Community Radio, So What?
Last night I was lucky enough to attend the National Gallery of Victoria’s Winter Nights. Tickets were $32 a pop but the exhibition promised a survey of the entire history of modern art. A bold promise in anyone’s book. The big names were certainly there - Warhol, Dali and Rothko and even if it was mostly B-sides on display you still in the company of greatness.
Out front the line snaked back and forward before the a glass wall with water cascading down it and floor lights beaming colours so they danced on that water. The line moved quickly through the cold, yet not as quickly as the American Express valued customer queue which much like any express queue on a budget airline, was shorter and faster. Inside the foyer’s vaulted ceiling a floor fan swung on a long white ribbon to keep air and people moving.
The exhibition itself was a huge achievement for the NGV. It began with the founders of modern art with Van Gogh and Cezanne, then on to primitivism and cubism then through the trauma of the First World War expressed in Dada and the Futurists. Attendees would then see promises of the early Soviet experiment culminate in logic, cogs, the metropolis and triumph of the machine. By the time you reached Warhol and the second half of the twentieth century it was clear that the dominant theme had shifted from people and society to consumerism and money. The final exhibition that lead seamlessly to the gift shop was telling - two video game consoles playing Space Invaders - people looked on awkwardly as others played the outdated game - the artwork and the product had reached unity at last.
Back in the foyer bottled beers were $9.50 at the Asahi Dry Bar. Those waiting could watch an advertisement beamed on loop from a flat screen television of handsome white people enjoying a meal in an authentic Japanese restaurant. A whiskered Teppanyaki chef glowered at them through the flames of tossed minute steak. Again Amex holders got an express queue but I had time to think.
Earlier that day I had been notified by the projects committee at Melbourne community radio station 3CR that a grant from a small Bank I was hoping to apply for was off limits. Corporate money ran counter to 3CR’s charter. I was a little miffed at first. I had been chasing funding for a five part radio series for six months with no success. The series would investigate Victoria’s La Trobe Valley a region suffering through the decline of the coal industry. It had a strong community and lessons applicable across Australia could be shared, problems explained and opportunities uncovered. It would air at a crucial time in the lead-up to Victoria’s state election. The program the series would run on has thousands of listeners throughout Melbourne, and potentially had the power to educate and influence voters. When it came to money, I thought, practicality should prevail - the end surely justified the means.
Yet standing in the non-Amex holder line, hypnotised by an idiotic beer ad on repeat in an art gallery built with public funds, that I had paid $32 to enter it became clear exactly what corporate money meant. Some money was more expensive than others.
The curators at the NGV had put together a world-class art exhibition but they cannot have initially envisaged running video advertisements in the lobby or an entry system that separated those who had a particular credit card and those who did not.
I can hear the charge that I’m being too idealistic. Perhaps, yet a quick survey of the Australian print and online media landscape yields the same conclusions as that survey of modern art - that corporate money is corrosive, it demands space and compromise that excludes. News Corp is a no-brainer but Fairfax (“Independent Always”) has its premier mastheads subservient to the Domain Group, and runs a constant stream of stories about miracle property millionaires, tonally at odds with its other content. The beacon is the Guardian that can honestly pursue investigative journalism specifically because it is donations based.
Like the Guardian, 3CR is also donations based. Because of this, since 1976 it has only served the community it was built to service. In doing so it has provided a platform for voices that struggle for representation elsewhere. They speak amongst the 120 weekly programs that explore issues important to indigenous, refugee, community language, community affairs and LGBTI communities. Every second spent mentioning a corporate sponsor would be a second these voices were not being heard.
The range of subjects on 3CR is wide. The program that I volunteer for is a partnership with Beyond Zero Emissions a not-for-profit think tank that provides a blueprint for Australia to be a zero emissions economy.
3CR is technologically rickety operation. The control panel in the main studio looks more like a prop from Das Boot and a mice problem is being battled in the kitchen. It would be an easy prospect indeed for to leverage its average weekly listening audience of 120,000 for some corporate cash. But that money would be earned at too great a price. How long before we were talking on-air about Japanese beer and American credit cards?
The donations model does not guarantee survival but it does guarantee independence. Donations are hard to get but they come with a guarantee. Tomorrow is the final day of 3CR’s donation drive. If you feel that independence is important you can donate through Give Now.