2SER

2SER is a non-profit radio station in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, broadcasting on the frequency 107.3 FM. It is a member of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia. The station has a metro-wide license and broadcasts a mix of programming styles: specialist music, general magazines, and specialist talks. It currently broadcasts a variety of talk shows on topics such as science, current affairs, health, conservation, publishing, gender and queer culture, music, the arts, and theater.

2SER is also one of the few media outlets that has a special program for prisoners, Jailbreak. The station helped launch the broadcasting careers of Julie McCrossin,  Robbie Buck, Richard Kingsmill, Helen Razer, Eleanor Hall, Fenella Kernebone, Steve Ahern, Jess Scully, and Jonathan Harley, all of whom started out on the station as volunteers.

History
On October 1, 1979, the station was opened by the Federal Minister for Education, Senator John Carrick.

The station broadcasts a wide range of music and talkback programs. Some of these have been on air for more than 30 years, like Back to Funk, Static, and The Phantom Dancer, while also making room for experimental and short-lived explorations into metal, pop, and spatial audio. Although the station is co-funded by two universities, the University of Technology Sydney and Macquarie University, it remains independent and not-for-profit.

In the mid-1990s, the station expanded its programming to emphasize underground dance music. This caused friction within the station, but 2SER organized a series of highly lucrative fund-raising events called Freaky Loops in association with Sydney promoters such as Cryogenesis, Clan Analogue, Club Kooky, and Elefant Traks which sustained the move to a new musical format for several years until 2001.

In late 2004, the station was faced with a projected budget shortfall of up to $100,000 that financial year. Management addressed the situation by reducing the number of paid staff, putting forward proposals to scale down the use of its studio at Macquarie University, and attempting to cater for a slightly older audience—ideas that were met with frustration from some volunteers. Internal activism resulted in a softening of policy. In early 2005, the new program grid was launched, and despite the controversy in its lead-up, it proved to be a simple reshuffle of the existing grid rather than a dramatic overhaul.

The station worked on improving its brand across the 2003–2005 period, incorporating a fresh new logo and brand elements, while the station's online presence was also redesigned to deliver a rich content experience.

From the late 2000s and into the 2010s, 2SER has continued to expand its offerings across broadcast and digital, as well as with podcasting. It has won international awards for its collaborations, including a Silver Radio Prize at the New York Festivals Radio Awards for History Lab (with Impact Studios). 

The station's 40th anniversary was celebrated in October 2019 with a podcast series, exhibition, and book, An Incomplete History of Community Radio: 2SER's 46 Boxes of Stuff.  The station's long-term publication, Listening Post, was also digitized in full and placed in the Australian open access archive Trove.

Today it runs out of UTS as well as Macquarie University, and the current station manager is Paula Kruger.

See also
 The Wire, an Australian current affairs program broadcast through the Community Radio Satellite
 Gaywaves, a pioneering LGBTQIA+ program from the 1970s whose influence and archive shaped national conversations and change

References

 Javes, Sue (14, 2004) Career launcher 2SER FM celebrates its silver anniversary. Sydney Morning Herald
 Javes, Sue (10 July 2006) Jailhouse Rock. Sydney Morning Herald.
 Evans, Rachel (11 May 2005). Gaywaves ceases broadcasting. Green Left Weekly.

External links
 Official website
 "The Wire" national current affairs
 Diffusion Science Radio
 Razors Edge - current affairs
 The Election Nerds - politics
 Forty Years of 2SER
 Gaywaves at the National Film and Sound Archive

Radio stations in Sydney
Community radio stations in Australia
Student radio stations in Australia
2SER