Wrong wavelength
THE Federal government has cut $1.4 million per year from community radio.
This is critical funding for our future in digital radio.
Digital radio will replace existing AM and FM bands in the near future.
If we can’t pay for our transmission costs – which this federal funding pays for – our community stations will be under threat.
Community radio stations such as RTRFM 92.1 in Perth are a vital part of the media landscape.
We provide opportunities to hundreds of Western Australians every year to engage with communities of interest here and around the world.
Our programs are heard live and in re-streams by hundreds of thousands of people every week.
We operate on a shoestring – our turnover is less than $1 million per year.
We rely on volunteers to present diverse and alternative programs not heard elsewhere on Western Australian radio.
Those same volunteers dedicate hundreds of hours per year to assist with fundraising events that are essential to meet our day-to-day operating costs.
We need your support to convince the government to reverse this decision.
Please sign our petition at http://www.keepcommunityradio.org.au.
Yes, Prime Minister, audience habits are changing and we need to change with them.
But please don’t lecture those of us who have to find new ways to obtain revenue every year on the need for innovation.
Here’s an innovative idea: rather than giving commercial TV and radio a 25 per cent cut on their licence fees, keep the money and keep community radio.
Rewi Lyall
Bulwer Street, Perth

Not a way to treat homeless
WITH regards to your lead story in the June 4 issue about the PCC Ranger and other staff’s treatment of the homeless young woman, I am disgusted.
Firstly, I have a friend who just returned from travels to San Francisco, and yes the very large number of homeless there included many with extremely aggressive behaviour, so this is a public disturbance and deserves to be handled as such.
But this woman was offending no one, and as far as debates about the legality of begging go, it would appear that there is no debate to be had.  Bottom line is that it’s not acceptable behaviour by officers of a local authority on the job.
It brings to mind that movie of a few years ago “Trading Places”…….
Keehan
Flinders Street, Mt Hawthorn