Posts related to 'radio'

Media Release: Tell the story of your street

Published by Alex Makin on Wednesday 9th of July, 2008

The Maroondah community are invited to tell the story of their street in a search by ABC Radio National for a new multimedia project.

Councillor Alex Makin believes the possibilities are endless and encourages Maroondah residents to think about telling the stories that belong on their street in either words, pictures, video or sound.

“Many streets throughout Maroondah have a story to tell, from an historical perspective and from a human perspective. This is a great opportunity to not only tell those stories, but to have them shared by a wide Australian audience,” said Cr Makin.

ABC Radio National’s Street Stories program tells the stories of local community streets through My Street, a new multimedia project that will be heard every Sunday at 1.30pm (repeat 8pm) or as audio on demand and podcast at www.abc.net.au/rn/streetstories.

My Street stories need to be told in no more than seven minutes using video, audio, images or up to 700 words of text. You can record it on your mobile phone, an MP3 player, a video or digital camera. Or you could submit an animation, a story, a photo montage – the choice is yours.

Share a story from your street with My Street, until 7 November, and the best entry will win the chance to work with the Street Stories team to produce a radio documentary about your street, or another mutually agreed topic. All entries will be available to view on the My Street website as soon as they are uploaded.

For everything you need to know about My Street and to view entries, visit www.abc.net.au/rn/streetstories

Eastern FM - discussing Maroondah’s Youth Services

Published by Alex Makin on Friday 2nd of May, 2008

Eastern FM is based at the Wyreena Community Arts Centre and broadcasts on 98.1 FM throughout Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

This morning I was invited to discuss Maroondah’s youth services and the many activities that are available for younger people, between the ages of 12 and 25 years, within Maroondah. While the youth services team may not have the profile of other council activities, Maroondah offers a range of unique and positive experiences for the many young people within our municipality. It was great to have an opportunity to raise awareness of these many activities on the eastern suburbs local radio station, Eastern FM.

EV’s, Maroondah’s Youth Centre, is based at 212 Mount Dandenong Road in Croydon (near the corner of Main Street and Mount Dandenong Road) and is a five minute walk from Croydon station and the bus interchange.

EV’s Youth Centre operates as a drop-in centre each Friday during the school term between 3:30 and 5:30 pm and includes a range of activities, including a jukebox, pool table, free Internet access and Xbox. Youth workers are also available on these Fridays, as well as Wednesdays between 1 and 5:30pm to provide advice and assistance for younger people.

Upcoming events include Metalfest on the 9th of May which is organised by Maroondah’s FreeZA group. FreeZA are responsible for organising a number of musical arts as part of the EV’s program.

Following the success of last year’s event, the Snippets Youth Short Festival will be held in September and registrations are now open. Snippets provides an opportunity for young film makers to showcase their productions at Hoyts in Eastland.

New to this year is the Youth Performing Arts Program, where young people will design their own production and perform it to the community later on this year. Participants will be able to undertake a range of tasks within the production, including on-stage and backstage roles.

It was great to be able to discuss Maroondah’s youth services on Eastern FM on the Friday morning program with Russ Read and Norm. Eastern FM provides a tremendous community service in promoting local events and discussing Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

For more information on Eastern FM please visit www.easternfm.com.au. For details on EV’s Youth Centre and Maroondah Youth Services please visit www.evsyouthcentre.com or contact 9298 4373.

Discussing Maroondah’s Mobility Expo on Eastern FM

Published by Alex Makin on Friday 1st of December, 2006

Eastern FM, available at frequency 98.1, is a community radio station that covers Melbourne’s outer east. On the first Friday of each month Eastern FM has a radio segment with Maroondah City Council to publicise upcoming events or issues.

Eastern FM’s studio is based at Wyreena Community in Hull Road, Croydon.

This morning I, along with Maroondah’s MetroAccess worker Katie Goodrope, was invited by Eastern FM to discuss the upcoming Maroondah Mobility Expo. At this stage we have already received 150 pre-registrations for the expo and an overwhelming response from suppliers meaning that eastern Melbourne’s first ever mobility expo should provide a wealth of information for all involved. Information session on topics such as using public transport safely, road safety and scooter etiquette will be covered throughout the day.

Also discussed was the booklet, ‘Maintaining Your Mobility in Maroondah’. This booklet, which will be launched at the Expo, contains advice on using scooters, wheelchairs and other mobility aids within Maroondah and includes a section on etiquette to ensure that everyone is able to travel in Maroondah safely and confidently.

The Maroondah Mobility Expo will be held on Tuesday the 5th of December at Maroondah Federation Estate, Greenwood Avenue, Ringwood.

For further information on Eastern FM, tune into radio frequency 98.1.

ABC 774 on public transport

Published by Alex Makin on Wednesday 25th of October, 2006

This afternoon Lindy Burns from ABC 774 interviewed me at an outside broadcast located at Southern Cross Station to discuss public transport issues in the lead up to the November state election.

Lindy stated that public transport and transport in general were major issues for the November State Election and highlighted the improvements that are required to ensure a frequent, reliable coordinated and readily available public transport system. As an example, in 1992 the frequency of trains were improved on the Sandringham line and overall coordination was increased. Due to these service improvements patronage increased by 38% demonstrating how crucial frequency improvements are to improving public transport modal share.

Unfortunately, over the last seven years the State Government has delivered nothing more than just tokenistic public transport improvements and nowhere is this more apparent than the bus network, which still fails to provide frequencies comparable to the train or tram network.

The $10.5 billion that was allocated over the next decade through the Transport and Liveability Statement (known as Meeting Our Transport Challenges) is more than enough to solve Melbourne’s transport woes but grossly misallocated. Rather than petty gestures priorities should have included rail network expansion in areas such as South Morang and Cranbourne East, both of which were promised rail extensions back in 1999. Instead the State Government is forcing the people of South Morang to now wait at least 10 to 15 years for their promised line and yet Whittlesea is fortunate compared to Cranbourne East, where the government has decided to neglect Melbourne’s fastest growing urban corridor by failing to plan or deliver the Cranbourne East rail extension.

While rail extensions are crucial for Melbourne’s growth areas, there is also a need to enhance the level of bus services to a standard comparable to the well-patronised tram network. Currently, most of Melbourne’s bus network is very confusing due to highly convoluted routes that are in a dire need of being overhauled.

The success of Perth, which has prioritised public transport projects, through doubling its rail network and providing frequent bus services, has allowed enhanced mobility and demonstrates just how far behind Melbourne is when it comes to international and national best practices.

With just over four weeks to the next State Election it is imperative that our political parties commit to securing the economic, social and environmental success of Melbourne by pledging to deliver real public transport improvements. After seven years of rhetoric Melbourne’s public transport system needs urgent action.