The last four years have seen cuts proposed to community radio funding on a number of occasions, with $1.4 million ripped from its underbelly over the next four years (from 2016 on).
The above is a perfectly normal sentence if divorced from its context. But once we actually consider what this means to millions of people, it’s a sobering and altogether infuriating situation. Coupled with the New South Wales Government’s lockout laws and an altogether indifferent approach to property developers and magnates gentrifying entire areas for their own vested interests, it’s a sobering series of ignorance, and the latest in a string of recent severances for the creative community.
It says an awful lot about a complete lack of understanding as to the social and cultural importance of the radio medium for individuals and groups. Modern Australia is built on a principle of multiculturalism, no matter the efforts of some to undermine or tarnish it, and the maintenance of an accessible, funded and supported community radio station network is essential for a number of reasons.
It is essential in satisfying the fundamental need to learn and to communicate with other people. It is essential in providing a voice to those less enabled and to those seeking an avenue for their expression. It is essential in offering an outlet for local musicians and broadcasters; to have their music heard without reliance on commercial stations and their ineffective quota systems. It is essential in respecting our cultural and ethnic differences and how we can learn from one another.
With those multiple cultures comes, of course, the richness of their music, the nuance of their rite and ritual, and the innate difference in perspective that cultures afford one another. History has taught us that the cross-pollination of ideas is the building block of evolution and progress.
This isn’t just important for the disenfranchised within our society. It is incredibly important for the many who will find their home here in the coming decades. Even the most cursory of glances at immigration statistics shows India as the leading country of origin; India, a country which has 22 officially recognised languages, let alone the hundreds of others that permeate its diverse geographical and cultural tapestry. What better way to welcome them than to divorce one of their connections to the broader community!
Commercial radio, what with advertising and reduction of licence fees, has found the transition to digital a smooth and largely unfettered process. Let’s work together to remind the powers that be that community radio deserves more than a slow and ungratifying path into oblivion.
[Photo by Brian Lary /freeimages.com]
This week’s playlist:
Miles Davis’ live Agharta record, in all its stunning, world-shattering, all-consuming construction-and-destruction-of-rhythm glory. Simply incredible. Neu’s debut album; a Kraut-klassic exercise in ambient and ever-changing soundscapes through repetition. And Francis Bebey’sPsychedelic Sanza 1982-1984:the second fabulous compilation of but a small part of the Cameroonian artist’s work; an occasionally deranged, transformative chunk of bikutsi, and a modern blend of ethnic traditions.
Recommended:
FRIDAYJANUARY 20
Fouk, Attic DJs @The Civic Underground
Baba Stiltz [below] @Goodbar
THURSDAY JANUARY 26
Mathew Jonson, Extrawelt @Greenwood Hotel
FRIDAYJANUARY 27
Floating Points, Red Greg @Jam Gallery
SATURDAY JANUARY 28
Analog Cabin Live @The Bearded Tit
FRIDAYFEBRUARY 3
Andras, Spice, Rainbow Disco @The Civic Underground
