By Kath Gannaway
When Normie Rowe shares his story on Yarra Valley FM 99.1 it will mark a milestone in the 19-year history of the longest-running, uninterrupted interview program on community radio.
Listen to Older Voices will go to air with its 1000th episode on Monday, 23 October, when the ’60s pop idol, entertainer and Vietnam veteran and advocate talks with presenter Rob Greaves about his remarkable life … so far.
Listen to Older Voices first went to air in 1988 as part of the Melba Community Support Program run by Steels Creek community worker Hannah Sky out of Healesville. It was an inspired and innovative program that aimed to give a voice to the older residents of the Yarra Valley.
Under Uniting Wesley, which now runs the Melba Club, the program was expanded to provide a public platform for the stories, views and opinions of older people across Melbourne.
Rob is only the third interviewer in the program’s impressive run, following in the footsteps of Des Ford and Jacey Hall.
Hannah said enlisting the guidance of some of the valley’s most prominent elders, including Niall and Elaine Brennan, Werner Pelz, Ann van den Beukal, Harry Lacon and Elizabeth Marshall, all in their eighties and nineties, was an important initial step.
“The funding was aimed at raising the profile of ageing and aged people and we decided very early in the piece that the best way to do that was to go with the life stories of ordinary people, and they were just so brilliant,” Hannah said.
“The thing I treasure most, looking back, is that we had so many people who after their program had gone to air would say they felt they had been validated in their lives, that their lives mattered, that they were at the end of their lives and they had not wasted their time.”
Jacey too has fond memories of interviews with ordinary locals with extraordinary stories to tell.
Most of the people she interviewed in her five years as presenter were in their eighties and nineties and had lived through unprecedented changing social, economic and industrial times, including two world wars and the Depression years.
Kit Cutting from Upper Yarra had one of the most remarkable stories.
Jacey recalls that Kit’s parents were living in some remote part of the Victorian bush, living by day in the open and sleeping in a massive hollowed out tree at night while they built their house.
“It was not until she was five that Kit saw any other human being than her mum and dad,” Jacey recalled.
“When she was five a swaggie came along looking to make a bit of money. She couldn’t go to school up in the bush and it turned out he had been a professor of some sort, but with the Depression couldn’t get a job.
“He stayed around and they paid him for over a year to teach her to read and write.”
Jacey said every story fascinated and surprised her. Ron Howard from Big Pats Creek was a favourite “just because he was Ron,” she said.
Others too numerous to mention come to mind.
“I can honestly say I loved them all,” she said.
Rob has been at the microphone for 13 years and says he is incredibly proud of all that Listen to Older Voices has been able to achieve.
“This country is where it is today because of what everyday older Australians have done in their lives, and Listen to Older Voices provides a channel through which those stories can be told.
“It is a powerful tool for promoting positive ageing,” he said.
Indigenous elder, actor and member of the stolen generation, Jack Charles, stands out as one of the most fascinating and important people he has interviewed.
“Everybody has a story and everybody’s story needs to be told, but Jack’s was particularly important because it was a story of someone who overcame significant challenges and used that experience to tackle a range of issues affecting his fellow Indigenous people.
“His story resonated with a lot of listeners from culturally diverse backgrounds,” Rob said.
Hannah is another of his memorable interviewees, telling her story to mark the program’s 500th episode.
The program has made its mark over the years coming runner-up in the National Radio news, interviews and public affairs media award presented annually by Older People Speak Out and with 19 episodes held as part of the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra.
While Yarra Valley Radio 99.1FM is the home radio station of Listen to Older Voices, 23 community radio stations regularly download it on satellite and it is heard around Australia on more than 30 stations over the years.
Hannah, Rob and Jacey are in one voice when they say that the strength and the appeal of Listen to Older Voices is the people and their stories.
“The most important part of Listening to Older Voices is that it is recognition for all those people who lived through all those things,” Jacey said.
“Looking back, if we were smart enough, and had the opportunity to get it all down and sounding like a story, that’s really something for everyone.”
Rob will continue the program, travelling across Melbourne armed with his portable recording equipment and battling everything from chiming cuckoo clocks to cable-chewing dogs.
And, he says, listening is the key to a good interview. “One of the things I learnt early in the process is shut up and let the person talk,” he said.
As with Jacey and Hannah, Rob said: “It’s been an honour”.
“You don’t just get invited into people’s homes, you get invited into their lives.”
To tune into the milestone 1000th episode with Normie Rowe, tune into YV FM 99.1 or via the podcast on the Toorak Times website.
