Hands up all those who present programs on something resembling a "community" radio station. (You can choose your own definition.)

Hmmm. That's what I thought. I can see some familiar names but not many from my end of town.

In so many respects the internet has a lot to answer for. Sure, you can listen to my program if you want, wherever you are. 2MCE-FM streams happily to the world via our clunky website and I'd be thrilled if you tuned in each Sunday from 12 to 2pm. The thing is, here in Australia, a community station is supposed to sink or swim based on its relevance and value to the people who live in the community around it. You might even say its success or failure depends on it.

There are more than 300 radio stations in the community broadcasting sector in Australia and most of those licences are held by not for profit community groups. The licences are reviewed regularly and some are not renewed and some are revoked if a station doesn't live up to its promises. That means all our programs are (or should be) subject to scrutiny by our local station boards or committees of management.

I've presented my program since 1976 so, because of its longevity, it must be a success, right? However, I'm rather biased in favour of traditional and intrumental music, so the program could be a failure in the eyes of singer songwriters. I'm a musician myself so, naturally, I know everything about the genre and my program must therefore be a success. But, occasionally, my political and social views might prompt me to play certain material on the program, so my perceived lack of objectivity could make the program a failure.

Some of the above is true [grin] and I hope you see what I'm getting at. If you're a radio presenter in this country, you and your friends might think you deserve a gold medal, but your program's survival depends on how the judges score your performance. Sadly, those judges aren't your listeners, either locally or on line.

I place enormous value on the vibrant and passionate discussions on Mudcat and I've learned a lot here, mostly just as a lurker. I'm sure we all want to share the music we love with our community, whether we're performers, broadcasters, listeners, festival or folk club organisers, whatever, and I suppose I've tried to 'succeed' in each of those.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but here's the reality check for me. Every few years our station's licence is reviewed. That's when I really have to look beyond my own navel and justify my weekly two hour slot, although I certainly look beyond the survival of the program to gauge its success. The success of a radio program is subject to many variables, but the station staying on air is probably one of the most important.

There have been a number of very insightful posts in this thread, and on its evil twin thread. This probably isn't one of those insightful posts.

Bruce