RTRFM has recently hired a new Music Director: the openly gay Adam Christou, who moved from Melbourne to take on the job. Christou has had experience working at community stations in Victoria, and says that one of the reasons he made the move was RTR’s national reputation. “The opportunity to work at a station like this, and in a music director role, doesn’t come up very often. It’s worth the state move. It’s one of the few community broadcasters that is on that really high level, like Triple R, PBS, FBI, it’s seen on that same sort of pillar.”
Christou has also worked for the independent record label Remote Control, working on campaigns for acts including Queens of the Stone Age and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. However, he maintains that community radio is where his passion lies. “I’ve always had a lifelong passion for music and community radio has always been very interlinked with local music and experimental music.”
Christou states that his love for community radio is not just connected to his love of music, but his desire to shine a light on local stories, “Community radio is always focused around the city that it’s from, the area it’s from, the local listeners, their stories, their community and representing it, providing an alternative voice in that community to things that may not be heard in mainstream media. That’s really paramount.”
