Mr Jones
I am now the very happy owner of a radio. I treated myself to a brand new wireless. It’s true that I can bluetooth anything through it and out its small but gutsy speakers, but I am happiest because I now have a radio with crystal clear reception. No crackle, no fuzz, no random wireless shutdown. My ears pricked up when funding issues affecting community radio got a mention during last week’s news. I didn’t get how significant community radio was to the life of a community, till I spent three years in Bourke, over a decade ago. According to the latest McNair Ingenuity survey, 4,446,000 people listen to community radio every week (which makes up 25% of the population). When “occasional” listeners are added, the figure rises to 10,611,000. (Nov 2012) Of course these figures are new, and counting big city audiences too, but the percentage of those from a rural area engaging with community radio would be greater than 25%. They say that people fear public speaking mor...