Tiga Bayles
General Manager of 98.9FM, 98.9FM
Written by Lauren Jenkins on 2009-10-08
Tiga Bayles has a long history in the Indigenous broadcasting sector, and has been instrumental in the establishment and management of Aboriginal radio stations over the past two decades. 98.9FM is the first Indigenous radio station in a capital city, Brisbane, and has grown exponentially since it first went to air in 1993. With a great blend of Country and Indigenous music, the station now attracts a large and diverse audience.
What has been your most memorable achievement or experience working as a part of Brisbane’s media landscape?
There have been many memorable achievements and experiences in my time, however, there are two which stand out. The first is establishing a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) approximately ten years ago. This is a major achievement as it allows our organisation to engage students as young at ten or twelve from various places such as Cape York to attain their Certificate II in Broadcast Radio. They can then go on to complete Certificate III at a later stage such as when they are doing higher school studies. The other major achievement is setting up the National Indigenous Radio Service which is a national satellite network that links between 130 – 135 Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, and allows them to receive radio broadcast programming.
What are the biggest challenges you and your organisation face as a member of the Brisbane media community?
The biggest challenge is definitely getting the Government to recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander media is an essential service for a diverse range of listeners. The information we provide to our listeners through our broadcasting is information that they do not get from anywhere else, which makes us a specialised service. The other big challenge is being valued by people for our work, that includes being valued by our own mob and by members of the dominant community.
Do you feel any media and communications sectors in Brisbane are marginalised?
Yes, definitely. All community stations are marginalised. We are marginalised because we are a community radio station and also because we are an Indigenous organisation. We are the only Aboriginal radio station for 600-700kms miles. The next big station is in Townsville. One example of how we are marginalised can be seen by the way in which The AC Neilson surveys don’t include community stations. We are also marginalised by local governments, we just don’t come up on their radar.
Are there any ideas, changes or implementations which you feel could improve the function of Brisbane’s media industries?
Most certainly, the media industry needs to improve. The media industry and the education system have a lot to answer for in this county. In regards to media, right across the board journalist’s working in mainstream media still fail to report in a balanced way, and still fail to do their research properly. In Brisbane we don’t see enough positive news about Indigenous issues. Journalists take a negative approach to news stories to promote sales, because good sales don’t sell. They focus on sensationalism. This type of reporting stems from the ignorance, and the endemic racism which still exists in our society.
What features, both positive and negative, differentiate Brisbane-based media organisations to other national and international media hubs?
I don’t know that there is that much difference between Brisbane based media organisations and national and international media organisations. I have encountered the same problems when I’ve travelled to Sydney, Melbourne, Townsville, and Cairns. The organisations in these places all suffer the same sickness of ignorance and lack of appreciation for difference. They have a lack of consistency in regards to what they expect from people that are different.
Tiga, you have been described as one of the legends of Aboriginal broadcasting; who or what was your major motivation for establishing and managing AAA radio station
My mum was a well-known story teller within our community and she was the driving force motivating me to get involved with Indigenous radio from the start. In the late 1970s – early 1980s she visited Alice Springs for a conference where she saw the locals setting up the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA). After that she came back home and said ‘Those fella’s have got their own radio station up there, we’ve got to get it happening in Redfern’. We didn’t hear too many positive stories about our own mob back then and we wanted to tell our story. From then on, she took me along to the meetings with her so that I could learn to take care of the programming whilst she was travelling. Also, leading into 1984 to 1985, my mum’s younger brother Ross Watson saw what we were doing and started working in Brisbane at Triple Zed. He started with a one hour a week segment on Triple Zed and progressed to become the founder of 98.9FM. The other major motivation was the need, and the demand in the community to hear our people, our voices, articulating our history, our experiences, our identity.
Triple A is the largest Indigenous radio station in a capital city in Australia, how important is the training of up and coming Indigenous journalists to the future of Australia’s media industry?
Absolutely essential. Training is of utmost importance, and not just training for the Indigenous kids. It is just as important that non-Indigenous kids get into the Indigenous media industry. That sort of experience for a white journalist puts them in a much more informed position than other white journalists because they have an understanding of protocols, respect and cultural difference which is missing in the mainstream. Readers can see the difference in their writing. It is essential that our people are trained up in all areas of communications and media. Our objective is to train them up so they have the skills to do it all.