Sick of feeling invisible, Jo Stanley created her own radio station

Almost two decades ago, I sat in the boardroom of a commercial radio network and listened to an executive – a bloke with spiky hair and a bomber jacket – explain “what men want” and “what females want”. (In the charmingly taxonomic style of the time, women were often referred to as “females”.)

Sport, humour and rock were the preserve of men. Women, in contrast, preferred “chick music” and “mummy stuff”. What this manager lacked in expertise, he made up for in ego.

It’s safe to assume that Jo Stanley – who enjoyed huge success at Fox, Triple M and Gold – has an infinitely richer understanding of what Australian women actually want.

Earlier this month, Stanley and her husband, Darren McFarlane, launched Broad Radio: Australia’s first network for women, by women. Aimed at a 40-plus audience, it’s a mix of live programming, talkback, music and podcasts, streamed through a free app that connects to cars, speakers and headphones.

Broad Radio’s on-air line-up.Credit: Broad Radio

Stanley, 51, largely enjoyed her time in commercial radio. But she acknowledges that the diverse team of women she has assembled have had their fair share of frustrations.

“I think all of us come from the same experience of feeling like we didn’t matter,” says Stanley, when we meet at St Kilda’s Hotel Esplanade. “We felt we’d been made invisible, or disappeared in ways both small and large.”

Sitting beside her is Tracee Hutchison, 62, one of Australia’s most respected broadcasters and music experts.

“I had the great fortune of starting my career as a very young woman in community radio and then the Sydney version of Triple J, at a time when women had already smashed a lot of those barriers,” says Hutchison, who serves as Broad’s music director and host of its Friday drive show, Fierce. “I was raised in radio by incredible women, but I’ve also experienced a long period of time where that hasn’t existed for me. Had it not been for Jo, I didn’t think I’d ever have worked at this level again.”

‘I was so armoured up from protecting myself … I think that’s true for a lot of older women.’

Tracee Hutchision

When Stanley announced Hutchison’s appointment, her social media channels lit up with praise.

“People were saying it was a fantastic get and a great coup,” Stanley says. “But I’m like, ‘She’s been there all along!’ Literally anybody could have asked her – and I did.”

Initially, Hutchison was wary: “I was so armoured up from protecting myself. I think that’s true for a lot of older women because you have to put your armour on just to survive in the world. So when something unbelievably joyful comes along, you go, ‘Are you sure?’ It’s taken me a while to trust this is actually real; that this woman sees me and is finding space for me. And it doesn’t get any better than this.”

Although Broad Radio is an Australian enterprise, the concept originated more than four years ago in Berlin, where Stanley was holidaying with a mate.

“I met three different people who were friends of my friend but none of them knew each other,” she recalls. “And all three of them said, ‘You should just start your own network for women!’

“I’d spent so many decades going, ‘Oh, I have this idea, but it might not work, so I won’t even try.’ But in the three months after I came back from Berlin, whenever I meditated, this idea was there. Eventually, I said to my husband, ‘If I don’t do this, it will haunt me every day for the rest of my life.’ And here we are.”

Despite her enthusiasm, Stanley – who topped the FM ratings on Fox with Matt Tilley, then on Gold with Anthony Lehmann – did not rush into the venture. Instead, she spent years building a slate of content, spanning sex and parenting to business leadership and landmark legal cases that affect women.

Fox’s Matt Tilley and Jo Stanley in 2007.

By the time Broad Radio went live on October 7, supported by a crowdfunding drive that raised $385,000, it had cultivated an impressive roster of contributors and a dedicated community of listeners.

Among the presenters already announced are Marieke Hardy and Michala Banas, who co-host the Morning Broads breakfast show with Stanley. The trio is complemented by rotating co-anchors including musician Ella Hooper; comedian Nelly Thomas; Yankunytjatjara and Wirangu broadcaster Shelley Ware; sportscaster and diversity leader Rana Hussain; and journalist Mimi Kwa – alongside contributors such as comedian Bev Killick, actor Madeleine West and sports commentator Brihony Dawson.

It’s a line-up large enough to make a seasoned radio programmer faint. “Traditionally, you have two hosts and an anchor who are bedded in, and that’s a format that’s worked for decades,” says Stanley, who got her start in radio alongside Jodie J. Hill when Fox’s then-programming chief spotted the pair doing stand-up in a Melbourne pub.

“But for me and women generally, there are lots of reasons we need flexibility when we’re seeking meaningful employment – and that lack of flexibility is one of the reasons we have the gender pay gap. And a lot of the women on Broad have other fabulous things on the go that we don’t want to detract from! By creating flex-jobs, you don’t have to exclude great people.”

TAKE 7: THE ANSWERS ACCORDING TO JO STANLEY

1. Worst habit? Taking my shoes off wherever I am. It drives my husband crazy but I get a sudden urge to be barefoot in the middle of whatever I’m doing.
2. Greatest fear? Heights, speed, water, rides, horses, going underground – basically, I’m terrified of fun.
3. The line that stayed with you? ‘Freedom lies in being bold’ – Robert Frost.
4. Biggest regret? That I didn’t advocate for myself better earlier in my career. The ‘people pleaser’ in me made me too amiable for my own good.
5. Favourite book? Always the hardest question to answer – like choosing your favourite child. Most life-changing: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Most often read: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Most gifted [as a present]: The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose (including to Sarah Jessica Parker – I hope she read it)! Most referred-to right now: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.
6. The artwork/song you wish was yours? I believe ideas come to you because you were meant to have them. So I don’t have a single cell of art envy in my body.
7. If you could time travel, where would you go? New York in the 1920s and ’30s. I am obsessed with art deco architecture, furniture and art.

Hutchison says her Fierce program will cover music, sport, pop culture, politics, social justice and more.

“It cracks me up every time I hear the promo that says, ‘On Fridays, Tracee Hutchison is fierce’,” she says. “Being a fierce woman in this world hasn’t always been welcome. But at this point in my life, I just think, ‘f--- it!’ Jo has given me a beautiful gift and I’m embracing it. There is a generosity about Jo that is both rare and disarming, and that generosity is the driving heart of what Broad is all about.”

Hutchison also works closely with Leila Gurruwiwi, host of the Friday afternoon Yapas Yarnin’ program that celebrates the knowledge, music and stories of First Nations women.

A pioneering broadcaster and writer, Hutchison’s 40-year career includes roles at Triple R, Triple J, ABC News Radio and The 7.30 Report. She wrote a book about 1980s Australian music called Your Name’s on the Door, was a popular Age columnist, co-produced the inaugural Australian Women in Music Awards and is chair of Green Music Australia, which works to reduce the industry’s environmental footprint.

Broad Radio’s Tracee Hutchison is one of Australia’s most respected broadcasters and music experts.Credit: Simon Schluter

No wonder Stanley wanted her in charge of Broad’s music. For Hutchison, it’s an unprecedented chance to combine female artists of all stripes: trailblazers such as Aunty Ruby Hunter and Helen Reddy alongside Kee’Ahn, G Flip, Eliza Hull and Angie McMahon – and superstars including Kylie, Pink and Beyonce. She also asks artists to recommend other performers she can add to Broad’s playlist.

“Audiences are much bolder than a lot of the formatted stations give them credit for,” she says. “If one artist finds a new audience because they’re programmed with intention off the back of Billie Eilish, that will be a mighty moment. And we should be celebrating Australian and First Nations artists. I’m already getting messages from listeners asking, ‘Who was that?’

Recently, Stanley received a particularly gratifying message from a listener: “This is the radio station I didn’t know I needed, and now I can’t imagine my life without it.”

“I think of Broad Radio as a kind of raucous, joyful brunch,” she says.

“You might have a group of women who are very different, but you connect through your life experiences; one minute, you’re talking about politics, then you’re complimenting someone’s shoes before asking for help with a particular health issue.

“I’ve spent a lot of time trying to be different because when you’re a woman, everything around you tells you that you’re not enough. Then you realise you’re too tired to do that any more. My hope for younger generations is that they’ll realise, much earlier, that their true self is what the world needs – and I hope Broad Radio plays a part in that.”

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