From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's your host, Sam Colley.
Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And for the next half hour, we talk matters of blindness and low vision.
Ho ho ho. Merry Christmas. Thank you for helping light up the lives of children who are blind or have low vision this Christmas. Merry Christmas.
Welcome to this special Christmas episode of Talking Vision. You heard right. That was Santa there with a special message for Vision Australia Radio and Vision Australia more broadly for their work in 2024. And we wish everybody out there a merry Christmas as well from the team at Talking Vision. Envision. Today, we feature a couple of my favorite interviews over 2024, starting with Catholic O&;M, who was the recipient of an Order of Australia for her work in the community radio
sector over the past four decades. Let's hear from Kath now. Kath Lietch is a name familiar to many in the community radio sector, having been involved in community radio for over four decades now at stations in Perth and Melbourne, as well as nationally with the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia, and is the recent recipient of an OAM for her services to community radio. In the spirit of World Radio Day, it's my great pleasure to welcome Kath now. Kath, welcome
to Talking Vision. Thank you very much for your time.
Hi Sam. Nice to talk with you.
Now, Kath, as I understand you've been involved with community radio for well over three decades now. So what sort of kicked it all off for you? Where did you get started?
I started with a station called six Uvws, now known as RTR in Perth in the late 70s. So quite some time back now. And I had a range of friends and acquaintances that were involved in the radio station, and I came to it through that network. And uh, six Uvws was an educational station associated with the University of Western Australia, and at a sort of later stage, also, Murdoch, it's been through a number of changes, and it's a completely independent community based station now as RTR FM.
And how did you sort of get bitten by the radio bug? What was the sort of thing that really sparked that off for you at a young age?
I think it was largely out of a music interest at that time. RTI was a mixture of fine music because the university had a fine music department and talks, and what sounds rather quaint now was that a group of young people were interested in non-classical music of all kinds of genres, but contemporary music. And I think that
was the starting point of my interest. It was an era when music was not so available to people in the way it is now online, and that was the sort of start of my engagement as a volunteer and being involved in a couple of different programs. As time went by, I became more and more interested in the kind of talks and conversation sides of radio, but certainly in those early years it was music that took me into it.
And Kathe, well, fast forward now a little while, to a couple of the management positions that you've been involved with over the time with, you know, being the general manager, for example, of triple R for the best part of 15 years. So you would have seen so many, you know, changes over that time. So what was the biggest sort of or 1 or 2 of the biggest sort of changes that you observed in your time?
I guess the really big change was computerization and digitization and the kind of introduction of the online world. And, um, you know, that has created very sort of significant changes in the production of radio, not necessarily the nature of radio itself, but certainly in the production and operations of radio stations. And of course, as various forms of online communications have developed. The advent of social media and the
multiplication of a range of online communication. Points. So I think, you know, the technology changes have been the very significant changes. That I've observed over the time I've been involved, though interestingly, I think. Technology changes the processes and approach to some information but doesn't necessarily. Sort of change the heart of what you do.
No, that's absolutely true. And Kath, you. Moved from triple R to more of a broader sector wide involvement with community Radio. If your roles at the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia. And also that sort of gave you the opportunity to, you know, have some more involvement with the network. One of which, the stations is, of course, Vision Australia Radio, where we're speaking today. So tell us a bit about your involvement with RP there.
Well, in the 90s, while my working role was general manager at triple R in Melbourne, my voluntary role and as you'd be aware, Sam, there's a very high number of volunteers in the sector, about 20,000 nationally. I joined the CBA board and became CBA president in the mid 90s and continued an association with sector wide issues really since that point of time, and that brought me into a lot closer association with the sector much more broadly.
And as you would know, it's an extremely diverse sector. So indigenous broadcasting, religious broadcasting, educational broadcasting, the radio reading sector with stations for print disabilities and youth stations and a very broad range of small regional stations, many of which are operated on a voluntary basis. And so from that period in the 90s, I had a much stronger
association with a broad range of radio services. And certainly the RPA sector that Vision Australia is a part of and which has, you know, a very broad audience in the community, both with people who would identify as print disability, but also with people who enjoy the kind of radio
reading services that are produced. Community radio services, I think, provide a range of really essential services within the community that engage and speak to communities of interest that are such a valuable part of the diversity in Australian communities.
Definitely. No, that's absolutely 100% correct. And the way that these community radio stations do bring their communities of interest together is absolutely second to none. And I will come back to that later on, because there is so much to say about the power of radio as we celebrate World Radio Day this week. But before I get to that, I wanted to firstly congratulate you, Kath, on being the recipient of an Order of Australia medal for your services
to the To the community radio sector. How does that sit with you to, you know, be recognised in such a way for all the crucial work you have been doing?
Yes, it's certainly an honour to be recognised in that way and I think for everyone it's always a good feeling to have work acknowledged. And I think particularly in a sector that there are so many deserving people, so many people that have put very large parts of their life into being involved with a community radio station and broadcasting and being part of that community. And so I feel like it's a privilege to be recognised for my work in the sector when there are so many wonderful
volunteers and deserving people. And I think that's, you know, the way in which people connect through community radio US stations is quite a special feature. It crosses over all sorts of ages and lifestyles in a way that often other community enterprises don't necessarily do, and I think it activates a sense of community and citizenship that's increasingly important
in quite a fractured and complex modern world. And it's something that's important to everyone, regardless of what particular focus. And I think the way in which radio, as a sort of intimate medium, connects with people. And I think that was really clear, perhaps particularly in Melbourne during the sort of Covid period with such sort of lengthy lockdowns. And I had a lot of contact with the community
stations in Melbourne over that time. And I know that there was a lot of feedback from people being able to tune in and kind of connect in this way as part of what's keeping me sane in lockdown. And I think there's an element of that in the nature of radio services and broadcaster as a kind of very accessible medium.
That's certainly true. And with these days, like World Radio Day, that encapsulates all of those thoughts that you did express just there. And it is so, so true that, you know, community radio does offer something that in some ways, no other sort of medium really can get close to. And it is such a unique, such a, a long standing, but,
you know, successful and wide ranging medium for sure. So what do those sort of days mean for you as somebody who has been involved in the sector for so long and seen just the positive impact that radio can have on people around the country?
Yeah. So I guess those days sort of act as a reminder of the kind of uniqueness of radio in a sense. And, you know, I think it's an environment where there is so much information available to people, so many assumptions that we are all online all of the time. But there's perhaps not enough discussion of sort of breaking that down to sort of how you access information that's meaningful or important to individuals and particular areas of our community.
And so I think it's a celebration, I suppose, in a sense of the nature of radio. And I think it's an incredibly resilient medium. You know, something like 60% of all audio listening in Australia is still listening to live radio broadcast services. And I'm someone who very strongly
sort of supports the nature of free to air broadcasting. That, of course, doesn't mean that there hasn't been a lot of change in technology, and people access things in different ways, and radio services need to be wherever their audience is
and however their audience chooses to access. But I think it's a different medium to the notion of sort of individual online content where you or I or anyone else that can be online and sort of talk about or espouse whatever our ideas or thoughts are, there's a different kind of collective responsibility in broadcasting where you're broadcasting to potentially an entire community. You have a set of responsibilities around that. And I think these are important distinctions in
the nature of information and reliable information. That's an important part of our social cohesion and a kind of civic society that the vast majority of people wish to be a part of.
Kath. We could speak for hours. There's so much there, so much to unpack. Absolutely. But unfortunately, I think we'll have to wrap up for now. I've been speaking today with Catholic, celebrating World Radio Day with me today, and speaking about just how powerful a medium radio really can be for people around Australia and the world, in fact. So thank you very much for your time today. It was a pleasure to catch up with you.
Thanks, Sam. Lovely to talk with you.
I'm Sam Cully and you're listening to this special Christmas episode of Talking Vision. I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Kath Letcher. And they're coming up now. It's my great pleasure to welcome back a favorite of ours on Talking Vision, Karen Negroni. He was the host of the Blind Australian of the year awards a couple of months ago, and I caught up with him just before he flew off to Brisbane to host the awards. Let's hear from Karen.
The Blind Australian of the year Awards acknowledged the contribution that people with blindness and low vision make to Australian society. These awards bring acknowledgment and prizes for the recipients, taking place on the 26th of October in Brisbane this year, and to have a chat with us about the awards. It's my great pleasure to welcome back a favourite of ours, Karen Negroni, who will be the emcee for the night. Karen, welcome back to Talking Vision. Thanks so much for your time.
This is home, so I will come back any time you ask me to come back. And once again, thank you so much for having me.
No worries at all. But, um. Of course, today, Karen, we're here to chat about the upcoming Blind Australian of the year awards. So yes, we are. We are. Yeah. Very exciting. Could you give us a bit of an overview of the awards for our listeners out there?
Absolutely.
It's basically a night where we celebrate high achieving Australians that live with blindness. And as a blind person myself, it's just an incredible feeling to be in a room around such incredible talent. And, you know, you sort of feel so empowered because growing up as a blind person, I never knew that things like this existed. You know, we didn't know a lot of blind people. And now to be in a room where we're celebrating blind excellence from all across the country is just it's like a
pinch me moment. Sometimes you sort of look around like, wow, this person has done this. You look to the right, wow, this person has done that.
And, um, tell us a bit about your involvement in the event. You're quite central to Central to the proceedings. You've got a lot on your plate there.
I'm going to be the emcee, so I will do my best to do these guys justice, because it's going to be an incredible event and I just hope that I can live up to it. But that's the plan is, I think what I'm going to love the most about this is that I can make blind jokes, and the blind people will get it and we'll all laugh together. So I'm really looking forward to that. I've got all my dad jokes lined up that are blind related, so I will be on a roll.
Well sounds fantastic. And could you give us some of those details for people out there where and when the awards will be happening?
Absolutely. So the awards are going to be held in Brisbane on Saturday the 26th of October at the Moura Hotel. So that's not too far from here. I mean, not too long now. It's like less than two weeks, if I'm not mistaken. There will be a red carpet meet and greet with two time Big Brother winner Reggie Sorensen. And of course, we've got the incredible Rachael Leahcar, who's a good friend of mine and probably one of the
best singers out there who will be performing live. So we've got this little red carpet thing happening before the awards at about 6:00. And then seven is when the formal proceedings start and there'll be dinner, drinks, dancing and a lot of networking.
Oh, wonderful. And how are you feeling about the flight up to Brisbane? Is that something you're looking forward to? What sort of a flyer are you?
What sort of a flyer am I? Yeah. Well, I you know, this is a funny thing because a lot of blind people have complained to me about Qantas, whereas I actually find Qantas the best airline. As a blind person, I just feel like their staff are really, really nice. They're so well trained. And, you know, if there's something that happens where they've messed up, they will go above
and beyond to fix it. So traveling is not I mean, in my role as a speaker, I do travel a lot, like just just this year I've sort of been all over the country. Last week I was in Canberra, the week before I was in Darwin. Before that I was in Sydney. So I'm traveling a lot by myself, and I love Qantas because I feel like they take really good care of me. And no, they did not pay me to say this.
All right. That's very important for people out there. This isn't a paid message, so please don't yell at us.
Not at all. Not at all. I'd love for it to be a paid message, but no, it's not.
No, unfortunately. But that's that's great to hear because I have had discussions with people about, you know, they've been booking a flight and they get to the end and they say, oh, look, I need various bits and pieces. They tick the box to say, yes, I am blind or I have low vision. So, you know, can we sort something out? And then there's like a little box that pops up and says, we cannot accommodate this, and this flight may not be able to suit your needs
and blah, blah, blah. And then it kicks them off the page or something, and then they aren't sure if they've actually like, the flight's gone through or not.
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. Traveling alone as a blind person can be quite exhausting. Because, yes, I'm using my cane to be as independent as I can be. And I don't know why I do this, but even if someone offers me help, I'm like, no, no, no, I'm okay with my cane. I like to be as independent. But what that does is by the end of the trip, I'm so exhausted because my eyes have overstrained to the point where I just want to sleep for days now.
But Brisbane will be different because I'm flying there with my husband, David.
Oh, lovely.
Yeah, yeah, so super excited. Yeah. His family actually lives in Brisbane, so it's going to be a good chance to catch up with them as well.
Oh, that'll be wonderful. And you know, people out there might be thinking hang on. I thought we were talking about the Blind Australian of the year awards. What the hell are they going on about? They're talking about, you know, planes and travelling. But there's a very good reason, Karen, that we are talking about this sort of thing. And it's just a nice dovetail into your advocacy work. So, I mean, tell us a bit about that. Give us
a bit of a highlight package. There's been quite a few things happening in that space.
Look, there's been so much happening. I feel so blessed sometimes. There have been times I've actually pinched myself, you know, because people find it funny. Because they say, oh, you're so happy for a blind guy. And I actually say, you know, other than being blind, I have no complaints because life has been really kind to me when it comes to work. You know, I've traveled all around Australia to talk as a keynote speaker about my lived experience,
and my style of raising awareness is quite different. I use a lot of humor because I feel like disability can be a heavy subject sometimes for people, so I feel like if I talk about it and, you know, add some humor to it, it lightens the mood. And the best thing about speaking at events are honestly the candid conversations that happen after, which is when I've spoken and people come up to me one by one and, you know, say, you know, I know someone who's living
with this condition and thank you for sharing that. Or I didn't know this, and you just told me about this today and this is fantastic. So that is one thing that I love doing. I guess other than that I've been doing my usual thing that's, you know, that led to everything which is creating content on social media. And there was this list that came out recently, and I didn't even know a thing like this existed. And normally if someone called me an influencer, I would honestly
throw up because I hate that word. And I there's a lot of negative connotation where influencers are concerned, but there was a list that was released with the top 40 blind influencers around the world, and I'm number 29. And I was like, whoa! And I think I'm the
only one from Australia on there. So that was quite a quite in my head, quite an achievement because here I'm thinking, you know, no one's really, you know, because when you're putting when you're putting content out there on a daily basis, you sometimes start to think, oh, people are going to get bored, or, you know, how many times can you say the same thing about blindness being
a spectrum? But then when lists like that come out, it makes you feel like, okay, so there are people that are listening out there.
That's a huge achievement. I definitely would agree with that wholeheartedly. But, um, you mentioned in there the content creation and people might be really interested to hear here about the fact that you're a graphic designer and you're doing that with your lived experience of blindness, and people might just their head might be spinning and thinking, wait, how the hell does that work? So yeah.
It's definitely a head scratcher. I get a lot of strange looks when I tell people I'm a graphic designer. So, Sam, I was born with Usher Syndrome, which is a degenerative condition, as you would know. So I was born with normal sight. And whilst my sight was still normal, I studied filmmaking,
graphic design, marketing, public relations and all of that. So whilst I could see I did all of that professionally, but then a stage came where my sight had deteriorated so rapidly that I could no longer do that professionally. So I said, you know, I just sort of basically said to myself, instead of wasting those skills, why not use it now to create content, to let people know what it is that blind people see? So that's how it started. And that is when my heart's full of
pride and joy. You know, when I look at my content out there and people can't believe it's not. This is pretty good for a blind guy. It's. Whoa! I can't believe a blind guy made this.
Exactly.
And that's what gives me a high. And I love.
It. Yeah. No, it's definitely something to really be so proud of. Thank you. But, you know, how do you deal with all those comments, those backhanded compliments when people go, oh, you know, that's pretty this and that for a blind guy. Dot dot dot. Like hello.
Yeah, yeah. Look, if there's one thing I've learned, it's to pick your battles. Yeah. If I'm having a good day and I'm feeling really confident, I will not fight back, but I will sort of clap back and be like, okay, that's just ignorant, because, you know, this, this, this, this, this. But there are days where I am quite tired. You know, there are days where, of course, I'm a human being. My deteriorating eyesight is going to get to me. That's when I'm like, you know what? I'm just not going
to respond. Or what I do is I disable comments because I don't have the energy that day to respond to the comments. So you've got to pick your pick your battles. It's on a on a day to day basis for me, but by and large I try and tackle them head on.
Yes. Oh it is, you know, definitely something a lot of people out there I'm sure can relate to. It is quite exhausting on a daily basis to be at the front line, dealing with all of that sort of thing, especially when you're such a public figure as you are. Not everybody's, you know, top 40 Blonde influencer of the year. But, you know, there's definitely a lot of things for people to relate to there.
Also, another thing that I've learned is the way you respond back makes a big difference. So if someone's angry and you're angry in return, it doesn't solve anything. So if someone said something really nasty about me, I will respond with a lot of kindness and I'll be like, you know, I'm so glad you brought this up because, you know, so many people think that, but that's actually not true. Then I go on and on and on, and then, you know, they actually melt and they respond
in a positive manner. I'm not a perfect human being. There have been times when I'm in a really bad mood and someone said something really awful and awful, and I've just gone right back at them and that's gone nowhere. And so this is one thing that I've learned, and this is why I sort of said to myself, okay, if you can't respond in a nice manner, no matter how awful the other person is, disable the comments or don't do it today. Do it tomorrow.
Yeah. No, that's very important messages there. But yeah, we're very excited to hear how the Blind Australian of the year awards go. And a lot of people can look forward to seeing you up on the stage as the emcee. So that of course. Yeah. That's, um, that's coming up.
I just need to say that tickets are selling out quite quick. I think that's what the CEO Terry, said to me. So if you are looking at booking because they've got corporate tables as well, and tables are limited because there's limited seating. So if you're looking for I think the tables go for 990 for a table of ten, and the tickets start at $75. For people that are companions or hold a concession card. And if you're looking for tickets, please go to Blind Australian of the year. Com.au.
Perfect. That's blind. Australian of the year. Com.au. If you're looking for tickets or you'd just like to find out a little bit more about the Blind Australian of the Year Awards, I've been speaking today with Karen Nagrani, emcee for the Blind Australian of the Year awards, coming up in Brisbane on the 26th of October. Karen, thank you so much for your time today. Always great to chat with you and all the best on the 26th.
Thank you.
Sam. And once again, thank you for pronouncing my name right.
No problem at all.
Appreciate it. It's quite rare. So when you did it I was like, oh, good on you, Sam.
Oh, it's very important. You know, get people's name, right, I think.
Yeah. Yeah, sure. Thank you.
So much. Thanks for having me.
And that's all the time we have for this week on this special Christmas episode of Talking Vision. Thank you, as always, to everybody involved in putting the show together. And remember, we love hearing from you. So please feel free to get in touch anytime on Talking Vision at Vision Australia. Org. That's talking Vision Australia. But until next year it's Sam Colley here. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during business hours on one 384 746. That's one 384 7486 or by visiting Vision Australia. That's Vision australia.org.