Alex Tsirgialos, Former Program Manager
My role as program manager, funded through the Community Broadcasting Association, was to expand the station onto the digital platform. Community radio had just received approval to broadcast on the digital platform, and that is when I started at 3MBS in 2012. The idea was to expand access so more people would be reached by community radio. The problem was initially that stations were just simulcasting a broadcast on FM and digital so there was no diversity of programming. It took us two years to get the systems and programs in place where at points FM and digital programs were different.
The building at Abbotsford has an unfortunate structure with paid staff upstairs and volunteers downstairs. I spent a lot of time downstairs trying to improve the relationships with the volunteers. When I started there was a vocal minority of volunteers who thought the place should be run by volunteers—when I left those people were no longer there or were not as influential.
Sally Hutchison was a volunteer who was working almost full-time at the station. She was working on live broadcasts and other projects. This saved the station a lot of money and she was incredibly dedicated.
There were some things that we did during my time at 3MBS that had a lasting legacy. We made some operation and systems adjustments to make the station’s sound more polished. One of the main things we did was to keep the programs on time. We had an automatic in and out of presenters, so you had one and a half minutes to get out without the microphones being up and so the programs always kept to time.
One of the hardest things I had to do was tell an ailing 89-year-old presenter that he had to lose his program in the knowledge that it was probably going to send him to his grave. Also giving volunteers honest feedback and not getting a positive response was quite challenging at times. I think when I was there, we managed to make it an enjoyable place to be and a more polished presentation on air.