In 1974 hundreds of people crowded into a room in the Carlton Pram Factory and hatched a plan to build a media outlet that would tell the stories of those neglected, marginalised and ignored by the mainstream media of the day. Two years later 3CR began transmitting the voices of trade unions, the working class, the Indigenous community, youth and students, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, peace and social justice activists, greenies, socialists, anarchists, lovers of jazz and nostalgia music, feminists, queers and people with disabilities.
This diverse group continues to work side by side, as volunteers committed to the ideal of community media that reflects the realities of our lives. The station has consistently provided an alternative to the corporate-filtered, reality-TV obsessed propaganda served up by media owned by a few people with their eyes only on the bottom line.
Each week, more than 300 volunteer programmers present more than 130 shows. 3CR currently broadcasts in 28 languages, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 3CR also actively discriminates in favour of Australian artists and composers, playing at least 55% Australian music.
3CR has supported, covered and taken part in many of Australia's significant campaigns of dissent. Some examples over the last 10 years are:
1998 — 3CR extensively covered the Maritime Union of Australia dispute.
1999 — 3CR covered the East Timor elections and the violence that followed, raising $20,000 in two-and-a-half hours for the CNRT (National Council of Timorese Resistance).
2000 — 3CR extensively covered the S11 protest outside the World Economic Forum.
2003 — 3CR covered the massive peace rallies around the country and broadcasts regular updates on the situation in Iraq following the invasion. 3CR also broadcast live from the protests outside the Baxter detention centre in South Australia.
2004 — 3CR's NAIDOC prison broadcasts won the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Radio Award.
2005 — 3CR broadcasted live from the June 30 and the November 15 anti-Work Choices rallies in Melbourne, and in October aired a 10-hour special broadcast to celebrate Refugee Week.
Radio that is in the hands of community members is the only way to provide a real voice for the oppressed and exploited. To continue to build the media outlet first envisioned 33 years ago, 3CR needs your help. We need $200,000 in donations for the June 4-17 2007 3CR Radiothon, one third of the annual operating costs.
Every cent donated goes towards paying the bills, maintaining our building and updating our equipment so that we can continue to go out into the workplaces, prisons, parks and onto the streets. It only costs $70 an hour to keep the station running — and to continue the unique perspective that won't be read, heard or seen in the mainstream media.
Community Radio 3CR can be contacted on 03 9419 8377 or radiothon@3cr.org.au or on http://www.3cr.org.au.