Take Time Reaches Around the World to Scotland
Author: Tony Ryan | Source: Take Time | Date: 08-01-07
Tony Ryan - Producer/Presenter, Take Time
Based at PBA FM in Adelaide, Tony Ryan produces and presents the weekly lifelong learning radio and internet initiative Take Time. Tony has a long background in education and media, for many years with ABC Radio and more recently with Radio Adelaide. He is currently Visiting Media Fellow with Adult Learning Australia.
Tony wrote the following story for CBOnline.
Broadcasting can be a lonely business. Listeners usually make contact only when they feel very strongly one way or another about a program, although the occasional award makes it all worthwhile. But more affirming in many ways are those very moving contacts from listeners to tell of the importance to them of a particular program in helping them deal with some of life's difficult challenges. Let me tell you about one such email I received in early November.
World Mental Health Day was held in 2006 on Tuesday, 10th October. It was a day I remember well. An extended interview I had recorded for the weekly lifelong learning radio and internet initiative Take Time, with writer, broadcaster and mental health advocate Anne Deveson, was a finalist in the Dr Margaret Tobin Awards for Excellence in Mental Health. As you may recall, these awards commemorate the work of SA's former head of mental health services Dr Margaret Tobin, who was shot dead as she walked out of the lift in her inner city office in Adelaide in 2002.
Less than a month after this finalist award was presented, an email arrived, out of the blue as it were, from Scotland in the UK. With permission from the writer and also from Anne Deveson, here is a slightly edited version of that email.
Dear Tony,
For some time now I have been trying to find a way to contact Anne Deveson. Professor Loretta Giorcelli was kind enough to forward me the link for your interview with Anne which I have just listened to. As I want to contact Anne to thank her for writing her books, I am hopeful that you may be able to pass on this email to her. I live in Scotland (UK).
My own son who is now 24 years old has paranoid schizophrenia. About two years ago a friend suggested I read (Anne Deveson's book) Tell Me I'm Here. I have now also read Resilience which I found extremely motivating. Reading Tell Me I'm Here was like reading my own son's story. The parallels between Jonathan and Daniel were both disturbing and reassuring.
At the moment we are treading a very fine tight rope of survival and I pray that we will be able to lead Daniel to happier times. I am also aware that there may be a less happy outcome - at least for us as his family. For now we concentrate on surviving each day. Please pass on my thanks to Anne, and thank you too for the interview as part of World Mental Health Day.
I am holding firm to your quote in the program (from William Wordsworth):
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.
Sincerely
(Name withheld)
Supported as a national project in 2007 by Adult Learning Australia - www.ala.asn.au - and produced at PBA FM in Adelaide for the Community Radio Network, Take Time aims to utilise radio and the internet to showcase adult learning in action in Australia, and to provide online resources for individual listeners, for adult learning communities and for schools. The project is also supported nationally by the Australian College of Educators - www.austcolled.com.au
Take Time has a dedicated lifelong learning website - www.taketimeradio.com
One of the categories in the Online Resources section of the Take Time website is Health Wellbeing and Relationships - an ongoing priority area for the production team in 2007, especially in the context of the commitment of Adult Learning Australia to the importance given to Health and Wellbeing by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG).
What to expect from Take Time in 2007
We begin again in the week starting Monday 22 January, with an extended interview for the holiday season with Pirates of Penzance star Dennis Olsen. Also in late January, Dr Lois Zweck talks about the composer of The Song of Australia - Carl Linger.
And we take a fascinating tour of the Eyes, Lies and Illusions exhibition currently being held in the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, in Federation Square in Melbourne.
In early February, our resident film commentator John J McGowan is back with more of his excellent monthly movie reviews - you can hear his earlier reviews online (www.taketimeradio.com) many of those earlier movies are now coming out on DVD. Also in February, an extended interview with Professor Victoria Carrington from Plymouth University in the UK - on children, literacy and new technologies.
We also take an on-site look at two other exhibitions; the first, on the history of Australian Comics - available till late February at the State Library of Victoria. And the second, an ongoing exhibition on the history of the ford motor car, at the Ford Discovery Centre in Geelong.
In March, join me for an exclusive five-part oral history series called Aldo's Story - the lively story of one young Italian man who came to Australia in the late 1940s.
There's more, including Snugglepot and Cuddlepie - another look at that Australian classic for young people, a studio discussion on Shakespeare's Hamlet, and a visit to a men's community project in Renmark in South Australia's Riverland.
Take Time also has a grant for a major gambling awareness initiative, through the SA Department of Families and Communities, for national broadcast from May. Please note that the above plans are subject to change without notice.
Take Time is premised on the daily and continuing importance in our lives of the "80 year old" medium of radio, linked with the very latest internet technology which can provide ongoing access to mp3 audiofiles and related print and other resources - all in the context of lifelong learning. Take Time Podcasting is not far off!
The strong impact that radio - linked with the internet - can have in our lives is movingly affirmed through this email from the other side of the world, and I have sincerely thanked the writer in Scotland, and Anne Deveson in Australia, for allowing me to share this very special email with the Australian Community Radio sector.
The Anne Deveson interview is available as an mp3 download here (27MB - MP3)
Availability
Take Time is available through CRN on Tuesdays at 10:32am, from 23 January 2007
Enquiries
Tony Ryan
Mobile Phone 0408 883 334