Kiera Stevens, Patron & Volunteer
I was a listener to 3MBS from the beginning. My first husband Mark and I both loved classical music so we listened a lot. We subscribed very early on. In 1983 they mentioned on air that they needed volunteers, and it wasn’t long before the summer holidays and I thought I had nothing planned, so why don’t I go along and find out what was involved? I loved it. It was very different back then, relaxed and casual.
I was interested in going to air so there was some informal training. I started with the equivalent of Intermezzo. I was teaching at PLC [Presbyterian Ladies College], and I went straight from school to do the program
Another program I got involved in was Bach to Bernstein on a Saturday night; that was such fun. Henry Jamieson was the anchor from 8pm to midnight. There was a roster of co-hosts who came along once a month. We played a lot of music and also had a quiz and a pretend barrel where we pulled out a random winner. In those four hours, we would share a bottle of red wine; often we would meet for dinner before and have a drink. You wouldn’t do that now.
Henry Jamieson had a friend Jon Churchward, who’d become a broadcaster on Bach to Bernstein and a woman, Judith Blanchard-Hill was an avid listener who used to ring in with the quiz. Jon started taking phone calls and they chatted and eventually, she came into the station, and they ended up getting married. She later became a presenter.
In 1991-92 I was President of the Board [Author: Nick Sharman : Kiera was the first female President of the 3MBS Board]. Back then the Board was mostly current volunteers, now we have a lot of outside expertise with people with law, finance or management skills.
Some of the radiothons were disasters. I remember one where we were giving African violets out as prizes, that was all we could get, and we had all these dying African violets around the station.
One of the big things 3MBS had to sort out was—are we there for the volunteers or the listeners. Back in the early days, we were for the volunteers. 'I play music I like' instead of asking, ‘what does the listener want to hear?’ It is much more professional now.