JOY Radiothon June 12 - 21

So it's time for Radiothon around here at JOY. Starting this Friday the 12th until the 21st of June, we will be asking all of you, who listen to us, read this blog, follow us on Twitter, download our podcasts, to support the station by becoming a member.

The theme for this year is Alphabet Soup, something we, as the GLBTIQ community have been called in recent times, though we're yet to beat the Barbershop Harmony Society as far as acronyms go.

For the last week and a half I've watched our Marketing Manager and host of The Fool and The Opera, Dan Vo work tirelessly and painstakingly on blog post after blog post. Each one is creatively put together: words, images, video clips and metaphors for JOY, our alphabet soup, and plenty of soup inspired

Now it's my turn to try and encourage you to join up and support the station. Instead of witty metaphors and clips of Shirley Temple, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about why JOY means so much to me.

I came to the station 3 years ago. I was struggling at the time, in a long distance relationship, and going through the emotional ups and downs of applying for visas. I hadn't really listened to JOY before, because I didn't really know any other gay people and didn't even know it existed. But fate stepped in, and I stumbled upon their website where they were asking for applications for a youth training program. I was at another community radio station at the time and loved creating radio and so I applied. From there I have had an evolving relationship with JOY, as a trainee, a presenter, a producer and now as content producer.


I've met and talked to so many people who have similar experiences and attachment to JOY, and everyone has slightly different reasons why they listen, why they volunteer, why the station means so much to them. At the end of the day we're all mixed together a series of random letters that when thrown in together make a warm community of radio soup-i-ness.

See why I shouldn't be allowed to attempt soup inspired metaphors.