Over these 40 years, Roger has broadcast from four different PBS studios. As someone with such a unique insight into the station's history we asked him to share his story:
"My introduction to PBS was via sloping concrete ramps from the car park at the rear of the Prince of Wales Hotel in St Kilda. Starting 40 years ago this February, each Sunday would find me taking a taxi across town to this salubrious entrance; it had usually been used as a urinal on Saturday nights. I would buzz on the intercom at the back door and hope that the previous announcer was still awake enough to let me in. On the odd occasion, this failed and frantic and sometimes unanswered phone calls were needed from a nearby phone box (pre-mobile days) before the overnight announcer woke up again.
I was introducing school students to the station in this way, through the Student Access Breakfast Show – where they could learn to panel operate live to air, and learn to communicate their diverse musical enthusiasms. I wonder what image of community radio they were left with by accessing the station in that way.
In the following years I gradually started to present my own programs, principally in the shared Mainly Acoustic timeslot – with the late David Heard, Suzette Watkins, Ray Mow and others – but also in other ambient and experimental programs. Eventually by 1989, I’d settled into the Global Village.
Over those 40 years we moved from the single broadcast studio in a Prince of Wales apartment, up Fitzroy Street to the Park Lake Apartments, then to Easey Street, and now to the Collingwood Yards. In each space, we felt a huge pride in and ownership of the construction of our homes – sometimes physically, sometimes financially, but always in terms of the intangible construction of a continued community of enthusiasts. We differed in our tastes of music, but united in our commitment to diversity and inclusion.
For the first time, we’re now in a sharp contemporary space … and still maintaining the commitment; still maintaining that sense of belonging and ownership."
Listen back to Global Village as Roger celebrated this important milestone.
