RTR FM Radiothon 2010

Sun 15th Aug, 2010 in Features

In its 33rd year, RTRFM is Perth’s premier and oldest FM station. With over thirty years of dedicated hard work from volunteers and support from the community, they have much of which to be proud. With their annual Radiothon coming up next week, we sat down with Graeme Watson, the General Manager of the station, to talk shop.

RTRFM began life as part of UWA as 6UVS FM in 1977. In 1991 the station became independent of the University and transformed into RTRFM. Since its beginning, RTR has been about exploring independent, underground and local music as well as highlighting issues and stories that were not getting mainstream media coverage and supporting arts and culture.

Financed and run by the community, the station is able to be a truly independent media outlet. Despite facing great financial challenges, it remains community owned and is not beholden to any financier or interest group. This liberty allows them to maintain a high level of integrity as well as the opportunity to be at the creative cutting edge.

There are fifty distinctly different programs on RTRFM, presented by over 150 volunteers and staff members all with a passion for what they do and specialist knowledge in their area. The range of sounds and voices heard on the station provide an outlet for people in the community who might not otherwise have access to broadcasting. The variety of people is reflected in the variety of programs, ranging from specialist talk shows on specific areas of interest, such as the environment, to music-based programs dealing with everything from the music of the 1930s to local indie bands. Asked to pick the most popular, Watson diplomatically replies that everyone has their favourites, and puts in a good word for Breakfast, Lunch and Drive, but he goes on to talk about some of the niche programs as well. “Some shows have been going for decades like Drastic on Plastic which focuses on female musicians, while other, newer programs like All Things Queer and Mutation have become popular quickly.”

The future of the station looks good in this age of citizen journalism, it’s almost as if the rest of the world is catching up with what RTR has known for years. So what’s coming up in the immediate future? “Ask me after Radiothon! As we are a community broadcaster we rely on our listeners subscribing to survive for another year. But there’s lots of exciting things happening; this year we’ve begun doing our own news bulletins, we’ve got some great redevelopment of our online services happening and some really exciting events coming up later in the year.”

They’ll also be putting out a call for new program ideas later this year, and have some outside broadcasts planned in the next few months. “We’ll be beginning digital broadcasting in early 2011, it’s an exciting new platform that presents lots of creative opportunities. During Radiothon we have some digital radios as prizes!”

The challenge for RTR is raising all their own money to pay the bills which for a radio station are substantial, and hence the Radiothon. “Radiothon is really fun time in the station, it’s ten days of spontaneity, fun and craziness. We’re really looking forward to doing the Breakfast program live at Caffissimo at the Art Gallery on Friday August 20th… So many guests are dropping by including the Brow Horn Orchestra, Split Seconds, Abbe May and Josh Thomas …”

Caffissimo will give you a coffee and a muffin whilst you watch Peter Barr make radio happen and more entertainingly, watch bands try to function before midday.

On Saturday 21 Aug, The Radiothon Opening Party is at The Astor with three genre stages and MC Tomas Ford, and then for ten days the presenters will tempt you with prizes, song requests and physical challenges to get you to subscribe during their show. The presenters with the most subscribers get to keep on being radio stars for another year, so they’ll pretty much do anything you ask. So ask!