Artists unite behind Amrap to Keep Community Radio

Poison City Records, Gooch Palms, The Smith Street Band and Reece Mastin are among a horde of musicians protesting the Federal Budget’s funding cuts to community radio.

Community radio initiative Amrap(TheAustralian Music Radio Airplay Project), which distributes new Australian music to community radio stations nationwide, is behind the online rally.

Amrap reached out to musicians that it has helped get on community radio this week and asked them to take part in the #KeepCommunityRadio campaign to encourage their fans to sign the petition atwww.keepcommunityradio.org.au.

So far, Amrap’s work has seen artists across all genres take part. Aaron Coping of independent label Poison City Records and Camp Cope drummer/Poison City staffer Sarah Thompson wrote on their Instagram post: “Community radio is super important and funding is needed to keep it alive and healthy. please take a second to sign the petition…”

Wil Wagner of The Smith Street Band said: “Community radio is such an important part of Aussie music. We all grew up in the suburbs and it was one of our first outlets for discovering an alternative to “commercial” music.

“These stations help foster young bands, link up like-minded artists and do so many other important things for musos and music lovers!”

:: Scroll down to see a selection of the #KeepCommunityRadio artist posts

The Keep Community Radio campaign is asking the government to restore the $1.4 million p.a. it cut for Digital Community Radio, funding that currently keeps community radio stations broadcasting on digital in five capital cities.

Amrap Manager Chris Johnson said the government’s pulled support to digital community radio will reduce Australian music on the airwaves.

“This campaign isn’t just about keeping community radio, it’s about keeping new Australian music of all styles on the airwaves,” Johnson told TMN.

Johnson told TMN the license fee relief applied to commercial radio in the Budget looks like the government has volunteered to stop collecting millions of dollars from commercial, while jeopardising community radio’s future.

“This Federal budget has rewarded commercial radio with a 25%, multi-million dollar discount to their commercial licence fees, while trying to save a tiny portion of that cash by cutting back funding to community radio,” he said. “This is terrible news for the thousands of Australian musicians who rely on community radio to reach the airwaves.”

The petition protesting the funding cuts has received 28,361 signatures at time of publishing, falling just shy if its goal of 30,000 signatures.

Community radio famously operates on minimal government funding with over 20,000 community broadcasters volunteering their time to serve the over the 5 million Australians who listen in every week.

Originally the community radio sector didn’t rely on government funding, but in 2013 it required funding to support its transition into digital radio. The sector’s presence in a digital future was actually promised government support.

“Australians deserve their radio airwaves to be filled with new Australian music and local talks that are relevant to their lives. Community Radio delivers this and it’s critical that it has a future on the digital airwaves,” Johnson told TMN.

Tomorrow, the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) is holding its National Day of Action. It explains, “It will be a day of information-sharing, petition-signing and raising awareness among our listeners of the very real threat of station closures, because if no-one can hear us on the digital platform, what’s the point?”

In the meantime also check out Melbourne community radio legendKate Welsman’spassionate piece on the role community radio plays in our lives. The piece ishere.