If People Powered Radio: 40 Years of 3CR

Exhibition opened by Robbie Thorpe, who had been a part of 3CR for as long as the station itself.

Contributors: 3CR, Audio Working Group, Charlotte Clemens, Megan Cope, Nicole Curby, Brighid Fitzgerald, Emily Floyd, Helen Hughes, Andrew McQualter, Spiros Panigirakis, Trent Walter/Negative Press, Liquid Architecture, Lucreccia Quintanilla, Natalie Rambaldi, Reko Rennie, Arika Waulu.

If People Powered Radio: 40 Years of 3CR was a collaboration between Fitzroy's oldest community radio station, 3CR, and one of Fitzroy's oldest galleries and studio complexes, Gertrude Contemporary. 

Celebrating 40 years of 3CR, the exhibition explored the station's history of radical broadcasting and how it has thrived in its endeavour to foreground the often unheard voices of Aboriginal people, women, workers, people with disabilities, ethnic and GLBTIQ communities, environmentalists, artists and musicians. The exhibition presented a combination of recordings, technological hardware, photographic and textual documents from the station’s vast historical archive. Newly commissioned artworks by local artists framed and interpreted the station’s history of radical broadcasting. Over five Friday evenings between 5–7pm there were a series of live broadcasts from the exhibition space featuring campaigns, current affairs and local musicians including one curated by our friends, Liquid Architecture.

If People Powered Radio presented an opportunity to explore the politics of broadcasting and listening, and the different material and aesthetic supports that facilitate 3CR’s engagement with its diverse and progressive publics.

We are grateful to have had material on loan from the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives.