The Spiral Times - Radio Skid Row

This Spiral is a love letter to a station, a city and a community that taught BB so much about cultural resistance and media justice, forever cutting through the static on stolen land.

Radio Skid Row 88.9 FM is a pioneering community radio station in Sydney, Australia, which has been providing a radical platform for music, views and the area's under-amplified voices since it began in 1983 with test broadcasts on a landline telephone to Long Bay Jail. The station was founded by members of the Indigenous community, communists, unionists, migrant workers committees, squatters, prison activists, and environmentalists who all wanted to create space for alternative media and challenge mainstream narratives. Today RSR broadcasts in 17 different languages, and has survived shutdowns, lock-outs and funding cuts.

You'll hear Radio Skid Row story/ies and history/ies as told by local voices, with material generously provided by their history project and the hosts of Race Matters, a crucial show on another Sydney community station FBI. You’ll also hear a collage of some of BB's favourite music from the past and present being made on the land of the Gadigal Wangal people of the Eora Nation whose sovereignty has never been ceded.

When I first visited Radio Skid Row six years ago I had never made radio, but the incredibly rich and radical history of this community station and the people planted a seed in me of what radio can do. I feel honoured to spotlight Skid Row as they fundraise to expand their digital offering in this their 40th birthday year! Tune in and learn how you can support the battle for the future of an essential community station whose name should be known worldwide. You'll also find endless lessons and inspiration for anyone who believes in the change and the airwaves.