John Worcester, Volunteer
I am the only person, still living, who has been here before we went to air. I used to go along to Brian’s annual meetings and then I got involved just before we went to air and then I joined the programming committee. I didn’t go on air straight away, I waited a couple of months and then they needed more people on air, so I went on. I have been doing it ever since.
What I do here at 3MBS is what I did at the Western Suburbs High School where I used to teach. The principal let me play classical music to the whole school grounds every lunchtime—that was in 1965. I put up a blackboard with what I was going to play each day.
As evidence of the lack of professionalism at the station in the early days, Worcester cites what he recalls as the appointment of a new General manager after Brian retired.
One of our Board members was chatting to a typist at the station and promised her she could be the station manager. She was a nice woman but did not know a thing about management. We persuaded Brian Cabena to retire, and after that, we were able to do our own programs, rather than just record the announcement of numbers to the subscriber guide. That really helped the station develop and expand its musical repertoire. Brian didn’t really like avant-garde music, but he did uphold its right to be played. When someone though played in the early days, Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King he sold the LP over the counter the following day to prevent it being played again, it was just too much for him.
Worcester recalls some of the programs he has undertaken over his years at 3MBS:
I’ve also always loved organ and choral music, and Peter Wakeley started that program back in 1983. I got involved along with Simon Colvin and now Allan Smith and Daniel Mitterdorfer are involved. We celebrated our 40th anniversary in August 2023.