Talking Vision 702 Week Beginning 13th of November 2023

speaking with later on in the program. But first, let's go back to 1983, the 22nd of September, in fact, where Stephen Jolly and both Neville Kerr and Alan Harris joined forces for the inaugural evening broadcast from this very building in Kerr Young. I hope you enjoy this 40th

anniversary special episode of Talking Vision. And now let's take a trip back 40 years to the 22nd of September 1983 with Ian Neville, Stephen and Aileen, with their first evening broadcast from what was then known as the Foundation for the blind, at this very address in Korean.

train coming the have. Well, I'm on board this train now for my first broadcast from Kooyong, so I hope the train doesn't run late or I'll be in trouble. Now where is it? I've got to get off. Kooyong. I think it is. Crikey! I hope I can find the way. Oh boy, I hope this is cool or I'm going to be late for the program. Yeah, it looks like I'm going to get off here anyway. Let's have a ride. Station. Excuse me. Can you tell me how to find three RPI? Yeah.

going to do about a script tonight. I have no time to write anything out at all. Well, there's nothing unusual. But to help you out anyway, I've written one out for you, Neville. You've written one out? Oh, you're writing usually, like looks as our flies crawl over the page. How am I going to read that? Well, that's not dissimilar to yours. It looks like a porcupine rolled over the page with yours. Well, thanks very much for that. Well,

it's great to be here and. Well, I've discovered that we've got Stephen Jolly and Elaine Harris in the studio tonight, so that's really good. Well, this is our first broadcast from our new Kooyong studios. It's quite an event this evening, quite an occasion. And it's been a very exciting time leading up to this. And we have Stephen Jolly with us. Stephen's president of the right after Print handicapped of Victoria Cooperative Limited. And, Stephen, it's very pleasing to have you

along here this evening. First of all, Stephen, could we talk for a moment or two about how it is that we've come to this stage?

needs of blind people on that station. And we started a blind affair in 1975 when three doubles ed started. Three doubles Ed was closed down in 1977, but that didn't stop us. In the meantime, we had a program going on, Community Radio three CR. They've been great friends of ours over the years, and we decided then that we should try and do something a little more permanent, and perhaps a more comprehensive service for blind and other

people with need of access to printed material. So we got in touch with the government and worked very hard towards an announcement that the government made in 1978, which was that licences would be available for stations in various cities around Australia. And one of them, of course, was in Melbourne. And that was really the beginning of three. The Villa Maria society came onside very strongly at that stage, and they made available the premises at seven Donald Street

in Paran. And we've been very grateful to the Villa Maria society for making those available to us. It was it has been a tremendous help and we wouldn't have got the start without that. As time has gone by, the work has got has expanded a lot and we've needed more space, we've needed more resources. And the Association for the blind have been of great assistance to us,

and particularly over the last year or two. We started talking with the Association for the blind last year about an arrangement whereby the radio for the print Handicapped cooperative, which was the body formed to to hold the licence for three, would continue to hold the licence for the station and make the policy decisions, but that the Association would make its resources available to help the service. And a very concrete instance of that is what we're seeing tonight.

We're we're now using the facilities of the Association for the blind here at the Kooyong complex. And it's very good to be here this evening.

great many other people in all sorts of areas. People have given us legal advice and all sorts of advice, and without the help of all of those people, and of course they are too numerous to name, we wouldn't have got there. But I would just like personally, on behalf of everybody, to say thank you to all of those people. And I think there's not much to say, but what else can I say? Yes. Well, of course I.

as we can. How do you see the future of three RPI, and what developments do you expect to occur in the foreseeable future?

from Mr. Beith in the corner. Also, I've just set on a project worker to start building up banks of information for our children's program. It has been in the pipeline for several months now that the children's program, instead of just being tacked on the end, as it were, as an extra to the Saturday morning program. The children's program will be an entity in itself, in fact, with

its own presenter. And we've got actually somebody working on that who would another project worker on who's trying to get round to all the different counsel she's got as far as Da to put us onto their press lists and something which I again, I've been trying to do for a long time. We just haven't had the the time to do it and get them to let us know about roadworks and things like that. And in fact, as you may well remember, Neville, the Firstrillionoad work notice

came through last week, so that's starting to happen. Just little things like that are an essential part of a service, like an air station. And I think it's the sort of things that we really need to build on. And those small things can help build it into a great service and a very useful and very vital information station.

who I have the absolute pleasure of welcoming right now. Judy, welcome to Talking Vision. Thank you so much for your time today.

full time as well. So one day they asked if I would then step in and go and do some work with the radio station, which they had just taken over from the Institute for the blind, and it was down in Donald Street, Paran, and I said, yep, that's fine, I'll go anywhere you need me to go, you know? So down I went. And I'll never forget walking up the flight of stairs into this terrace house there. And I was just doing some research on some material for

radio programs. And then as time progressed, I was still working in the day centre, then the the station Vision Australia, what is now Vision Australia Radio came across two Talbot Street in Kooyong and it was in an old house which happened to be my mother's best friend's house that she grew up in, ironically, so I actually knew it. But the house developed had developed a very weird shape

because it was a very basic set up. And for the soundproofing, we had egg cartons on the wall, and it was a time of really actually great excitement because we were building a station, you know, and so everyone involved was so enthusiastic and happy with it. And it was a really, I don't know, just a really happy time to be there. And as I say, it was quite exciting and it was sort of inspiring to see

the people who became involved. And with time that then I was doing both reading and research, but mostly I was doing presenting on air. And then we moved to the new studios at that stage, into the building that now fronts Glenferrie Road. And we were there for a number of years, and then we moved to the current studios in Kooyong here, which are in the building behind the one I just mentioned. So it's been a long association. I've done a lot of different programs, a lot of

different topics. Yes. It's been actually, I cannot believe it's been that long. Yes.

talking law with you. Yes, for some time, and I really enjoyed that because I did have a legal background. So so I enjoyed that because it was very relevant. I did travel and I enjoyed doing travel because it was just wonderful taking our listeners elsewhere, you know, giving them a trip somewhere else, you know, on the program.

I've done a lot of things, but I suppose one thing I should mention is that probably I had just had my child, my daughter, and she used to come down and she used to sit in the operating room with the operator while I was doing a live to air program, and so I could see whether she was crying or not crying or she was very good, though she sat there so you could. Say, my daughter's now 35 years old, and you could say that she's probably been part of the team for a long, long time.

We used to do the fundraising appeal in June every year, and I spent a lot of time doing that with, especially with Stephen Jolley. And I could remember one time I did an interview with Bud Tingle, and I'm sure many people will remember Bud. Absolutely. He was a wonderful man, and he did a lot of work down here, and my daughter was in the studio with the two of us, so it was like a three way conversation, even though she was a little girl at the time. And he

was so delightful. He was just lovely. But the story he told, and I've said this to so many people in the years, you know, past sort of thing that he used to say. He said that the reason he came down here was he'd never heard of the station until he had an elderly aunt, quite old, who was losing her sight. And she was getting really cantankerous and frustrated with life because she could no longer read the newspaper.

She couldn't keep up with things. And Bud said that somebody said to her and about, you know, why don't you get her to listen to, you know, three or in Australia, as a radio as it is now, and she can access all the news she wants, not just that, but other programs as well on very specialty things. And she did. And he said it was the turning point. She was that happy person she'd been before because she had access to all these things that she couldn't she

could no longer read. And I've always loved that story. And he was so appreciative of what the radio had done for this elderly aunt of his, that he came down and did a lot of volunteering. And I thought, wow, you know, you could never know the different reasons volunteers come to this station, to this organization. They're just so

many and varied. So I always loved that. And I think another probably one I remember is going to government House with Stephen Jolly, who was then manager of the station, and it was a special function. A lot of people went and I remember going there and it was a really hot day, but it was really special. We got to have a look at government House and all that sort of thing. So there's a lot of different things, you know, that are really exciting and just meeting different

people through. I think one of the really good things is just the variety of people you meet, and it's really interesting. It's really good. And hopefully we are providing a service that many people will cherish.

you know, Vision Australia Radio. What's it all about? Where can I listen to it? What's the frequency? I didn't know, does it run all day? What's you know, what's all this information where you know, where can I go? And I point them in the right direction obviously. But it's really interesting to hear those conversations and be able to

spread that awareness that perhaps isn't reaching all corners. But what sort of things would you love to mention to raise awareness for Virgin Australia Radio and the wonderful services that they do provide?

we have such a range of programs. We have lots of different programs. You know, the specialist programs, there's tech talk, you know, there's music programs, there's general interest programs, there's religious programs. There are so many. The science programs, there are so many programs that are of great interest to many people. But I think having said that and having told that to people and people are amazed, you know, and they say, oh, I thought it was just a

newspaper reading facility, but it's not. It does provide a lot more. But I think that one part of this is that we don't want to just provide what we think our listeners want. We would love to hear from our listeners. We would love to hear from our audience out there, to actually hear what you'd like to hear. You know what you're interested in, what you may need

to know. You know you would find it a useful service to have some information given to you in this format, because we want to be here for you, and we want to provide the information for you. And it doesn't mean that it's any less interesting in other areas. I mean, we still have time to do all these specialist programs, which are very interesting and really informative. So I think moving forward, certainly, I think for the general public to know that they. Are welcome to call us, tell us

what they're interested in, what they'd like to hear. And needless to say, Sam, I don't know where to go with this, but if there's something they don't like, you know, that's fine to let us know. Yes, we have to know. We have to know. So whichever way it goes, brickbats or bouquets, as they say, yes, just give us a call. And so we would love to do that. But I think to, for, for for people who work here and

there's very few staff, there's a lot of volunteers. I think it's a lovely feeling to have that connection with our audience as well, to know that you're out there and to actually know what you would like, and to know that we are providing what you would like to hear. So give us a call.

There are people who might have really, seriously bad arthritis and can't hold a newspaper to read it. And there might be those whose language first language is not English. So whilst they can listen and hear it, they can't read it as well. And so there's a lot of different areas that we actually cover, and we like to provide the information and the programs for everybody. So, you know, give us a call.