Bringing a regional focus to community radio, especially for those with disabilities
Posted on: Thu 17 Aug 2023
Jason Balk began his distinguished and steadfast twenty-six year career in community radio broadcasting at BBBfm 89.1 after its launch in 1997. It is located in the regional South Australian town of Nuriootpa, right in the heartland of the Barossa Valley. Balk is known to many as the ‘veteran of the station’ with his natural interviewing style garnering high-reaching acclaim and esteemed appraisal from many institutional heavyweights, including from the Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide.
Balk has interviewed practically every celebrity across Australia that you wouldn’t believe how he was able to incite them to reveal all about their personal lives – political candidates, stand-up comedians, even musicians like Daryl Braithwaite! If you know their names, then chances are that they have chatted together in the studio. Every Wednesday morning, you can listen to Balk presenting his popular easy-listening breakfast show, The Morning Espresso.
Balk also shares with De-Stigmatised‘s Jarad McLoughlin on how he came to involve himself in the CMTO’s Audio Ability Program Project as one of it’s inaugural mentors, despite facing firece opposition from his wife.
Produced by Jarad McLoughlin
Photo supplied by Jason Balk
