By Tyler Wright
Following Monbulk MP Daniela De Martino’s November 2022 state election win, a local community radio station has received a $50,000 boost from the state government.
The funding for 3MDR, based in Upwey, was allocated in the 2023/24 budget.
3MDR Engagement Coordinator Ren Cuttriss said the funds will enable the organisation to continue to operate and provide financial security for part-time staff.
“It might be simple things like paying our rent and paying our electricity bills, but also I think it’ll be really freeing and enable us to get back out into our community and start being able to attend events again and hold events and support our creatives and our live music scene by being able to pay musicians and sound engineers for their time for events at industry rates,” Mx Cuttriss said.
Around 110 volunteers taking on roles including broadcaster, sound engineers and videographers keep the station running alongside staff members.
“We support live music so much and our local creative scene. We’re very lucky out in our licence area to have a wonderful creative community. We also think that it’s a place where they go to escape the real world,” Mx Cuttriss said.
“We don’t run a news on the top of the hour…It’s a place for people to come and listen to our volunteer broadcasters share their musical knowledge and their take on what’s going on in the world at the time.
“We invite our audience in, you can text us, you can call us… we really do invite our community to engage with us and be part of the broadcast, so I think it enables them to really participate as listeners as well, which I think is really exciting.”
At a 3MDR Garden Party in October 2022, Daniela De Martino announced the Labor government would inject $50,000 into the local station if re-elected.
“From turntables and cassettes to laptop computers, we have heard and seen how the radio station has grown and changed throughout the decades,” Ms De Martino said at the time.
“But most of all, it could not be done without the dedication of local community members who volunteer their time to bring us such a full program, with events and information relating to our local area.”
