When I moved to Melbourne to go to University in 1980, I waved goodbye to Mum and Dad, turned on the radio and, quite by chance, found 3RRR FM. They were playing Seventeen Seconds by The Cure. It quickly became my favourite station, and for many years I didn’t listen to anything else. When I got a job I started subscribing and have always regarded the subscription as one of the best value deals going.
This year 3RRR turns 40, which is a remarkable run for a subscriber funded radio station in Australia. I think the underlying strength of the station is diversity. No matter what you are into, you will find something of interest to you on 3RRR.
There’s an exhibition on at the State Library celebrating the 40th Anniversary and I visited it today. It was a great exhibition and Andrea and I spent an hour and a half there looking at everything. Lots of memories of presenters, programs and various times.
When you walk into the exhibition you see a wall of electronic devices with a few screens playing clips from various programs and interviews in a lounge setting:
Here’s a closer pic of the wall:
This written panel (click to expand and read) sets out a brief history of the station with some current stats. It continues to operate with an Educational licence:
And finally, my favourite 3RRR poster (circa 1979):
The station website is here and the streaming URL to listen through Roon is:
http://freezone.iinet.net.au/include/radio/playlists/triple-r-fm.m3u
