Do you remember the first time you went on-air? When I (trying to hide the fact that I was a nervous wreck) broadcasted my very first radio-program for the German Language Group just in February last year at 4EB in Brisbane, people told me that my program sounds like Radio SBS. Never worked in Radio before – was that a compliment? Fast forward one year, I am the correspondent for Radio SBS German in Queensland and deliver a weekly segment in my mother tongue about a wide range of topics that affect my community.

And still broadcasting at 4EB. And I still loving it.

Before we migrated from Germany 7 years ago, I worked as a TV-Journalist creating Children’s TV and producing Corporate Films (and I am not telling you, who behaved better, children or CEO’s…). I thought that I could simply translate my television experience and style into radio, that radio is simply “television for the years”. Oh was I wrong: after starting this fantastic NDFS experience only a couple of weeks ago, I quickly came to the conclusion that radio is way more: even though I love finding the right music, soundbites and audio to create and spice up my story, the listener is able to paint his own picture in his mind and that radio is the place to spark imagination.

 My feature is about Barbara and Jane, both vision impaired, who were lonely and like one of the main character said “me and my guide dog where getting fatter and fatter”. With the help of a wonderful initiative here in Brisbane, they changed their life around – they started running. A task that seems impossible, if you think how many obstacles are in your way, when you go for a morning run: cyclists, other joggers, kids on scooters, dogs, or runnings paths are close to the river…

I think that even non-blind listeners can relate to my story, as they can experience the world of my main characters first hand through radio – no picture, nothing to see, only voices and sounds. 

Through the feature I can finally give a minority community an opportunity to voice their own voices. When the chance of entering the National Features and Documentary Series came up, I thought it is a golden opportunity to learn from the best mentors and to expose my story to a wider audience as this is the first time, I am producing a feature in English and of this length.