ABOUT US : STATION PROFILE

Although much about Triple R has changed since its early days as an educational broadcaster, its core philosophy and direction have remained the same. Commencing in 1976 at RMIT under an experimental licence, Triple R Broadcasters Ltd. was granted a full 'E' class public broadcasting licence in 1978 as 3RRR. Today, 3RRR is Australia's most well known community broadcasting station and has the continuing involvement of RMIT and Melbourne University following the withdrawal of most of the tertiary institutions in the early eighties.


A large part of Triple R's success and survival is due to the support of our listeners who subscribe to the station each year. Triple R has by far the highest level of listener subscription support of any community station in the country and 70% of the station's audience is between 18 and 35 years of age. The average subscriber age is 28. Approximately 150 volunteer broadcasters produce and present 63 programs and over 20 regular segments in the current Triple R format.


Triple R's income comes from two main sources: Subscription & Sponsorship.


Subscription is financial listener support. The more financial listener support we have, the more resources Triple R has to develop and improve station facilities.


Sponsorship is primarily the on-air promotions for events and services that Triple R runs throughout the year and occasionally special event or program based sponsorship.


Our annual radiothon is the number one revenue raiser for the station each year and represents over 50% of the stations annual budget. The station is in a solid financial position but there is very little spare and by the time we get to radiothon each year the bank balance is always low. So, we rely on the annual radiothon to keep the station going over the following year and try to keep up with increasing costs and the changes occurring in the broadcasting industry.


The operation of radio stations has changed enormously over the last 5 years or so with increasing computerisation and IT costs and the ever looming transition to digital broadcasting. Triple R has been implementing changes steadily over the last few years to keep up with these changes as much as possible. We now have regular audio streaming on the Triple R website and we're just about to upgrade the studio hardware which will allow us to introduce industry standard software such as Pro Tools. The income from radiothon subscriptions primarily simply allows us to keep operating for another 12 months as well as hopefully continue to upgrade out studio facilities. Over the next year we hope to replace some parts of our computer network, develop and improve training facilities, participate in digital broadcasting trials and continue to improve studio facilities - and, as always, we need a really good radiothon result to do it!