Newsletter

CRAM Guide

The CRAM Guide is 3CR's bi-annual print newsletter. It includes news, articles and events as well as an updated Program Guide. It is posted to 3CR Subscribers twice a year (June and November).

The June 2008 Edition

Articles include Kevin Healey seeking to re-focus our attention after the recent relief of coming out of the dark ages with his article 3CR – Still Relevant After the Honeymoon?, Damaris Baker writing on the constraints on paid journalists in doing investigative work in Sinking beneath the airwaves and Elanor McInerney talks to 3CR broadcaster Kutcha Edwards about his feelings on the Day of National Apology.

The CRAM also profiles new and established 3CR programs and gives you the up-to-date Program Guide.

Subscribe to 3CR and receive your own copy of the CRAM Guide.

Read the Station Manager's Radiothon rouser>>

Change is in the air
2 – 15 June 2008

3CR – Sounds like change is the theme of this year’s Radiothon, a theme that will have resonance for all of us in a variety of ways.

When I consider change I think of two major events that have impacted upon the political landscape in the last 6 months.

The night of the 2007 Federal election, I was at the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia Conference Awards night where 3CR won two awards - one for the program Radio New Internationalist and another for the training course for Roominations that saw over 10 rooming house residents get trained in radio production.

Interspersed between the formalities of the awards night, a screen off to the side of the stage slowly revealed the results of the Federal election. For most of the audience that night, the change was a welcome relief from the retrograde, regressive policies of the Howard era. There was a great sense in that room of change on the horizon, a shift of feeling that rippled across the country.

On the morning of the 13th of February this year, many people again looked to screens all over the country and held their breath and hoped for something different from the new Federal Government on the Day of National Apology. For most people, once again the possibility of hope and optimism pervaded the air.

3CR has always located hope and optimism in the daily and ongoing commitment of progressive, grass-roots communities who work for change. 3CR has given voice to dissent and actively campaigned for the Federal Government to say sorry to the Stolen Generations for government policies that forcibly removed children from their families. 3CR has been at the vanguard, covering these stories long before the mainstream media considers the issues involved. We are at the frontline of the debate on many issues, from the environment to prison issues to Indigenous campaigns, broadcasting from the unique perspective our grassroots access offers and telling the story from inside an event.

This time last year 3CR was broadcasting the enthusiastic dissent to the WorkChoices legislation while casting a critical eye over how Australia’s ‘war on terror’ had caught David Hicks, Jack Thomas and The Barwon 13 in its net. It remains to be seen what the Federal Labor Government will do to change some of the more troubling legislation introduced during Howard’s reign. Turn to page ( ) to read what Kevin Healy, 3CR’s resident satirist, has to say about what has changed post Howard and why 3CR remains important.

This year our Radiothon fundraising target is $210,000 and we need every bit of this to stay on the air (and webstreaming globally at www.3cr.org.au.)

Consider these statistics for a moment. Over 130 programs, over 400 broadcasters, 24 hours, 7 days a week…all of that on a budget of $600,000 per year. It costs us less than $80 per hour to produce unique and dissenting radio.

Rapidly developing technology opens up new opportunities for media outlets (on-air software, podcasting, streaming globally, and digital radio amongst them), however it also places new and pressing demands on the under-funded resources of community organisations such as 3CR. At present 3CR is determined to ensure a future audience for 3CR by embracing new opportunities. However, we are doing so with no increase in staffing levels.

We do a lot for less here at 3CR. If you’ve never donated money to the station please do it now and for those of you who donate regularly please consider donating more this year!

Libby Jamieson

November 2007 CRAM Guide