Our Vision
Our vision is community focused and simple – we aim to connect our community by delivering unique, diverse and valued programming, celebrating the character and values of our Gippsland region, while promoting freedom of expression and the breaking down of isolation and cultural barriers.
Our Mission
- To offer a diverse range of programs that provide variety for our local community including indigenous and multi-cultural programs.
- To be a proactive broadcaster catering to those not adequately served by the mainstream media.
- To provide access through relevant training and station facilities to enable broadcasting opportunities.
- To foster and encourage community participation in the station irrespective of background.
- To deliver a quality product for all of our stakeholders.
- To operate the station in a financially viable manner.
- To embrace new technology.
Gippsland FM is the local community radio station in the central Gippsland / Latrobe Valley area in Victoria, Australia. Situated in the town of Morwell, we are like almost 400 other Community Radio Stations around the country. Whilst the ABC is funded by our taxes, and commercial radio through advertising, a fundamental platform for Community broadcasting is that it can be funded by direct contribution from listeners.
Gippsland FM is a non-profit, volunteer-run organisation which aims to provide an alternative radio service for the local community, complementing and supplementing the national and commercial radio networks.
The official station call-sign is 3GCR-FM, however the station has been using the name “GIPPSLAND FM” for the past twenty-five years or more. The station is owned and operated by the Gippsland Community Radio Society Co-operative Limited and broadcasts on a frequency of 104.7 on the FM band and online.
Membership and participation is open to anyone in the community. All members can have a say in the running of the station. Community groups and individuals who may not wish to become broadcasters, but are keen to support their local station, can become subscribers and contribute in many other ways to our day-to-day operations (including technical, non-technical, physical and intellectual).
For more information on subscriptions and the benefits, please contact us.
Our Values
We value the following:
People – our members being treated with dignity and respect, viewing the community as our primary stakeholder and maintaining a bias in favour of the disabled and those under-represented in our community (and in mainstream media).
Honesty and Integrity – our organisation operating with honesty through open, ethical and trustful leadership with these qualities being exhibited by all members to each other and our stakeholders.
Teamwork – with a commitment to building common goals based on open communication and concern and support for each other.
High Performance – doing the best we can, always including compliance with all legal, ethical and community obligations including our sector Codes of Practice.
Social Responsibility – operating our organisation in a socially and environmentally responsible manner that embodies good corporate citizenship.
Primary Activity
Gippsland Community Radio Society Co-operative Ltd conducts it business affairs according to current Co-operative Legislation in Victoria. In accordance with this Act (the Co-operatives Act 1996) the primary activity of our Co-operative is:
To provide educational programs, community access programs, high quality music and other such radio programs considered suitable for broadcasting for members of the society and the people of the Gippsland district.
Purpose And Objectives
As a community radio broadcaster, Gippsland FM is licensed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. In accordance with that licence, the station has the following “Purpose and Objectives” which appears as part of its operating conditions. These are:
- To provide facilities and equipment for education, recreation or other community purposes, and to promote and assist clubs, societies or other organisations for any such purposes;
- To provide educational programs, community access programs, high quality music and other such radio programs considered suitable for broadcasting for the local community;
- To promote an appreciation and interest in broadcasting activities;
- To promote and carry out any charitable purposes; and
- To improve the conditions of community life.
Promise Of Performance
In accepting its broadcast licence, Gippsland FM has given a commitment to the Australian Communications and Media Authority that it will:
- Seek to provide an alternative radio service for the people of Gippsland. Program content and format shall be such as to complement and supplement programs provided by commercial and national broadcasters serving Gippsland;
- Provide educational programs, community access programs, high quality music and other programs considered suitable for broadcasting to the people of Gippsland;
- Offer access to facilities and personnel to all community members and/or groups to produce and broadcast their programs. Other community members and/or groups shall have the right of reply to views expressed in these programs;
- Seek to promote public awareness of the potential of community broadcasting, encouraging the community to produce its own programs;
- Remain publicly accountable by virtue of the structure of its corporate body; station Board meetings will be open to observers from the community;
- Endorse and abide by the Code of Ethics of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia.