Radio Adelaide wins Governor's multicultural award

Friday, 21 November 2008

Radio Adelaide's "forward thinking approach, vibrancy, freshness and energy" has impressed the judges of the Governor's Multicultural Awards.

The Governor's Multicultural Award for Media, presented at a ceremony at Government House last night, honours outstanding contributions to promoting social harmony and the positive influence of cultural diversity in the community.

"Many mainstream commercial radio stations could learn a lot from Radio Adelaide," the judges commented.

Station Manager Deborah Welch said: "While many media outlets run special features or present articles, they rarely transform their policies and daily practices like Radio Adelaide has. Some run feature stories on issues of cultural diversity on odd occasions, whilst still providing stereotypes and negative portrayals on a regular basis.

"It takes a 'whole of station' approach to effect change, which is about making cultural learning and engagement something for all members of the station community, no matter what age or background," Ms Welch said.

With more than 500 volunteers aged between 16 and 85 broadcasting in 11 different languages, Radio Adelaide is a microcosm of society at large.

"A commitment to diversity and inclusiveness must be more than buzz words and needs to be engaged through all the station's activities as well as specific strategies which involve everyone," Program Manager Nikki Marcel said.

"As one of Australia's first and most celebrated community radio stations, changing from a relative monoculture to a vibrant multicultural and multilingual station is one of our greatest achievements in the past 10 years. The result of Radio Adelaide's socially supportive projects and training greatly enhances our multicultural society long after the on air sound waves have faded," Ms Welch said.

Radio Adelaide presenter Joe Tungaraza was also a Media Award finalist for his longstanding work with Radio Adelaide's Neo Voices multicultural youth program and Afro World.

Radio Adelaide is the University of Adelaide's community radio station.

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