Local station 3MDR Mountain District Radio has celebrated hitting 40 in a special way this year, with the recent launch of its very own oral history podcast.
The podcast ‘On Air: 40 Years of 3MDR’, along with dual exhibitions at the Burrinja Cultural Centre and the Yarra Ranges Regional Museum, delves into the origin story of the station and the people behind it.
Dr Nat Grant, the station’s manager, said that as an oral historian and podcast producer, they saw a great opportunity to record the station’s history as told by the people who created it.
“With over 100 interviews and many, many excerpts of archival programs and music, the 24-episode-strong podcast is a testament to all who’ve kept 3MDR thriving over the last 40-plus years,” they said.
Reaching back into the station’s vault for precious moments, the founding members and key community members who have been voices for the Dandenongs have been collected together to tell the story of how 3MDR began and evolved since 1983.
“It will stay online and be accessible forever, in what we hope to be a great resource for both current and future listeners,” said Nat.
Digital marketing and communications coordinator from the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA), Josh Cole, said it’s great to see community broadcasters such as 3MDR preserving and sharing their history.
“Last year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Australian community broadcasting sector, and as stations get older, it’s more important than ever to record and share their stories,” he said.
Archiving podcasts since 2006, curator at the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA), Johanna McMahon, said their expansive podcast collecting program often seeks out podcasts like the one that was created for 3MDR.
“It’s fantastic in terms of telling stories from the community,” she said.
Acknowledging the power behind audio listening, Ms McMahon said that when stations do have this kind of archival material, being able to listen back to the voices and the music and the stories of the people at the time is pretty special.
“Both radio and podcasting have such great groundings for people, it makes for such a great medium to explore radio histories through,” she said.
In terms of the historical recapturing of the history of a station, Ms McMahon said that the podcast series is both unique and possibly one of the first of its kind.
‘On Air’ will also soon be archived at NFSA – which is quite special for 3MDR and a process that Ms McMahon said is quite complex.
“It’s a constant process of applying preservation principles to the items in the collection, to hopefully increase the chance that we can access them down the line,” she said.
“We do collect quite a few podcasts from community radio stations as they come up.”
Community broadcasting mostly relies on volunteers, with over 18,000 working to support stations and their communities nationwide.
“Making time to archive their work can be a challenge, but one that’s worth it to record broadcasters’ unique histories,” said Mr Cole.
The podcast assembly process took 3MDR volunteers nearly two years to complete, and the episodes are now available online for people to listen to and were made possible with support from Yarra Ranges Council and the CBAA.
Listeners can expect voices, music and more from the people who broadcast from the station’s beginning and some that still are today.
The physical exhibitions for 3MDR at both sites in the Yarra Ranges (different in their own ways) will give the community a chance to listen to other rare audio clips and see old music posters, behind-the-scenes photos and the history of the station’s volunteers, artists and community groups.
Visitors can sit and play in a make-shift radio station in the Lilydale exhibit as well.
Burrinja Cultural Centre in Upwey has ‘ON AIR: Local Voices, Loud and Clear’ and Yarra Ranges Regional Museum in Lilydale has ‘ON AIR: Broadcasting Local Legends’ on until 8 March 2026.
