Steve Tyers has a long history with Sunbury as a resident and a dedicated volunteer technician with radio station Sunbury FM. Oscar Parry spoke with Steve about his connection to Sunbury, his volunteering work, and the importance of local radio.
What is your connection to Sunbury?
I’ve lived here since 1981. My kids were born here and they both went to primary and secondary school here. I was involved in Scouts for a couple of years with my kids, and I’ve been involved in the radio station for probably the last 25 years.
What do you like about Sunbury?
It’s a good place to live … I’m originally from Maryborough so it’s close to my parents, my wife’s from the other side of Horsham, so going out for the weekend you didn’t have to go through Melbourne. It’s actually closer to Melbourne than what people used to think – I think a lot of people are now starting to realise that. I’ve been here most of my life now and I’ve got no intention of going anywhere else.
What, if anything, would you change about Sunbury?
It’s what I wanted in a place to live … maybe it’s starting to take off now, growth’s going to be a lot quicker than what it was. But you can’t slow down progress, so it is what it is. It’s got everything here that you need, so I don’t really know!
Tell us a bit about your work as a volunteer radio technician with Sunbury FM?
I got involved when my daughter decided that she wanted to do a radio show. I’m an ex-Telstra tech [and] I knew which end of a soldering iron to hang on to. Anyway, the tech at the time, after a couple of months decided to leave … so I sort of jumped in the deep end and took it from there. I’ve learnt as I’ve gone along mainly. I’ve built some studios for them and put them together and I currently do repairs and such … a lot of [it] is more IT-based these days, so there are a couple of other guys who are more into that side of the thing.
There’s about three of us on the technical side now. I do a bit of the wiring and first-hand maintenance because I’m retired, but if it’s above my head I’ll pass it up the line.
Why are local radio stations important?
The importance of local radio is the word local. I’ve always called it ‘a voice for Sunbury’ so as Sunbury grows, there should be, hopefully, more and more people as they come to Sunbury interested, and they can get their point of view across the airwaves as much as anybody else. It’s a great outlet for gaining confidence and talking to people. We’ve had quite a few interesting characters through the place.
From a technical point of view, people can get their skills a bit more there. A lot of the current presenters they’ve got a passion for their particular genre of music and they pass that on to other people. The demographic of Sunbury is going to change, and in the future I’d like to see more and more of the newcomers to the town get involved because it’s a great asset. Like I said, the word local is the important bit.
