Do Vision Australia Radio’s newspaper reading programs keep you informed daily?
Do you benefit from our range of specialist radio shows and book readings?
Is a free and accessible information service on radio and podcast important to you?
If you said yes to any of those, then Vision Australia Radio needs your help!
The cost of keeping our radio service free and widely available to people who are blind, have low vision or a print disability is significant.
Each year it costs more than $2 million, including unavoidable transmission costs of more than $750,000, to keep Vision Australia Radio broadcasting to our 700,000 monthly listeners.
From now until June 30, we’re celebrating our essential radio reading service and asking our listeners, friends and family to support us.
If every one of our monthly listeners donated just $2 before June 30, we’d have $1.4 million! This would go a huge way to keeping Vision Australia Radio, the largest independently run community radio network in Australia, on air!
In reality, Vision Australia Radio has received less than $10,000 in direct donations through the 2020/21 financial year.
One of the ways we continue to stay on air is thanks to our more than 600 volunteers across Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Albury and regional Victoria who give thousands of hours a year to keep us broadcasting.
Our dedicated volunteers have navigated countless lockdowns and restrictions to continuously broadcast through the COVID-19 pandemic, providing people who are blind, have low vision or a print disability with equal access to vital news and information.
“Our local radio reading services are often a primary news source for people with a print-disability,” Jason Gipps, Vision Australia audio business development consultant, said.
“Could you imagine living through the peak of the pandemic and not having accessible news in a format you require? It’s quite terrifying to think that people living with disability, who are often the most vulnerable, could be without a service like Vision Australia Radio which informs, educates and empowers them.
Community support for Vision Australia Radio is more important than ever.
All donations of more than $2 before June 30 are tax deductible and will help keep an essential service for the blind and low vision community on air!
Did you know?
- 36% of our listeners self-identify as living with a disability*;
- 44% speak a language other than English at home*;
- 701,000 people tune in across Australia in an average month*
What can you do?
Like all community radio stations we rely on the support of our sponsors, volunteers, some government funding and those who donate to keep us on-air.
You can make a one-off tax-deductible donation of $2 or more, by heading to varadio.org/VARdonate.
You can also set up regular monthly donations to support Vision Australia Radio.
Alternatively call 1800 422 077 and ask to speak with Donors Services to give via phone.
Remember to inform the telephone operator that you wish to support Vision Australia Radio
To get an idea of what we have been up to over the last 12 months, check out the latest Vision Australia Radio news.
*Data extracted from the following research:
The National Listener Survey - conducted by McNair yellowSquares Survey 2018 Wave #2 - January 2019 – Victoria (n=2,627) Perth (n=2,067) Adelaide (n=2,038). 154 %
