C – “Alex and I were brought up in Ballina and we both moved away when we finished school. I went to Sydney and Alex went to Melbourne. We came and went a few times over the years but 5 years ago we moved back to the area for good.”
A – “I heard she was moving back here so I promptly got a job, a house and packed up my things. We worked on the same street, lived on the same street in Ballina after not being around each other for 10 years and then we got to know each other again.”
C – “I was working in a restaurant in Ballina for about 5 years and something wasn’t sitting right inside. I decided this year was the year of change so I sort of flipped everything on its head.”
A – “One of the questions I asked Claudine was what did she want to do when she was a kid? You know, when you’re going through that career crisis and she reminded me that we both wanted to be on radio. We used to have radio shows constantly. Press play and record on a tape recorder.”
C – “We even had a double deck.”
A – “We had our own them song and always had ‘secret sound’. We had a lot of fun. I saw that friends of mine had a space available on a radio show and I called Claudine up immediately and said, Look we’re both queer, we’re both here. Why don’t we follow our passion and get involved?”
C – “It’s interesting how these things happen. I had just discovered Podcasts about 18 months ago and was loving them. I had also done some Community radio training in Sydney so it’s something that’s always sat with me but work and life always got in the way. This year I decided to pull back and do what we are passionate about.”
A – “We call each other Rainbow Kin because we are both in relationships with women. We found out that we have the same kind of challenges and celebrations about starting families and negotiating the world so we started ‘Fierce’ on Wednesday nights on River FM. 8pm to about 11pm. We talk about those things and we have people come in from the community and interstate. We have a lot of fun. A lot of people who listen to us say it’s like having us on the couch.”
C – “A friend of mine said she was in bed and she was crying with laughter because of the noises I was making on air laughing so hard.”
A – “We play great music too, but it’s the play, the passion and the joy that you can get doing what you want to do, being who you want to be, telling our stories and reaching out and also achieving something for ourselves.”
C – “I live in Lennox Head but I spend a lot of time in Lismore. I work here, I visit Alex a lot and I’m really attracted to the community here because it’s very different from the coast. Dramatically so! The community in this town is lovely and it’s lovely to be a part of.”
A – “I originally moved to Ballina and lasted 6 months. It wasn’t my scene, it wasn’t my people and then I had a choice whether to move back to Melbourne or stay here and I chose here. Last night when were at the vigil for the Orlando shooting massacre it cemented my idea of who I am and what I stand for and why this community is so important. I guess why it’s so important to engage in it in a way that makes Fierce on River FM so much more important to have that voice and that connection. I say to Claudia all the time, Imagine someone driving down the highway searching for a radio station and they get us and that is hilarious.”
C – “The fact that we find ourselves so funny and we’re not quite sure what the general populous find funny. It’s difficult on radio because there’s no feedback.”
A – “Next Wednesday we are on at 8pm. Eleven, Tommy and Peter do subsequent weeks and we do the last Wednesday every month. You can stream it live on 2NCR.org.au and listen to us doing our thing.”