Exploring Radmon History: The Walkout
The current Radio Monash committee are familiar with an event called “The Walkout” - a large exodus of committee members in 2017, that left the organisation having to rebuild itself after a heavy loss of its knowledge base. On the surface, it seemed to have revolved around a disagreement as to how the radio station should be run. Some committee members wanted to adopt a buzzfeed style approach, while others didn’t. And that’s pretty much it in terms of what the current committee knows. So, I set out for some investigative journalism to find out what really happened, and get some advice from Radio Monash alumni on how to run the organisation.
I spoke to three committee members from around this time - Vivek, who was President of Radio Monash in 2016 and remained on the committee in 2017, An anonymous committee member from 2017, and Cassandra, who went on to become President in 2018.
As always, any assumed knowledge I have of Radio Monash’s history has been passed down to me from previous committee members, or is thanks to the hard work of Raf, another Radio Monash alumni, who has worked tirelessly on collecting student radio history around the country and beyond.
Sarah: What happened at Radio Monash?
Vivek: There was a significant leadership change at Radio Monash when a large portion of the committee resigned over a few weeks.
Anon: I remember leading up to the now called “walk out” Aleks (President 2017) was unwell, and there was a lot of drama within committee/committee meetings, and the stress was no good for her which is why she left.
Cassandra: I wouldn't call what happened a walkout per se because it felt like people left the committee in small groups but by mid year, Radio Monash was committee-less and we had to rebuild. There was probably more nuance to what happened but, at the time, I had only recently joined Radmon so I wasn't properly integrated into the community as of yet.
Sarah: What caused the resignations?
Vivek: It's difficult to pinpoint the exact reason, but it seems like there was a disagreement about the future direction of the radio station. Some people say it was a power struggle between different visions for Radio Monash.
Anon: I remember the director of marketing being painful to work with. He definitely provided a lot of opportunities and worked very hard. But his vision differed from a lot of others - the “OG” Radmon members.
Radmon ultimately was nasty - like a dingey little radio station, with band posters, gross couches that surely had many lunches spilled down the side of it, a microwave named fridge and a fridge named microwave…that kind of vibe. It definitely felt like a place for the more alt kids at uni…it really was great!!
But when the new marketing director came in, he wanted everything to be cleaned up. Clean up the studio/rooms, clean up the reputation and make Radmon into something it really wasn’t ever supposed to be - like a professional radio station. This didn’t sit well with the OG members who missed Radmon’s grunginess and effortlessness as ultimately Radmon just had the good vibes, small family kinda feeling where everyone would just hang out, place music and talk shit in between classes.
Cassandra: From memory, it started with an alleged sexual assault by one of the committee members with the victim being another committee member. It was a bit of a snowball effect from there.
Sarah: What was your role at that time?
Vivek: This happened during the year after I served as president. I believe I was still on the committee, but I can't recall the exact position.
Sarah: How were you involved in the disagreement?
Vivek: I was definitely on one side of the issue that led to the resignations. Looking back, we probably could have handled things more maturely. We were all passionate young adults who believed we were right, and that can be a recipe for trouble. I may not have been a central figure, but I did take a side, and my opinion likely carried some weight due to my previous role as president.
I certainly can agree with this. Radio Monash really is a passion project for so many members of the committee, and clashing personalities as well as finances often led to people not being able to complete their projects the way they originally foresaw.
Sarah: Did this situation affect you? If so, how?
Vivek: In a few ways, yes. It definitely strained my relationship with Radio Monash. Even though the side I was on ultimately prevailed, the whole experience and its impact on people I considered friends wasn't worth it. This led me to distance myself from Radio Monash during the remainder of my time at university. It also wasn't great for my mental health at a time when those people were my main support system.
Cassandra: It gave me an opening to join the committee in an attempt to reshape Radmon. I went on to become President in 2018 to continue this goal but I'm not sure to what extent that worked.
Anon: After a while people began to revolt against what Radmon had become and to be honest when working in the committee, this was like a full time job to try and clean everything up…we all worked so hard but some of the older members including me really missed the old Radmon - everything become so official and stressful and none of us were having much fun anyone. There was also little subplots everywhere - lots of snarkiness as everyone dated everyone and in committee meetings it just became toxic. Pro tip: DON’T date other committee members. It’ll ruin you - as a committee anyway, because once there’s a break up, it’s just nasty.
Sarah: What can we learn from this?
Vivek: The most important lesson is that Radio Monash didn't belong to any one group of us. We were all caught up in a power struggle over something that was bigger than any of us. Many of the changes we opposed ended up being implemented by future presidents with little resistance. There were some rocky years after that, but the presidents who followed did an amazing job of getting things back on track. I especially want to acknowledge Cassandra and Giorgia's contributions, with Giorgia being one of the most outstanding committee members and presidents Radio Monash has ever had.
As for how to prevent something like this from happening again, the only concrete idea I have is to have a designated staff member from the MSA who helps manage the Radio Monash studio. This person wouldn't be part of the committee and could help ensure that any disagreements don't interfere with the day-to-day operations of the station. However, it's also realistic to expect that disagreements may arise in the future, simply because Radio Monash is a place that people are passionate about.
This is extremely interesting. Radio Monash did have paid staff members, who were not, to my knowledge, students, from around 1978 to 2006 with the end of VSU (voluntary student unionism). These people may have been part time, and were sometimes called station managers, sometimes technicians, or librarians. Now, Radio Monash is completely student run, though we liaise with staff at the MSA to help us run the station, especially when it comes to events. But this is completely different to having a designated Radio Monash staff member.
Cassandra: To lose the ego. A big problem with Radmon was male ego and misogyny. Those people made their way into the committee and it caused it all to blow up. This continued into 2018 much to the frustration of myself and other women in the committee.
This is interesting too, as even when I joined in 2021, there was still talk about Radio Monash being - or at least, historically being - a bit of a “boys club”. For the majority of my time at Radio Monash we have been blessed with female Presidents, but prior to that, Radio Monash’s committee was usually made up of a majority of men. It’s easy to see this being the case thanks to the tech industry being male-dominated.
In 2024, Radio Monash’s first all-female executive committee was elected. (making up the roles of President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer)
Anon: I think at the start of the year, your committee needs to map out what they value about the place and what makes it what it is and keep that in mind when making any decisions.
Let’s be honest, Radmon was never funded enough so just stick to fun drunken karaoke nights to trivia events or pixel nights or something. (by pixel nights, the alumnus is referring to the pixel bar in huntingdale) Don’t get too ahead of yourselves because ultimately the goal is to have fun and make some friends. I still think of some of my friends from Radmon as friends for life and I hope it reminds that way!!
Try not to date committee members - that’s a big recommendation to all committee members.
Let’s bring all the information together to correct what assumptions I had to begin with. It seems like there is some discrepancy between the alumni as to how it all started - illness, power struggle, disagreements on the direction of the station, even alleged sexual assault, perhaps all of these factors rolled together, creating what I can only imagine as quite a messy situation and likely a lot of miscommunication. Dating and differing ideas confused the case even further, impacting on members mental health and diminishing their passion for Radmon.
The alumni do not seem to remember the 2017 era as having a “Walkout” as we call it now - instead, a steady loss of committee members over the course of a few weeks, which has been translated over the years as a Walkout. This is likely due to the knowledge that was lost as committee members left and handovers became non-existent. While I asked the alumni themselves how this affected them, perhaps equally affected were the committees to come after 2017, rebuilding the station and creating new systems to make up for the lack of knowledge.
This article has been long, but the alumni were so well-spoken in their advice to current and future committee members that it seemed important to include most of their comments. Look out on radiomonash.online for a history page - coming soon!
