In 2001, Luke Eygenraam was a teenager living in Whyalla South Australia.  By day, starting a communications degree at the local campus; by night a volunteer on the community radio station 5YYY.  At home he would tune in to a slightly scratchy AM signal coming across the Spencer Gulf to hear Adelaide’s first community radio station, 5UV. This was back in the day when people used to tape interesting things off the radio.  On the anniversary of September 11, Luke, now a volunteer at 5UV, which is now called Radio Adelaide, dug into his treasure trove of archival tapes to take listeners back to coverage of the Twin Towers.

5UV was Australia’s first community station, broadcasting on AM 531 since 1972, on 101.5 FM since 2002, and from 2011 also on digital radio.

Luke started listening to 5UV after an Adelaide band had toured to Whyalla, a rare event.  They mentioned they would feature on 5UV’s Local Noise program, playing live to air. Following Local Noise at 11pm was Student Radio, a new world of potential mayhem struggling through the static and buzz.

Fast forward ten years and Luke, (now in Adelaide completing a Bachelor of Media), is a Radio Adelaide volunteer, producer on The Range and its weekly live music slot The Friday Sessions, and content provider for new program The Scenery.

He kept some of his cassette recording treasure trove, including one historical night in September, 2001.  Click for the audio of two student radio presenters struggling to come to terms with reports from New York.

These days Luke can be heard on The Friday Sessions on The Range, a weekly music program featuring live-to-air musicians from Adelaide and South Australia, with the occasional national and international guests.  You can listen in on Fridays from 4pm on Digital Radio, online and 101.5fm, or check out their podcasts here: http://radio.adelaide.edu.au/therange.  

If you want to tape it on your cassette player, it is technically illegal, but we think the station will look the other way.