Perth Voice Interactive

LABOR’S contender for the federal Perth seat Tim Hammond says his party will restore funding for community radio if they win government (“Gasping for air,” Voice, May 13, 2016).

The Turnbull government has pulled $1.4million a year out of the budget for digital community radio as part of a platform of “keeping government spending growth under control” and reducing long-term debt.

For Mt Lawley-based RTR (a respite from the constant ads, asinine stories and endless giveaways on Perth’s top of the pop stations) the cut means they’ll lose at least $10,000 a year.

Crucial

“For community stations like us it is a crucial amount of money,” RTR’s general manager Stuart MacLeod said in May.

RTR chairperson Rewi Lyall (a long time Labor man who previously worked for Alannah MacTiernan) points out the cuts came in the same supposedly thrifty budget that gave commercial TV and radio stations a 25 per cent cut on their licence fees.

The community broadcasting sector grouped together to launch a petition Keep Community Radio and within a month they’d soared to near 50,000 signatures.

Labor’s now pledged $5.6 million across four years and the Greens have also committed to restoring the funding.

Mr Hammond, who went to the first In The Pines music mini-fest organised by the station back when he was a shaggy UWA arts student (and even bought the shirt), says “losing RTR would be a major blow to Perth’s music scene. It’s one of the only outlets for up and coming Perth bands to get a foot in the door, and has championed WA music and journalism for years”.

Capital Radio DJ, vice president and produce Rod Culley says they provide a lot of comfort for the elderly and those who live alone, saying his station reaches up to 40,000 people daily. Devoted listeners have held parties for station staff and invited DJs into their home for meals, after building up a personal rapport.

by DAVID BELL