Hellenic Community of WA Inc.

Pictured above: Poppy Georganis & George Koutlis

Hellenic Radio

Meet the team:

Poppy Georganis, Denis Pilarinos, George Koutlis,
Evan & John Stamatiou, Nick Keskinidis

The Hellenic Community of Western Australia is an incorporated body and was established in the dawn of the 20th century.

As the oldest body of Greeks in Western Australia its main priorities was the establishment not only of a communal place where Greeks could meet and enjoy the Greek culture but also the establishment of a place of worship. This main priority lead to the creation of an after hours school where children of Greek parents could learn the language and culture of their forefathers.

Since the early 1900’s the Greek Community has tirelessly worked towards establishing the consecration of the only Greek Orthodox Cathedral Church in W.A. and a school.

One of the founding Presidents was the Consul-General of Greece while others were well known pioneers in the 1990’s.

St Andrews Grammar school was established in Dianella, and shortly after an Aged care facility was established in the same district.

The Community Hall & Church, currently being restored, are located in the Northbridge precinct, the Dianella development has brought together a holistic approach to the Greek community's needs.

The Hellenic Community of WA has various radio weekly programmes to suit most tastes.

In the Studio: 8th June 2007 Kosta Kalantzis, Basil Doucas, George Koutlis

A few words from Denis Pilarinos, a producer/presenter since 1967:

It was back in 1967 when I was approached to help with the Radio programme the Hellenic Community in W.A after having arrived in W.A in 1964

As a new migrantit was something which gave me great pleasure to help our Communitywith the radio programme and I was looking for the night we gettogether with other members to tape our programme on a open reel toreel.  In those days our programme duration was only 30 minutesprogramme but we spent between 3-4 hours trying to perfect ourprogramme content which consisted of news of the latest Greek Music andannouncements from our Community.

But the biggest news was thededication of songs to the newlyweds from members of the families inour community which was flourishing. Our little Saturday programme wasfull of news about marriages, and good wishes to couples which weregetting married on the next day.

In those early days as volunteers we had to pre-record our programme in a studio which was located in the now defunct Good Neighbour Council which was located in an office in St. Georges Terrace in Perth Western Australia.  After we finished recording our programme we arranged for our big tape to be delivered to the broadcast studio at 6NR at the Curtin University located in Murdoch, where an operator would put our programme on the air on the Saturday night. This very same procedure was routinely followed for the next 3 years, and then one day we were notified that the studios were going to transfer to Fremantle.   So here we go the same team members together with a few new people off to Fremantle to tape our programmes at during the evening. It was, back then very difficult to obtain music for our programme as our only source was the new migrants arriving from Greece, and this is how we managed to obtain the latest music from Greece.

As we all had to maintain full time employment to provide for our families, I found that due to this and other personal reasons, I had to resign from the Radio Committee for a few years, but in a few years I found myself once again involved in the hobby that I loved. 

A lot had happened in the period I was absent from the radio; the station had obtained its very own broadcasting licence, into its own premises in North Perth, so when I returned we were broadcasting from the studios of 6EBA in North Perth.  The only difference this now we were able to present our programme live which as wonderful as it was, caused us all to be under so much stress and tension during the broadcast not make any mistake.  But given time we became true community radio professionals and we would like to think that is still what we are today.

Over the years with the popularity of our program, our Community has increased the number of times we broadcast during the week. You can tune in Monday 5.30-6.30pm, Thursday 4.30-6.00pm, Friday 5.00-6.00pm, Saturday7.00-8.00pm, and Sunday 1.30-2.00pm.

Our volunteer teams now have the sole responsibility to broadcast the above programmes and everything is working fine with love and care for our allocated programmes with the latest equipment provided to us by the station for our use.

Our aim now is to invite and encourage the young people of our community to take care of and produce the radio programmes for the ever ageing community and assume that responsibility so the ageing volunteer can retire.

We constantly announce on the programmes the desperate need for young people who can speak the mother language as well as English to come forward.

Overall the response we receive from the Greek Community is very encouraging and pleasing and encourages us to strive to produce better and more informative programmes.

The current programmes include a religious section done by our priest and every Sunday he explains the meaning of the Liturgy
Mondays programme is all about entertaining the listeners with old Music and current news and wishes sent to members loved ones.
Thursdays programme is taking care by our latest music and news about our Community
Fridays programme is allocated to the youth of our community with announcement what is going on for our young members.
Saturdays programme is all about our age population and is produced with the help of the Greek aged care.
Sunday programme is about religious and the interpretation of the holy Bible, followed with light music.