The Ballarat Community Radio Co-Operative recently celebrated a major milestone in its colourful existence, turning 21 years old. Former 3BBB broadcaster Bryce Ives, who became the General Manager of Syn FM and is now working for the ABC, tells radioinfo how community radio changed his life.
For twenty-one years 3BBB, known these days as 99.9 Voice FM, has been proudly broadcasting diverse local voices which are often excluded or marginalised in the mainstream media.
Bryce Ives began his radio career there. He pays tribute to the station’s contribution to his life and career in this article for radioinfo.
3BBB has been a major part of my life. I grew up secretly listening to 3BBB. And it opened my mind to a world of music, politics, comedy and culture.
As an 11-year-old I sat in my bedroom, an oasis in our three-bedroom brick-veneer Wendouree suburban McMansion. From my wireless, which was a birthday present from my grandparents, I was taken on a journey away from my Wendouree adolescence.
There were obscure and almost unheard-of punk recordings, readings of local poetry, the occasional late-night anarchy program, comic-book discussions, classical music and even the weekly BFL Footy match, which was always made to sound slightly more exciting then it actually was thanks to the volunteer commentators.
The presenters became my friends: Bohdan, The Black Sheep, Bren Luke, the Black Hill Rocker Lou Kelly, Len Reid, Paul Demunk and Noel Stingers. They were raw and off-the-cuff, but they had an indescribable enthusiasm in their voices. They sounded real.
In reality they were not the hyped up “another 22 minutes of coolness” radio announcers that I was used to. They were just normal everyday people: teachers, managers, café-workers, nurses, accountants. They came from all walks of life. Sometimes they talked banal rubbish. Sometimes they made mistakes and, yes, they often got confused or lost track of a conversation midway through a talk-break. But it was like listening to friends talking at the pub.
When I was 13, I rode my bike down to the 3BBB studios and invited myself onto the air. The studios were like a cross between a cool 20-something’s bedroom and a bomb site. There were CDs everywhere. Good ones and crap ones (mostly crap ones, because the good ones would inevitably be “borrowed” and never returned). It was organised chaos.
There were posters for the local music sensation The Mavis’s, and couches which had seen better days. And lots of coffee. Coffee (and probably beer) was the drink of choice around the station.
Over the course of my teenage years, I presented numerous programs and was occasionally booted off the air for offensive language and or not following the rules. But it was always a haven and I grew up on the air on 3BBB and Voice FM.
My journey since 3BBB has seen me travel around Australia, sit on the board of the national Community Broadcasting organisation, serve as Chairman of the National Youth Media Network and become the first General Manager of Australia’s largest youth radio station and recently commence at the ABC. It is safe to say that 3BBB changed my life.
Reaching 21 years is a big achievement for any organisation. But it is especially important for an organisation which is completely volunteer-driven and survives on the goodwill of our community.
In its time 3BBB/Voice FM has been an innovator, a guiding light in the Australian community broadcasting sector and at times it has struggled to survive week-to-week. It has had some tremendous highs and some even more spectacular lows.
But it is a survivor.
At the recent 21st birthday celebrations, one of the stations long-term volunteers, Noel Stingers, summed up the station and the mood of its volunteers perfectly: “We are all individuals, and we have one thing in common – community radio. We work together for the betterment of our station and we impact on our local community.”
Community radio is not meant to be perfect, and 3BBB/Voice FM is far from it. But it is a space that allows for freedom and creativity. It is a space that is always changing and never bland. And it is a space that is owned by us: The community of Ballarat.
Here’s to the future to independent media in Ballarat and to 21 years of 3BBB/Voice FM.
Bryce Ives is currently the ABC Online Producer for Heywire and a Board Member of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia. He used to look like this:
