“I can quite happily say that community media is bucking that trend,” says Cameron Durnsford, market manager at Melbourne’s PBS community radio station. “It’s amazing that while large corporate-controlled media organisations are really up against it, we’ve seen growth in the community sector, every year as far I’m aware in my time working at PBS, and anecdotally from other people in the sector. It’s sustainable growth in terms of membership and subscriptions, and also in terms of listenership. So it’s heartening to know that community radio has remained relevant in an era of streaming media.”
Beyond a simple analysis of the diverse content of community radio programming, community radio, as the name of the sector suggests, plays a critical role in supporting, fostering and championing local music artists. Indeed, it’s the symbiotic relationship between artists and community radio that makes stations like PBS so essential to the viability of the local music scene. “Like community stations all around the country, PBS is pivotal to local artists, especially earlier in their career,” Durnsford says. “Invariably, their first airplay and interview, and in the case of Drive Live, their fully fledged live-to-air performance comes through stations like PBS. Without community radio in that space it would be very different progression for bands. I don’t know what bands that play at The Tote on a Thursday night would get that type of exposure.” The bond between community radio and local music is also at the heart of annual PBS’s Drive Live event, which features live-to-air performances from a range of local acts.
This month’s Drive Live, running from Monday February 2 to Friday February 6 between 5pm and 7pm, features an eclectic range of artists including Ausmuteants, Kim and Leanne, Love of Diagrams, Ben Frost, Black Cab, Primitive Calculators and Power. “Basically the announcers on the programs give me their wish list, and I approach everyone on there and work together to put something that’s somehow cohesive and representative of what their program is about,” Durnsford explains. Durnsford points to the difference between the electronica flavour of Monday’s Zen Arcade program and Thursday’s Fang It! as indicative of PBS’s diverse programming and audience: “As a member-based organisation, PBS has some pretty rusted-on fans of particular programs, and it’s important to make sure what’s featured is representative of those programs,” Durnsford says.
As a subscription-based community organisation, PBS is always on the lookout for paying members. But even wearing his marketing hat, Durnsford doesn’t see Drive Live as a de facto subscription drive. “I wouldn’t say that Drive Live is crucial to the station’s commercial viability or security,” Durnsford says. “It’s more about PBS giving something back to the music community because we do our best to promote the diversity of different music scenes around Melbourne. I guess this is our way shining a bit of a spotlight on some genres that aren’t necessarily immediately associated with PBS. We’ve got a bit of a reputation for funk and soul, and world music, so this is our way of saying we’re also engaged with what’s broadly referred to as indie rock and electronic genres.”
That said, Drive Live necessarily draws attention to PBS’s association with the Melbourne music scene, and highlights the station’s position in the broader music community fabric. “Drive Live does coincide with our Performer Member month, which happens in February,” Durnsford says. “So coming off Drive Live, which is a celebration of local music, we run a small campaign for the rest of the month where we ask performer members to sign up. And we’ve seen that grow as a category of membership over the years, so that says to us that we’re doing well, which is encouraging.”
While he commends the breadth and artistic quality of the entire Drive Live program, Durnsford is particularly interested in seeing Ben Frost on Monday’s Zen Arcade show and the legendary Primitive Calculators on Friday’s Stone Love program. “As far as I can tell it’s their first live-to-air on PBS, which is amazing given that they’ve kind of existed side-by-side with PBS since 1979. There might be a tape from the St Kilda days, but I haven’t tracked it down,” Durnsford says. As for emerging artists, Durnsford points to Power, playing on Thursday’s Fang It! program (“a great swinging three-piece kind of a punk band, but even with elements of old British metal in there”), and Ausmuteants, still riding how on the back of last year’s Order of Operation album.
As to his own ultimate wish list from the entire Melbourne music history, Durnsford says he’d love to have had the opportunity to include Magic Dirt in their prime. “I’m a big Magic Dirt fan, and I think Magic Dirt are a band that very much had PBS’s support over the years – there’s lots of Magic Dirt posters around the station. And there’s a few staunch Adalita fans in the office as well,” Durnsford says.
BY PATRICK EMERY
