Attention lovers of live n local blues music!!

Mike Elrington will be teaming up with the newly formed R2B Kings Of Groove house band for this month's Red To Blue Sessions.

Gather a group of music loving friends and get along to the Emerald RSL on Friday 28th February for some fabulous live blues music.

At two meters tall, Mike is a tower in the world of gifted singer songwriters with incredible guitar skills.

This promises to be a very special evening with the debut of the Red To Blue Kings of Groove house band backing the one and only Mike Elrington.

Doors open at 7pm with the live music kicking off at 7:30pm

Tickets are only $10 for MDR/RSL members and subscribers or $12........on the door.

The RSL bar will be open for you to purchase liquid refreshments and a local school will be in the kitchen cooking up a storm to raise funds for school projects.

Tune into Red To Blue every Friday from 3pm on 3MDR 97.1fm

 

Thrills and spills set to fill Main Street in Upwey at the 14th annual Billy Cart Races.

For a fabulously fun family day, get along to the Upwey Billy Cart Races on Sunday 23rd February.

Whether you're a racer or a spectator, the annual Upwey Billy Cart Race day is an action packed event for the whole family.

A calendar highlight presented by the Upwey Township Group, this popular event is open to all ages.

Time is running out to register with registrations closing on 17th February 2020

Visit http://upweybillycartrace.com/ for all the details and to register your billy cart.

3MDR will be in attendance with a community radio information stand and we invite you to come and say hello to the volunteers and find out more about your local radio station.

Join us for another day of celebrating the survival of Australia's First Nations people.    Music, stalls, children's activities, food and fun.

The 2020 Belgrave Survival Day Line Up features:
​Dave Arden & Band
Allara Briggs-Patterson
MC Shawn Andrews of Idigicate
Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place Choir
Uncle Gnarnayarrahe
Wayapa Wurrk session

Belgrave Survival Day was first held on January 26th 2008. The event was started by a small group of local hills residents. It was held out the back of the Cameo Cinema. The only Indigenous act in the first year was a dance troupe from Healesville.
The event moved in 2011 to its current location at Borthwick Park Reserve in Belgrave.

BSD has become a prominent annual fixture of the Dandenong Ranges community, where it regularly attracts 2000-3000 attendees, featuring several entertainment acts, with stalls featuring vendors (food, drink, books, merchandise, information, community groups and Indigenous sector organizations).

​Belgrave Survival Day volunteer call out - Ever wanted to be apart of something great? Here's your chance. Belgrave Survival Day is on again in 2020. Each year we try to make it better!! And each year we succeed with the assistance of some wonderful volunteers who are passionate about making this iconic event happen.

You could be one of these volunteers. You will be working alongside other people with an interest in promoting indigenous culture and celebrating the survival of one of the world’s oldest living cultures.  

Introduce yourself to the BSD crew at their merch stand or email survivalday@gmail.com or check out ​https://www.burrinja.org.au/projects/belgrave-survival-day

What a great night it was!!!  Thank you to all who came out in support of live n local music and the bushfire relief fundraising.

The Emerald RSL was rockin' to the sounds of the Cam Walter's Blues Trio on Friday 17th January, with a full house of punters digging deep to support the Victorian Bushfire Relief Appeal.

The night raised over $2500 to support the bushfire relief appeal with the monies raised through ticket sales, raffles and silent auctions.  The Webstar dropped into 3MDR sponsors the Bendigo Bank on Saturday morning to deposit the funds into the Victorian Bushfire Relief Appeal. 

Much thanks goes to the Emerald Secondary College who donated all the funds raised from the kitchen and to the RSL donating $500 of the bar takings.

The music lovers handed over cash for the raffles with thanks to Greg Webb for donating the Cigar Box Guitar & Amp and Michael Holman & Pat Elliget for donating the double pass to the Mornington Peninsula Blues Festival.

Thanks too to Bianca St Martin for donating the beautifully framed photos of musicians for the silent auction.

A great night was had by all!

The next Red To Blue Session at the Emerald RSL is on Friday 28th February.  Be sure to tune into Red To Blue every Friday afternoon to hear great music, interviews and details of the next R2B Session!

Cardinia Council is pleased to announce Lake Side Sounds 2020!

A free concert series at Emerald Lake Park.

Over two Sunday afternoons in February and March at the beautiful Emerald Lake Park the Band Stand will be filled with the sweet sounds of live music from 12noon to 5pm.

Sunday 2nd February features the Cardinia Civic Concert Band

Sunday 16th February features - Feelds, Coby Maria, Edward Willoughby, Lili Violet and Sophie Louise

Sunday 1st March features - Parkville (2 sets) and Sage Mim

Gather family and friends, pack a picnic and enjoy free live music by local musicians with Cardinia Council's Lake Side Sounds 2020

Keen to get along to a gig to support communities affected by the current bushfire crisis??
Well, you've got an awesome amount to choose from... Both near and far!!
Cheers to all the musos, venues, staff & suppliers who are all getting behind these communities and raising much needed funds for response, relief & recovery... You folks rock!!
We'll do our best to keep this list updated  ||  ​If you have a gig to add, please email us with the details.

 It's 2020 and the Red To Blue Sessions at the Emerald RSL are on again with the January gig turning into a fundraiser featuring the sensational Cam Walter Blues Band performing on Friday 17th January.

The Webstar and Tony are kicking off the new year with all proceeds from this event going to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal via the Bendigo Bank

There will also be a fundraising raffle with fabulous prizes including a Cigar Box Guitar & Ampilfier (pictured below), CD packs and bottles of wine.

Get along to the Emerald RSL on Friday 17th January and catch some fabulous live blues music while supporting the Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

Tickets are still only $10 for 3MDR & RSL members/subscribers, or $12 available on the door.

Can't make it to the gig but still want to support the fundraising effort?  Purchase raffle tickets through 3MDR's online shop.  Your ticket numbers will be emailed after purchase and winners notified by email/phone.

Tune into Red To Blue every Friday afternoon on 3MDR 97.1fm for all the details.

With devastating bushfires raging across our sunburnt nation and heartbreaking images and stories flooding media outlets and social media platforms... You'd be forgiven for feeling completely overwhelmed and at a loss about how to help, as we are engulfed in what is looking like our worst fire season in decades.  You no doubt know people who have been directly affected, such is the widespread reality of the crisis facing so many.  Then comes the confusing process of wading through all the appeals, trying to avoid the fraudulent ones (seriously??? we hear you ask... yep seriously), and wondering if you really can make a difference, as one person, in this time of emergency...???

The answer is most definitely YES!!
Whether it be funds, goods, services or your time, there are multiple ways of being part of a wider community response ~
If you'd like to donate to causes close to home, here is a list of 3MDR community members who have been directly affected (which we will update):
Joshua Collings has set up this fundraiser for his home town Cudgewa & Surrounds
Riley Catherall has shared this fundraiser for his family
We have spent some time researching a broad range of options and have compiled a list (which is by no means comprehensive, but it's a place to start):
Red Cross Donate
Red Cross Volunteer
GIVIT Donate (goods & funds)
WIRES Donate (wildlife)
AirBnB Open Home (offers of accommodation)
First Nations Communities Donate
BlazeAid (rebuilding)

AND PLEASE STAY SAFE.
Download the Emergency Vic app to your phone and have the website open on your PC, there have been fires in urban areas already this season... None of us are immune to the risk.  Make sure you have a bushfire safety plan and communicate it with your family, friends and neighbours and stay tuned to ABC radio for regular updates.
Be alert, but not alarmed... Stay vigilant and support each other.

Team 3MDR

So Phil has been at me for some time to write this article... I have resisted to this point, as it's a bit trumpet tooting, which Daveo, Daz & I are all very uncomfortable with... But I get why he wants it and I'd be hassling me if I was him too... So here goes...
It takes a lot of work to produce a radio show every week... Even with a team team team of three passionate and dedicated volunteers.  Between David, Darren and I, we probably spend an additional ten hours a week, on top of our two hour show, on preparation or post production.  On The Dotted Line [TDL], we deliver ‘Dotted Live’ every week, with Australian independent musicians playing live in the studio & having a chat about song writing, gigs, CDs vs streaming, instruments, the music industry, venues… Anything that seems relevant at the time.
We are passionately dedicated to enhancing access to underrepresented musicians to as wide a listening audience as possible and we focus on independent Australian musicians, through both the guests who play live on the program and the recorded music played on each show.  The majority of these are local Hills residents, from 3MDR’s listening area, with some coming from other areas of Melbourne & Victoria, and occasionally from interstate & overseas.  Very few of the guests, and recorded music played, receive air time on any other radio stations, community or otherwise.  The performers are able to showcase their music and are prompted to promote their gigs, releases, how people can contact them / buy their music, their approach to songwriting, other projects they may have, anything and everything.  
We also have a number of digital channels that we use to promote and celebrate each performance:
• A dedicated photography website, where high quality professional photos taken of each performance are presented;
• A Facebook page and Instagram profile, where every show is promoted and playlists are posted from each program.  These platforms are also used to promote other relevant material posted by the local music community;
• A YouTube channel, where post-produced videos of the live performances, with post-mixed audio, are uploaded; and 
• An amrap program page, where six months of archived shows are kept and weekly playlists and blog entries are found.
In 2018 we had 69 live in studio performances from 128 musicians, with an average of 5 songs / act which equalled 345 live songs put to air.  This, and all of the above, led to TDL being nominated for a CBAA Award for Contribution to Australian Music by a Radio Program in May 2019.  We made the finals and attended the CBAA Awards Dinner in Melbourne on Saturday 26th October 2019, at the Pullman Melbourne on the Park. 
Our category was hotly contested and our fellow finalists all present amazing shows:
Contribution to Australian Music: Radio Program

• BRL (897fm, Perth, WA)
• Take One (Eastside Radio, Sydney, NSW)
• The Dotted Line | Dotted Live (3MDR, Melbourne, VIC)
• The Map (Edge Radio, Hobart, TAS)
• This Is Our Sound (PBAFM, Adelaide, SA)

We were nervous and not expecting anything... Thankfully our category was up pretty early, so we didn't have to wait long to receive the most excellent news that we had won!!  We could relax and enjoy the rest of the awards across the evening... It was a wonderful celebration of all that is achieved across the community radio sector and we felt extremely proud to be a part of it.
I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of David, Darren and myself, to send out a HUGE THANK-YOU to all of the musicians who have ever come in to play on TDL... We wouldn't have show without you and we know how lucky we are to have a mini concert in the studio every week.  Thank-you to 3MDR for providing us with a spot on the grid and our award nomination... We are most humbled... And also to all our listeners, subscribers, sponsors and supports... You folks rock!!
That's about all the talking about us I can muster...
Yours in community radio,
Ren
You can listen to the audio of our award nomination HERE.

Residents of the Yarra Ranges and Cardinia Shires are advised that Fire Restrictions came into effect on Monday 16th December 2019.

3MDR would like to see everyone staying safe this summer.

For all the information on what you can and can not do during the fire season please check with the following agencies:

www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au
www.cardinia.vic.gov.au
www.cfa.vic.gov.au
www.emergency.vic.gov.au

Please note that 3MDR is NOT an official emergency broadcaster as we do not have the required infrastructure or personnel to meet the requirements of this role.  Listeners are advised to keep an ear on the ABC as the State's official public emergency broadcaster.     Be sure to have a battery powered radio on hand throughout the summer fire season.

Keep an eye on www.emergency.vic.gov.au for updates on incidents in your local area.

As 3MDR broadcasts from the bushfire prone area of the Dandenong Ranges, the radio station will be closed on days declared CODE RED.   Announcements advising listeners to check www.emergency.vic.gov.au and to tune into the ABC will be scheduled throughout the automated music playlist.

Check out your local CFA Community Information and Workshop Sessions at https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/about/whats-on/