By Gina Carlucci
Murdoch university’s student radio station has been around in one form or another since its inception in 2002 but recent changes have brought it back into the spotlight.
M.E.T host Tanita in the studio
Re-branded as the Murdoch Entertainment Transmission [M.E.T FM], the student-run club has been picked up by the School of Arts as a part of the curriculum.
This year RAD316 [Radio Projects] has adopted M.E.T FM as an assessed project to be contributed to by its third-year level students.
Music coordinator of M.E.T FM Ben Da Cruz says “because we’re the first class doing this unit, they’ve told us that we’re kind of building the groundwork for this new radio station”.
With a focus on bringing local news and bands to the ears of the student body, the club is fundamentally about networking, building portfolios and enjoying the university experience.
Audio operations officer Benjamin Morton explains that in the past there wasn’t much incentive for students to participate fully in the club, but now the merging of unit and club removes this problem of longevity.
“It’s early days but the impression I get now is that it [the club] is not as hierarchical, responsibility is shared and it would make sense for it to be like that because it’s a unit and everyone would be marked equally,” Mr Morton says.
Mr Da Cruz believes that the creative content is still up to the choice of the students, but the added support of having someone ‘at the top of the food chain’ has helped their station’s popularity grow.
“We definitely look more professional now because we have the seven teams – journalism, music coordinator, presenters, producers, sponsorship, and digital marketing . . . we’ve been able to really focus on each specific area which builds the whole station,” Mr Da Cruz says.
“Hopefully there will be progressions so each year will add something to the radio station, and then it can blossom into something more than what it is now”, says Mr Morton.
For M.E.T FM, you can tune in from 4-5pm AWST every weekday on 107.9fm and 3-4pm AEST weekdays on SYN Nation.