That’s quite a journey and heartbreaking to read. So sorry it has come to an end for you.
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Yeah, not just for me, but for my friends as well. I spoke to FBI radio a few weeks ago as a last resort. I was making enquiries with CBAA, so wile there in Redfern, I decided to pop in next door.
Chris Chan from the community Broadcasting and safeguards and I corresponded extensively on FBI’s license conditions, he was extremely helpful. After much breaking down of the rules and regulations, we both came to the conclusion that ACMA looks at a license as a whole, meaning the entire stations spectrum of programming is taken into consideration. This is in relation to if they are any complaints and enquiries regarding any content that is not quite within a stations pre-defined license stature.
Yes, I thank Mr Chan from ACMA for being very helpful, and breaking the rules down to bite-size, so we all knew what was going on. We kept FBI in the loop, and Darren was initially quite receptive.
We proposed two six hour shifts overnight. This was in consideration that we did not want to disturb their programming and arts flavoured music during the day, it would have at least given us an outlet. Mr Chan said that our content would have only taken 7% of the stations format, where it would not have been a problem, within the proviso that the rest of the station stays within it’s core license focus, which is youth art and culture.
Anyway, Darren did recognise and acknowledge the fact that we did check through things thoroughly, and that they were under ACMA conditions perfectly legally okay with broadcasting the content of the fresh mix.
In an email earlier on today, apparently their supposed “wider programming” team noted that they “preferred” to continue their “youth” focus, like they still have 156 hours, yes, I’ll say that again, 156 hours. I noted “preferred” as that was the exact word used in their email reply back. I’m talking about the fact that they actually do have the “luxury” to say “preferred”, as we don’t have such a “luxury” to pick and choose what we “prefer” at all.
And yes, I’m trying to be on my best behaviour, as much of the stuff going through my head tonight was not pleasant through to being quite ugly. My friends were very worried about my welfare tonight, as one of them felt that my persona was, as he put it; “unstable”, but that’s me digressing. It’s not about me, nor about my friends, we had people from PWDA who were keen to contribute content, we has so many ideas of getting people with disabilities involved, but FBI’s so call “wider programming” team were too selfish to give a bit. No one gives an inch, and with so many of our endeavours over the years, it doesn’t matter whose in power politically or whether it’s commercial or community, we are just completely invisible.
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Hi @anonymousbroadcaster, sorry to read about all this.
You’re more than welcome to produce a programme such as the ‘Leed Lemonade Top 40’ for Braidwood FM; we’re always on the lookout for new material. We’d rather broadcast hosted content rather than just automated music (since we have our own automation). Let me know if you’d like to do that via PM.
I know Braidwood FM doesn’t exactly have a wide reach but at least you’d be ‘on air’ somewhere! And we’re on iHeart Radio so pick up a few listeners that way I suspect.
FWIW, my programme would never be ‘cool’ enough for the likes of fBi!
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Thank you for speaking out, I am an Aspie too and have seen the contempt we are treated like in the industry. I have been thinking recently about quitting the industry due to some of the attitudes.
Even doing my own show on Braidwood FM I have had alot of cyberbullying incidents on social media and some others involved treating me as if I’m stupid and basically ignoring my existence except to either make a snide comment or complaint, and I think this is the norm in the industry. Noone ever appreciates the Good things you do or even just tell you, hey your show is good or hey what good processing you have on the station you look after., but they sure enough know how to bring you down.
My day job is as a radio technical contractor/consultant/auditor and alot of people in the industry get pissed off at me for having more attention to detail than they do because they believe I am “showing them up” and then that turns them against me, just like it has in my on air capacity in community radio.
I have made the choice recently to make my show bland and predictable because that is what is expected, and I barely feel like going to air because its not what I wanted to do, but to stop the bullying and comments, I have had to. That being said I sometimes sneak in a few fun songs for the actual fans of my show. However, even that seems to have dropped off over time.
Those of us who have mental and physcological issues are very much shunned in the industry and the world in general.
Fortunately I have found my niche on Twitch, streaming to a more like-minded audience and as said above have been thinking of leaving the radio industry all together.
As soon as anyone finds out your even the slightest bit weird/have issues they treat you like you don’t exist, that’s the way I feel in the industry except by some management types who like to keep me around as I get results (tech wise). But it is incredibly difficult to work with others who don’t have the same ethic as you or the “obsession” as they call it with broadcasting and technology. So it drives us to not want to do the thing we love anymore.
Anyway just my two cents and just let you know your not alone… I am hated and despised too. But sometimes we find like minded people.
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@dxnerd, thank you for the inspiration when seriously I had absolutely none last night. Yes, I’ll say it, I was in tears after Darren’s email.
I tried so hard to fit in with them, but they just couldn’t give two “swinging foxes”. I absolutely hate “bad mouthing” anyone or any entity for that matter, its not good for ones integrity, and “bad mouthing” doesn’t exactly promote good relationships, , but FBI being the last straw, I just had to finally let loose after 33 years.
@Parex11, thank you for your heart warming comments, I hear you, I hear you all the way. I don’t do any social media anymore for that very reason. I think when I was lobbying for a license for 2PR FM between 2008 and 2014, with the coverage I was then getting in the local papers, my social accounts started filling up with quite a bit of hate messages. I’ve had folk on face book hijacking my comments with responses like, “yeah, it’s all about you isn’t it, all about you and nobody else (insert profanity). Another facebook group I was told that if you ever get near a radio station, we’ll come to clean you out, including your (insert profanity) music”, and only a few years ago on this forum, they were three users continually trolling my comments, mostly in the 2SM super digi and the narrowcasting threads. That is just the tip of the iceberg.
At the end of 2PR FM, I had a guy from Brisbane visiting Sydney expressing to be a partner within the station, and wanted to contribute a good number of very clean vinyl masters to the station’s library. The friendship started off okay, we then both decided that we like ripping vinyl so much that we would go into a joint fund to purchase one of those japanese ELP turntables that plays vinyl records via laser, rather then a stylus.
I’ve heard the demo disc, and it makes vinyls sound almost like CD. Although there is still the cracks and pops associated with any dirt in the grooves of the vinyl, that horrible high-end distortion and scraping sound from the stylus travelling through the groove is completely gone. Wow!!! listening to vinyl, well at least the few recordings I’ve heard are just so “blissful” to hear.
About three and a half years into the friendship when he seemed somewhat trustworthy, we both opened a shared account to contribute to, for then purchasing the ELP when they were sufficient funds. About a year into the saving plan he asked me several times if 2PR FM was finished for good. This was right in the heart of the Turnbull govt years, and with the libs being as hard as nails, we were not going to get a license in any form, so 2PR FM was officially retired at the end of May 2016.
The guy was homeless so I helped him out with getting in contact with the local support services, my local disability coordinator and I together had successfully got him a housing unit in Brisbane, somewhere south of the river. I gave him some of my old computer gear for him to get back on line, and also helped out with washing his clothes, doing what I could do to at least make his life a bit more bearable, and inspiring, at least to the point of having something to look forward to when getting up in the morning.
At this point, again, I make it clear that it’s not about bignoting ones self, it was about seeing a reality in front of you, where one felt that they could contribute. I’ve seen many appeals for African starving children, but what can I do here from old Sydney town? Nothing, probably donate, where most of it goes to the charity’s admin. I just saw a guy down on his luck, and knew that this was something I could contribute toward.
After the constant questioning whether 2PR was finished, the penny dropped where I knew something wasn’t right, and I was no longer gain to look into the shared account, I just stopped contributing my share, my instincts were white hot, and in the end, they were right on. After about eight months of not looking, I plucked up the courage to look, and found that the accounts were emptied out. I lost about AU$3,600, it was a rather hard kick emotionally, and of course the feeling that you are left a fool, absolutely wonderful reciprocity for helping someone out, but that’s what you get for being autistic.
When visiting my parents and friends down in the gong, we went through all the paper work and were amazed that the accounts fluctuated massively; at times very briefly more money in there that I could ever earn in my life. The accounts would be emptied, then $80,000 for a few days, emptied, $35,000, then emptied, this happened dozens of times when I wasn’t looking. By the time my family got on top of it, the trail had gone well cold, and rumours have it that he shot off to Korea.
When discussing the scenario further with my friends, they bought the hypothesis up that it could have been some sleepers from CRA, friends of one of the corporate stations taking revenge for my lobbying efforts. I mean, between 2008 to 2014 I was all over the press, and no doubt that would have rubbed some industry insiders in a very uncomfortable way. Perhaps exposing their personal insecurities, so what better way to handle a potential threat (a handicapped person), then to go out, gaslight and destroy them. I would emphasise though, I’m not buying this, very far fetched, but something inside of me tells me that maybe perhaps some element of this could be true. I don’t know and couldn’t care less anymore, life goes on.
Toward the end, he mentioned that he was doing studies and a paper on scatology, wanting me to take photos of my number twos for sending them via email. This is when the friendship ended. This was a ploy for playing upon an autistics naivety, as doing such is illegal, and would be looked upon as sending obscene material through a carrier service.
My father was about to pass away from advanced lung cancer and was going to leave us some inheritance. Not that I had any intention anymore, but upon one of the last phone calls, I mentioned this that I could get a few tens of thousands of dollars, and man, this was my last little hooray. Psychologically I used the vary weapon of his persona, selfish and mean, again using his persona in a form that was sweet and beautiful. I had him ringing me up about three dozen times over the next month asking me when I was going to get the money. Nothing like getting a greedy man salivating emotionally as if he was going to con an autie and his family out of all their money. When the penny dropped, by the end of spring 2019, I had the most abusive phone call of my life from him, and I just hung up. That was the last sweet revenge, him ending up so angry, when the forbidden fruit he was so madly after turned poisoness, but then I don’t know, everything about this guy was fake, even his name. A member of my family suspected that he could have been drug dealing or laundering money, again, I don’t know.
The one thing I regret, when I rung him in the beginning, he kept on asking that I should turn off my “caller ID masking” feature. At first I had no idea, but after a few years, it was apparent that he’s conned several other people before, and now has debt collectors after him. It explained why he was homeless.
Having my own struggles, to help somebody else out, only to be treated like an animal, this was NOT new to me, and I was somewhat acclimatize to this behaviour, but never before on such a nuclear level. They are things I could have done to recover my monies. Him knowing more about me, well more then I preferred, I didn’t want to antagonize this piece of scum any further.
They are many things one could hypothesize, rule in, rule out, and can only speculate, but in the last 25 years (since 1998) in trying to enter radio professionally, I’ve never, ever had anyone say, “Wow, that’s an interesting idea or proposal, we’d love to have you aboard”.
As an autie, you are made to feel that you have too much of a sense of entitlement, made to feel that you’re asking for the world, no matter how much of a compromise or how little one is negotiating for, and it’s always too much for anything to be done. I’ve seen some of the most powerful people in this country become so helpless when it came to our cause. I mean literally not through some weird sense of magic overcoming them, but their attitude just seems to completely disempowered them in a flash, and it becomes all about them looking at us as a “Risk” and an “unknown responsibility” and that is that. There is absolutely no shifting in the mantra, and at the end, doesn’t matter how hard one works, one always feels they’re begging and asking, after so many years, it’s not the kind of space one wants to be in anymore. You are looked upon as vulnerable, desperate, and undesirable, and such a presence doesn’t exactly set a good vibe.
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This is me every day. People start liking me and then their opinion changes very quickly. Im fortunate to have a good support network amongst management types but I noticed it specifically when I started on air, and tried to get more involved with the community station itself, I got sort of back seated and for lack of a better term shunned as I believe my abilites were questioned.
Fortunately, my contract clients management are accepting of me and see my abilities for what they are, but yes it hurts, and I have felt that noone give 2 shits about me for years. Whether they mean to or not, it really hurts and lately Ive felt really hurt.
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I would best describe it as that first bright light when you first meet someone socially, then the relationship just becomes guarded and very territorial. you don’t know it at first, but you already crossed that neurotypical line of being weeded out. You just don’t know, because it is such a slow burn process that you’re not aware of it until it’s too late, and that’s when the damage is done.
When drawing awareness to these autistic issues as a whole, I’m always trying to be careful not to make it a broad-stroke observation, making out that all neurotypicals are bastards. That’s not the point. I don’t want to make it an us and them mentality, but without trying to alienate anyone or any group, denying that there is already such a deep seeded problem within our community is basically burying ones head in the sand.
Exactly whats happened at the station my shows on. But I think they more subconsciously do it than know what their doing. I dont hold it against them. Its just part of the course of people with mental health issues, were always looked down on as not good enough.
Its what happens, i’m used to it now and its just another nail in the coffin. Im in a very dark place at the moment.
Did you say you were with Braidward FM (spelling i know), DXnerd and I are talking, we may, just talking at this stage) looking at having the fresh mix overnight. Only prospecting at this point.
When is your show on, I’ll try and listen in.
Yes i am, its my outlet for the show. But I think its a point of contention for them to have me on, so I may just fade away soon
Thats the show.
We may be taking this off topic now though… lol
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I agree with much of the sentiments expressed, some community stations appear to be run as a closed shop with regards to any deviation from core programming.
At least you received a reply from the ministers office in some manner.
Getting access to the airwaves in Australia has always been difficult for the little guy, lets look at the current options:
- community radio;
- lpons;
- domestic HF or offband MW & VHF.
The issues with community radio have been well discussed here so i wont repeat, lpons only offer 2 frequencies so once these get allocated, thats it and HF/Offband, well why bother…
Tell me im dreaming, but I’d love to see something like the NZ LPFM system in Australia, even 100mw low power radio like the US Part 15 would be good, as there are stacks of use cases where this could be used or why not open up AM for low power experimental broadcasting.
But as it stands now, the current “Low Interference Potential Devices” LIPD rules are overly restrictive, as soon as you transmit further than 10 meters you are in breach /exceeding the LIPD.
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No worries, I think I’ve said that all needs to be said, pretty much blowing off some much pressurized steam.
I just wanted to conclude, don’t be so hard on yourself, and don’t let others judging you effect who and where you want to go in life.
I too have got a reasonably good support network, even some great folks on here. They’ve told me pretty much the world is “dog eat dog” and the only way to get out there is to be a “go getter”,. Wile I definitely would not classify myself strictly as being of such a nature, I never let those bitter and twisted twots get to a level where it effects me, it’s just their insecurities that they are trying to mask, I just take a breather at times when I feel it becomes too much, never loose sight of your dream. You’ll end up as a hermit, and this is the very thing I’m fighting at the moment, that’s what I meant when I earlier said defying gravity.
Yep, and it was a complete laugh, it was written in such a condescending, and ignorant manner, we couldn’t take it seriously. A few of my friends who read it were of the view that I think her secretary was taking the piss.
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Hey @Parex11 - no objections at this end to Andy for Breakfast at all. Not sure what the others have said to you but I’ll have a word to them.
We don’t have another breakfast host for those days (and are unlikely to find a replacement) so please continue as long as you’re able.
I’m on the spectrum myself- as I’m sure a lot are on this forum. These are important discussions so it might be best to make a topic in the lounge for it?
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Yeah, I’d be all for that. I know I was drifting off topic somewhat, but conversely wanted to still be polite enough to reply to andy, I feel his pain.
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Topic started in the lounge and can be accessed here:
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Reggie’s got visitors for today, and has ask me to take over the stream, so I’ll be behind the mix for today.
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This is just a short note that I’ve posted our last update in the “Recent Updates” section of the fresh mix dot com. It is the BIG WHITE update dated the 2nd April.
Again, thanks for those who have reached out to me privately, very much appreciated, and rather hart warming and humbling. 
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I must admit I haven’t had the Fresh Mix on for a while but I have enjoyed it on the days i’ve been working from home.
The stream will stay indefinitely, they’ll be no more efforts in canvassing other radio services for the syndication of our material, nor trying to get a license, reggie is now pretty much running the web-stream. I’ve had a few autistic folk wish me well as well in the AutismAustralia forom on reddit, but have told them the same.
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There’s been a breakthrough, I’m finally out of that internet streaming shithole. Stay tuned to this channel, more to come shortly.
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