SYN 90.7: Community Radio made by and for Australia’s Youth

In a world dominated by the major media outlets, it can be difficult for those outside of that realm to have a voice. But that doesn’t seem to be a problem for Australian radio station SYN 90.7. SYN 90.7 puts its own creative spin on the concept of community radio by giving Australia’s youth a voice by teaching them how to produce their own content for radio broadcasts. In other words, it is a community radio station run by and made for Australia’s next generation.

SYN 90.7 broadcasts out of Melbourne, Australia. Launched in 2014 as a part of SYN (Student Youth Network) Media, SYN 90.7 brings in approximately 80,000 listeners each week. Those between the ages of 12 and 26 produce all of the content broadcast on the radio station.

The programs they produce feature topics such as current news, education, sports, art and music. They also feature variety shows on topics that rotate out every three months in order to keep things interesting.

Among the many programs they produce are their flagship programs like Schools on Air, Get Cereal and Graveyard Shift. Schools on Air is their most popular education program in which a school can produce their own content to share with other schools. Starting out the morning on weekdays, Get Cereal is a variety show in which producers talk about what’s on their mind while playing some tunes. Graveyard Shift is just what it sounds like: a late night radio show that runs from 2 to 6 a.m. where producers play a wide range of music.

Tess Lawley, who has been the general manager of SYN 90.7 since shortly after the station began, discussed the importance of community radio in an interview with The Standard, an online journalism showcase for Australia’s Swinburne University.

“Community radio is such a powerful and rewarding thing that brings people together,” Lawley said. “Community radio gives people the voice that they don’t necessarily have and the creative control that comes with it.”

I reached out to SYN 90.7 a few times in hopes of getting in contact with someone who could tell me more about the station and its impact on the community. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a response. Instead, I decided to look at SYN 90.7’s social media presence. The station itself isn’t very active on social media, but SYN Media is. On Twitter, they have a following just shy of 10,000 people. They tweet only a few times a day, mostly about the programs that are being featured on the station currently as well as interacting with audience members who tweet at them. On Facebook, they have about 8,000 likes and curate posts similar to those seen on Twitter. The station seems to resonate well with the youth community as seen through positive tweets and reviews on Facebook.

The youth producers of SYN 90.7 report in ways similar to that of journalists all over Australia. In a report from Worlds of Journalism, Australian journalists feel that they have a lot of freedom in what they publish. They believe their role is to “report on things as they are, to educate the audience, tell stories about the world, be detached observers and to let people express their views.” This is exactly what the youth producers of SYN 90.7 do. They discuss topics that they feel are important to be talked about, tell a story about it and ultimately express how they feel about whatever it is they talk about.

Consistent with Worlds of Journalism’s report on Australian journalism is Australia’s rank on Reporters Without Borders’ 2018 World Press Freedom Index website. Australia comes in at 19th out of 180 countries. While journalists may enjoy a lot of freedom in what they publish, it is also mentioned on the webpage that much of the media in Australia is owned by two main groups: News Corporation (owned by Rupert Murdoch) and Fairfax Media.

SYN 90.7 strays away from media ownership in Australia. Lawley emphasized this in the interview mentioned before when she went on to say “It’s also super important to have another voice or voices in the media that aren’t funded by big advertising bucks or their opinion is shaped and manipulated by Rupert Murdoch. Independent sources are needed in our communities.”

And that is what SYN 90.7 is all about: giving a voice to those who typically don’t have one. SYN 90.7 hopes to evolve with the ever-changing technological society we live in today while staying true to their main mission, which is simply to train the next generation how to become the media-makers and possibly make a difference.