Henry Sachwald, Volunteer
When I came to Melbourne from New York in 1979, I had a stereo tuner and I was rotating the dial from left to right. At the lower end of the spectrum was 3MBS and silence until I heard ABC Classic FM at the higher end. At that time all you heard on 3MBS was early classical music and the words, ‘You have been listening to item number three on 3MBSFM.'
I decided I wanted to do a Broadway Musicals Original Cast Recording program on Melbourne radio, so I started pitching the idea to various stations. Somewhere between 1979 and 1984 I realised that 3MBS was now announcing the items they were playing. As a classically trained professional musician who as a child had been inspired by the orchestral sound of the Broadway sound of the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s I saw an opportunity to provide a crossover between what I considered my style of popular and classical music.
I landed at 3MBS in 1984 and started doing Theatretrack on 6 August 1984. The first season ran initially from 11pm to midnight and I used all my own recordings because, being a largely classical station, 3MBS did not have many Original Cast Broadway shows in their record library.
On my first show, I played the complete original cast recording of La Cage Aux Folles, which was playing on Broadway at the time. I played complete recordings for a while but when my time slot increased to two hours and my personal record collection started to increase I decided to change the format to selections from various shows each week rather than complete recordings.
I was involved in the first Radiothon at the station. I had experience in Radiothons because I had worked on two for the New York Philharmonic before coming to Australia, so I understood what was involved in this style of fundraising at that time. You needed professional spruiking of your product. I was probably the youngest volunteer at the time, and I tried to get on to the mic as much as possible to get people revved up to want to subscribe.
I pioneered the first on-air interview at 3MBS live in our old Cotham Road studios with the Australian actor Frank Wilson. Since then I have had the opportunity to interview and meet some of my biggest musical theatre heroes including Barbara Cook, Chita Rivera and Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim was going to come to Melbourne in 2008 for my one-thousandth program, but unfortunately scheduling conflicts intervened.
One of the most dramatic things that made me realise that what we do at 3MBS is so important was when I got a phone call during a program after playing a particular song. A woman called to say how grateful she for a song that I had just played as she had been very depressed. Listening to that song had changed her outlook. I’ve never forgotten what she said. It is one of the main reasons I have continued to present Theatretrack, now in its 41st Season.
Aside from the fact that I still enjoy what I do, since I have come this far, I have taken on the personal challenge to beat the late John Cargher's continuous years broadcasting record on the ABC of forty-two years.