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At a time when communities are having long-overdue conversations about white supremacy and navigating the challenges of COVID-19, the need to build and properly resource independent and resilient communities is greater than ever before. Throughout this period, Radio Skid Row’s role within the media sector has become more crucial, while facing our toughest challenges yet.
Radio Skid Row first went to air in 1982 with test broadcasts to Long Bay Jail. We got our broadcast licence in 1983. From the outset, we have supported the most marginalised and disadvantaged communities. And for the last 37 years we have committed to building a future where everyone’s voices are heard in the media. We believe in Creative Storytelling, we believe in the Power of Music and above all we believe in Media Justice!
The station’s first broadcasters included members of Redfern's Indigenous community, migrant railway workers from the Eveleigh St Railyards and just about every activist group in Sydney including Greenpeace, Anti-Apartheid activists, Prisoners Action Group, the Squatter Association and the Unemployed Peoples Union - to name a few.
Last year we ran our first-ever crowdfunding campaign and your support helped us make necessary repairs to our studio in Marrickville that proved our community and supporters believe in our vision. Thank you so much!
This year we need your help to stay on air and take the next step towards sustainability and independence.
The Situation
Radio Skid Row’s future is under threat following the recent announcement by the Community Broadcasting Foundation that 100% of our operational funding had been cut. After being granted a record $150,000 for operations in last year's funding round, this year we've been given $0. The decision, which affected about ten stations around the country, has resulted in community radio stations with only a few hours of ethnic programming each week receiving substantial funding increases, while stations like Radio Skid Row, which broadcasts 47 hours of community language programs a week, received no operational funding at all.
If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s the need for communities to band together to survive. In order for Radio Skid Row to serve the next generation, we need to be grassroots, community-controlled and independent from bureaucracy.
Radio Skid Row is fighting for its freedom so our most marginalised and disadvantaged communities can continue to have a voice without the risk of being defunded. What this means in practical terms, is that we need your support to close this funding gap and invest in our vision to become a 100% community funded radio station.
After 37 years of pioneering community radio, surviving everything from floods, power outages and funding cuts, we know we have so much more to give but we can’t do it without your support!
Serving the Community – Promoting Diverse Voices
While we awaited news of our funding outcome, Radio Skid Row focused on informing and uplifting our communities through the uncertainty of a global pandemic. Producing radio remotely was a challenge, but we stayed true to our roots with the voices of the most marginalised communities on the airwaves 24 hours a day 7 days a week, covering everything from COVID-19 support to being on the ground at Black Lives Matter protests.
Radio Skid Row is renowned for having an impact that far outweighs its relatively small broadcast footprint of the Inner City and Inner West of Sydney. In the 80s, Skid Row established Radio Redfern supporting a collective of Indigenous broadcasters who were dreaming of their own radio station. In the 90’s, Radio Redfern became Koori Radio and continued to broadcast on Radio Skid Row until finally winning its own licence in 2001. The station pioneered Pacific Island and African community broadcasting at a time when the rest of the media sector was virtually ignoring new communities. Muslim Family Radio began at Radio Skid Row too with overnight Ramadan broadcasts until they got their own licence.
Right now, on Radio Skid Row you can hear from some of the smallest refugee and migrant communities including: Nepalese, Sierra Leonean, Macedonian, Ghanaian and Pakistani along with more Pacific Island communities than you will find on any community radio station including: Niuean, Cook Islander, Tongan, Melanesian, Maori, Fijian and Samoan language programs. The station is home to the longest running African program in Australia, Afrika Connexions, which began just one year after the station started and continues to broadcast pan-African news and music each week in the same Sunday lunchtime slot.
More recently, our older and more seasoned Skid Row family handed over the management duties to the next generation of media activists. And since then, the station has launched a number of new and ambitious projects including Blak Fridays led by Lorna Munro, the Survival Guide podcast, the Digital Community Hub and the G.A.N.G Gang multimedia youth collective. Today when you tune in to 88.9FM you will hear Blak Wrap Around, an eclectic show covering news, politics and entertainment from a queer First Nations perspective, Anything Goes, a program by and for people with disabilities and Close to Home, highlighting local issues and local people living in (and around) the Inner West of Sydney.
Throughout our history Radio Skid Row has pioneered emerging sounds from around the world and were one of the first to celebrate hip hop. Being ahead of the curve has always come from the youthful energy inside the station. In 2020, we see this in shows such as Baby Muva Beats, Free House, Where We At? and the new generation of Afrika Connexions – all projects produced by members of our youth collective G.A.N.G Gang. These shows have thrived during 2020, encapsulating that balance of activism, politics and music that makes Radio Skid Row so unique and keeps listeners fighting in solidarity.
Radio Skid Row believes in a world where there is media justice. Not just “diversity” but media justice - where it’s not just about who is on screens or behind the mic, but who gets to decide the stories we see and hear. We are striving to create and maintain a vital broadcasting lifeline for the community, by the community - we go beyond correcting misrepresentations in the media by empowering our communities.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
Please support our crowdfunding campaign - with many small to medium donations we can collectively make up the shortfall of $70,000, the minimum amount we need to stay open after the funding cut. And please help spread the word by sharing this campaign with your friends and family.
If you make a donation without claiming a reward, your contribution is tax deductible. If you're not looking for a tax deduction, go ahead and claim a reward when you make a donation, we have a whole lot of rewards on offer to show our gratitude for your support. There are limited edition risograph prints, masterclasses at Skid Row and Sponsor Packages for non-profits and businesses, alongside the awesome t-shirt, sweatshirt and hoodie designs below!
DESIGNS:
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