected those of the community it serves. The Latrobe Region experienced the most significant industry re-structuring in Australia and was acknowledged as the region most in need of government assistance. With the loss of more than 20,000 jobs in 1990’s – the economic and social impact was significant and impacted the confidence and development of Gippsland FM.
However, the tough times helped demonstrate the relative importance of a properly functioning community radio station in a regional setting. The massive economic and social change occurred primarily due to the reliance of the community on the electricity industry which experienced significant re-structuring resulting in considerable unemployment and associated social problems. As such, Gippsland FM became a voice where the real social issues affecting the local community were promoted and debated without the hand of private media ownership or Government control being manifest. In addition, Gippsland FM has been a focal point for many of those who have been alienated by the industry reform process.
The station therefore plays a unique role in linking the community together and providing support where other media forms simply exploit opportunities available to them. Gippsland FM has and continues to provide opportunities for local people to learn new skills, build self–esteem and potential for new directions in life. The evidence of this is in the significant number of station personnel involved today who are not in formal employment. It should also be noted that recent recruiting campaigns have been “over subscribed” with significant numbers of people desirous of participating in the station.
Consequently, the past five years at Gippsland FM have seen a significant improvement in the management and governance of the station and its financial performance. A recent independent audience survey has also proven that the station still is regarded as providing a valuable contribution to the local community with the retention of a significant listening audience (around 30,000 listeners each week).
The recent relocation of the station to new premises in Morwell has also been significant in not only bringing people together to achieve what was a challenging project (financially and logistically) but also in providing new facilities which allowed the station to function in a much more efficient manner. The recent establishment of a new transmitter has also been fundamental in ensuring quality reception in the listening area and the station is currently completing an upgrade to its studio operating panels after more than 20 years use of the previous mixing desks.
Currently the station has around 80 volunteers who present programs each week and assist in other functions. Local people deliver programs on a daily basis from 6.00am to midnight – with overnight services provided from the community radio satellite. In the past, volunteer numbers have been as high as 100 – and this could again be achieved in the near future.
One of the most striking changes to occur in more recent times has been the change in self-identity for the station. For most of its history, Gippsland FM has struggled financially, however with significant audience numbers and a stronger sense of community support, the station has ceased viewing itself as a “charity” requiring support and assisted a number of other community organisations – either through direct financial contribution or in-kind support. Examples of this include a donation of over $2,500 towards the local cancer care ward at the Latrobe Regional Hospital (a donation that would have been deemed unachievable some years ago) and in-kind support to local kindergartens, Relay for Life cancer appeal and other similar events.
Matters technical have always been a perennial challenge for our station. Our station may not be dissimilar to others, but our “technical journey” has been interesting to say the least.
On the day the station was opened by the Federal Minister (the late Eric Robinson), the station was off the air within an hour when a backhoe dug up the landline connecting the studio to the transmitter. Sadly this set the pattern for many years of set-backs in the technical arena.
When the station commenced operation in 1977, management was concerned that audiences would not be tolerant of possible lower standards of broadcast. To mitigate this, it was decreed that all programs be pre-recorded; even the bridging announcements between programs were pre-taped on cassettes – with one cassette for each announcement so that the announcement could be easily cued for airplay. The station would be put to air by having “operators” simply play all these tapes and cassettes in order. Not much spontaneity, but a measured product for sure; one presenter even had 48 programs “in the can” prior to opening day – almost a year ahead for his weekly program.
After commencing broadcasts from a fairly professional audio-visual studio in (what in now Monash University Gippsland Campus), the operation was transferred to a small studio constructed within the transmitter shed on the campus. One of the major problems at that time was the performance of the exciter which was subject to variation during period of high temperatures and maintaining frequency was a real issues – sometimes you could receive the station on a dozen frequencies!. Affording an air-conditioner did eventually assist, but it was an on-going task for presenters to adjust the frequency on hot days and nights. Another problem in the “shed” was that the transmission tower was next to the studio – and the exciter had enough power on its own for a signal to be received in the studio below. As a result, there was more than one occasion that the operator forgot to turn the transmitter on and spent many hours broadcasting to a range of about 30 metres from the tower.
Bigger and better studios beckoned and as finances allowed these were established – the station subsequently moved another three times between 1981 and 2003; each new location better than the previous facilities. With such improvements came greater participation and the station was able to increase its weekly hours of broadcast – remember these were the days before ComRadSat.
Probably the biggest technical change that occurred from a community point of view was the change in broadcast frequency from 103.5MHz to 104.7MHz. This change was seen as necessary by the government to facilitate changes to television broadcast frequencies.
However, a most significant change occurred “on the inside” with the introduction of compact discs (CD’s) – which revolutionised cueing of music and determining how long tracks would run – given that such information was displayed on the CD player. Radio presentation became a more precise art-form with much greater control over the sound sources being used. This was further enhanced in more recent years with the introduction of the personal computer and the range of software now available to assist station programming, although the change from vinyl to CD’s was far more profound.
In May of 1988 thieves broke into the Morwell studios and took all studio equipment – except for the operating panel. The breakfast presenter was most shocked to find not one item available to produce any kind of sound on the air. Fortunately, the station had accumulated enough second-hand equipment to get back on air in a few days, but this was not to be the first time the station suffered from thieves or vandals.
In July of 1988, the station was able to present continuous broadcasts with the installation of the overnight system comprising a CD stacker playing random tracks and a Cart machine with announcements interspersed at various times.
By the early 1990’s, the station had established telephone talk-back facilities and seven second delay infrastructure. This gave the station the ability to not only undertake talk-back and interviews via the telephone, but also the ability to undertake outside broadcasts where a telephone connection was available. This was mostly used for sporting events, but also assisted the station in building its profile at other community festivals and the like.
Probably the most significant event in terms of technology was the establishment of the community broadcasting satellite network. This enabled the station to enhance its content and of course remain “live” overnight. The development of the news service was also a key outcome from the satellite facilities.
In a technical sense, not much else changed until the advent of the personal computer evolved to the stage where large amounts of data were able to be held on these machines. By the late 1990’s, this had consequently lead to the storage of music and announcements and the presentation of such items was via computers rather than analogue recordings (on tape such as Cart Machines).
But for Gippsland FM – it was only a couple of years ago that a long held dream finally came to fruition. This was the installation of identical broadcast mixing panels in two studios. This meant that people could train on the same panel that they would broadcast on. For most of our history, our training studio rarely had much similarity to the broadcast studio – and this meant a significant compromise for new presenters when first on-air.
Gippsland FM has had a vibrant, exciting, challenging and rewarding thirty years to look back on. It has much to be proud of and is a testament to many who have hung on during the bleak periods to sow the seeds of success that it has ultimately achieved. Importantly, there has been a significant core of volunteers who have stuck with the station, not only providing expertise and guidance for the future, but also significant linkages to our history and heritage.
At the celebratory function held to recognise the 30 year milestone, the station established a Hall of Fame to acknowledge the volunteer support and efforts of those who have made a significant contribution. A minimum requirement was that such people had delivered at least ten years service and it was with much pride that the station was able to acknowledge 43 people who were awarded this honour.
Thirty years is a generation in human terms and Gippsland FM is proud to say that it is has succeeded in reaching the next generation. Congratulations to all who shared the journey.