By the time the station finally launched on October 1, 1979, it was a (dream) team effort. Featured here are some of those legends, and reflecting on that time is founding station manager Keith Jackson.

Forty Years of 2SER

The Dream Team

Community radio is an essential way that community musics travel. This image shows 2SER’s country music community literally on the move as part of a short lived but well loved ‘traveling fan’ experience in the early 1980s. Although they don’t happen anymore (or at least, at the moment!), the importance of reaching out across the community for country and other musics remains. Here 2SER and industry legend Barbara Morison explains more.

Helping train the (country) music industry

 Cheeky fake ad - 1991We’ve had fun trying to get your attention over the years. Here one of our presenters got well into the swing with a fake ad trying to get you to subscribe. Trying not to be offended, but if the spirit moves you, please do go ahead and subscribe!

Cheeky fake ad - 1991

Acclaimed journalist Cath Dwyer started at 2SER as a student volunteer and eventually went on to run our newsroom, as well as working on a whole host of other programs. Here Cath talks about her time nurturing new talent and the importance of community newsrooms, as well as sharing some insight into how proper community news can really make a difference. Her love of radio, and how it began, shines through here too.

Cath Dwyer - from student volunteer to manager of the 2SER newsroom during Undercurrents

Podcasting has revolutionised radio in many ways. 2SER is now a world leader in this field, led by the vision of 2SER’s Managing Director from 2011-18. Taking the station’s remit for educational radio into the twenty first century, and with a particular passion for mobilising academic research and content, here Melanie talks about the process of establishing podcasting at the station and the impact the station’s success has had in the sector more broadly.

Leading the digital community broadcaster - Melanie Withnall

During its 40 years 2SER has featured a wonderful selection of non-English language programming. Put together by community groups to provide specialist news, events and cultural connection, we have proudly featured these diverse voices and sounds over our history. From an archive point of view, however, this type of programming seems to have never been centrally preserved. While we keep searching, in the meantime we’ve put together just the tiniest taste of these broadcasters – a selection of promos from the 2000 Radiothon appeal, “Yum Cha For Your Ears”. By no means is it complete, but it’s a taste.

International Yum Cha for your ears

In the early 1980s Nicola Joseph helped build some incredibly important parts of 2SER. Drawing on her experience at 4ZZZ in Queensland, Nicola established 2SER’s newsroom - only the second of its type in the country at the time. In this clip Nicola talks about that time, but she’s contributed much more including the important eventual break away of Radio Redfern and Radio Skid Row. For more of the story look for our extended interview series.

Nicola Joseph - starting 2SER's newsroom

Long time volunteer and presenter for 2SER Greg Poppleton has given us so much over the years, presenting every week since May 1985. This piece is “Wordsports”, a quiz show Greg produced and hosted that allowed comedians, great talkers and thinkers to play. Here is a clip from the Wordsports OB at Central May 1991 for Open Mind - there is also an accompanying piece from Greg explaining the show more broadly. 

Wordsports - 1991 OB Clip

Long time volunteer and presenter for 2SER Greg Poppleton has given us so much over the years, presenting every week since May 1985. This piece is “Wordsports”, a quiz show Greg produced and hosted that allowed comedians, great talkers and thinkers to play. This is Greg’s introduction to the show - there is also an accompanying clip of the 1991 OB as a seperate episode. 

Wordsports - introducing Adam Spencer to radio, as well as a host of others in their beginnings - Introduction

Between midnight and 2am on the 13 March 1986 Greg Poppleton made a one hour live recording in the old studio 2 for The Phantom Dancer (though it wasn’t called The Phantom Dancer then). In the band was James Morrison playing double bass, his brother John on drums, Ian Date on guitar and Andrew Speight on sax. The quartet played an hour of standards and improvised two original blues on the spot - Have A Banana Blues and the 2SER Blues. The sound recordist was Helen Bucknall, using only the room (which acoustically was excellent) and the desk mics to create with these musicians a recording that went straight to ancient quarter inch tape without any further editing. Then dubbed to a second quarter inch tape for the announcement inserts, then to cassette (tapes needed to be re-used) and then I dropped it onto CD in 2015. A 7 minute snippet of the“2SER Blues” has been edited by Greg Poppleton and used here with permission. John wrote of the piece, "I can say with no hesitation that you are free to use any (and all) audio and photos etc for the exhibition. Indeed we would be honoured if 2SER saw fit to include our work. Please also extend our congratulations to everyone on the team at the station on reaching this incredible milestone."

2SER Blues - James Morrison and band provide some original tunes

Taking a punt on a new venture shows quite a bit of courage. John Tebbutt, who would end up working in as a radio scholar, started in those very early days in the tower. Here he talks about the volunteer roles he held during the station’s early days, and his meeting with Keith Jackson one week into the station’s life.

John Tebbutt on the 2SER volunteer life in 1979 and into the 80s

Like all contemporary broadcasting we’ve needed to properly upgrade our systems in the last few years. In this piece the station’s technician, Lachlan Cole, talks through some of that process in recent times. As part of the upgrade we’ve also been able to make some custom-designed podcasting studios too – nothing’s too good for our award-winning pod teams.

Technical upgrades from analogue to fully digital

There are few places that country music has consistently received support in Australia. One of those rare gems is the work of Barbara Morrison. On air since 1981, when she began broadcasting as a school girl along with her mum Irene, the two would walk to the Broadway studio from home in Annandale. Soon they became a dream time, providing essential female voices on air, as well as some very fantastic mother/daughter crate digging services. Ever since Barbara has championed local talent tirelessly and with an unequalled energy – you can still hear her on air every Saturday morning. Referenced here too are founders of 2SER country, Maurie Taylor and Gary Coxhead, and if you listen closely you’ll hear Barb’s regular broadcasting companion, Diesel the dog, on record here too. So many more stories in the extended interview edition to come.

Barbara Morrison - our country music legend

Long term institutional knowledge is fundamental to keeping any good organisation working smoothly. Michael Jones provides that for 2SER – having been part of the fabric of lots of on and off air radio making since the 1990s. Clearly, he knows where all the bodies are buried, but here he shares just some of his experience over time, and some of the aspirations he still has for the place.

Michael Jones - current Operations & Volunteer Co-ordinator, long term producer/presenter

The two genres 2SER have been known for over its time on air are country and dance music. While there’s not a lot of obvious crossover between them, here Nik Fish talks his show Musicquarium and the literal crossover when different genre shows were on one after the other on air in the early 1990s. As a pioneer of dance music broadcasting, Nik recalls one guest who moved from one studio to the other in particular. This guest isn’t really the type of person we want to remember now, but the concept is certainly intriguing.

From Country to Dance -how Musiquarium took the baton

To follow are snippets that accompany the Forty Years of 2SER exhibition. This is only a small taste of what the station has achieved over its time - but it should wet your whistle to begin. Radio with a Point. Real Radio. Yum Cha for your ears. 40 years of Stories, Ideas and Music. The interviews and series were produced and edited by Liz Giuffre and Jess Klajman. We recorded on the lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, and pay respect and acknowledge them as the traditional custodians of this land.

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Forty Years of 2SER

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