Canberra’s longest running community radio station will be turning up the volume on a golden milestone when 2XX celebrates 50 years on air, half a century of alternative voices, grassroots activism and boundary pushing music in the nation’s capital.

Broadcasting since 1976, 2XX has weathered controversy, culture wars and even flames.

There were formal complaints to the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal accusing the station of broadcasting “explicitly lesbian and homosexual propaganda”, fiery internal debates over feminism and whether folk trumped punk, and a suspected arson attack that destroyed its transmitter in 1988. But 2XX not only survived but became a living soundtrack to Canberra’s social, political and cultural evolution.

The station has also been a launchpad for several careers. Film producer Sue Maslin, whose credits include the Australian hit The Dressmaker, recalls her start in the Feminist Broadcasting Collective in 1981 as the spark that ignited her career.

Writer and ABC Radio National presenter Jonathan Green remembers wandering into the Kingsley Street studios in the late 1970s and discovering “a fully fledged alternative to the mainstream”. Even Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil once hosted a show between law lectures and campus gigs at ANU.

Local acts including Domestic Dirt, the Doug Anthony All Stars, Alchemist and the Gadflys recorded early tracks in the 2XX studio, while touring artists such as The Angels, Ruby Hunter and Archie Roach found a welcoming Canberra platform through the station’s efforts.

Beyond music, 2XX has long amplified multicultural voices, with Coneccion Latino Americana, hosted by Victor Marillanca from 1976 until 2023, becoming a beloved Spanish language mainstay.

At the height of activism in the 1970s and 80s, 2XX was a hub for feminist, indigenous, anti-apartheid, environmental and union movements, proving that community radio could be both microphone and meeting place.

Celebrations will begin on February 27 with the launch of a new on-air series, People Powered 50 Years, revisiting the station’s highs, lows and defining moments.

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