I first got the idea of writing a blog for community stations I had visited when asked to appear on The Dotted Line on 3MDR out at Emerald. Since then I have seeked other community radio stations around Victoria to see if I could visit them on day trips.
3MDR (Mountain District Radio) was a station I appeared on whilst recovering from an injury to my finger. Located in Emerald, about 15 minutes from Belgrave in Melbourne's outer Eastern suburbs I was welcomed by Michelle who does a show there every Wednesday night at 9pm to 11pm. She offered to cut the show short though so she could drop me back at Belgrave Station in time to catch the last train in which was 11:09pm, that adventure I'll tell you about later.
She was kind enough to play 6 songs from our album 'Music For Frustrated Ornithologists' and I dropped off a couple of copies to the station so they can feature it further. We talked about the wonder of Birdwatching, walking and discovering nature in which Emerald is a place that reflects all these things. I met her the month before at the Sustainable Living Festival where I had played a 50 minute set.
It was on the 21st of March that I had visited Emerald, still basking in the feeling of releasing the album at Wesley Anne 5 days earlier, I was buzzing as we talked about all things bird related as well as all things music related. 3MDR is a humble studio as part of Emerald Hall and they were happy to give me a few free stickers which I now have on my Guitar case.
I really enjoyed the experience out bush for the day and hope to visit again.
On my way back though I was panicking as I was relying heavily on Public Transport. Getting there by two trains and a bus from the Northern Suburbs of Melbourne to Emerald was ok during the early afternoon but when it came to travel back I was fully aware of how possible it could've been that I'd miss the last public transport back from the City heading north. I jumped on the Train at Belgrave and caught the train that said it would stop at Ringwood and to change trains. As it turned out, It was the train that went to Flinders St but as it went past Glenferrie, I looked at the tram timetable on my iPhone to discover the last tram was leaving Collins St in 15 minutes. I got in to Flinders St with 6 minutes to get to Collins St so made it by 2 minutes but it still had me worried all the way in.
As it turned out, it was a lovely day that I got to spend out in the bush with locals and 3MDR made me feel really welcome, just like Community Radio Stations are meant to do, hence the emphasis being on Community.
Cant wait to get you back to play some axe!
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