Flinders University Student Radio (FUSR) was, without a doubt, one of the most important and valuable experiences of my life.
FUSR was a timeslot every Wednesday night on Australia’s oldest community radio station, Radio Adelaide 101.5 FM (Radio Station of the Year in 2005). FUSR ran from 1997 – 2006, and I was lucky enough to not only be involved as a producer, writer, and host – but also ultimately as the Director of the station.
How often does one get the opportunity to broadcast on such a station and reach tens of thousands of people throughout the State? For me, it happened regularly for approximately half a decade. Sure, it was stressful at times, but looking back at it now I have nothing but fond memories.
Not only did I get the chance to create, produce, and host my own weekly comedy shows on there (“Purple Monkey Dishwasher” and “The Late Show with Adam & Garth” in 2003 and 2004 in particular), but eventually I took over as Director of FUSR, restructured the organisation and its standards of professionalism, improved the skills of its volunteers through providing additional training, and tried to open it up to as many new people as I could. It was important to give as many people a chance to gain the same sort of benefits I did from my time on community radio. As a result, we discovered some terrific talent – talent who you will probably hear from in the near future.
Unfortunately, all good things come to end. So did FUSR – thanks to Federal Government legislation that passed in 2006 (it cut funding to universities, who were then forced to cut back on “non-essential” services such as student radio). FUSR remains in the memories of the hundreds of volunteers who helped run the station for the 10 great years it was on-air.
As a tribute, the (now extremely dated) website is still online. So if you want to listen to some clips from the final year of FUSR, head on over to http://www.fusr.org while it’s still around!