Spoken Word is a half hour program dedicated to poetry and performance. We provide a grassroots platform on 3CR for the poetry community, making connections between live performance, printed literature and radio listeners. Our guests are contemporary poets who read and discuss their works. Spoken Word is inherently eclectic and gives voice to diverse forms of poetic expression. 

Our presenters - Di Cousens, Indrani Perera, Tina Giannoukos and WaffleIronGirl - are also poets and we invite you to join us and our guests every Thursday at 9 in the morning to enjoy exciting, insightful and interesting poetic works on Spoken Word.

Show History

The Spoken Word show began its time on 3CR at the end of 2008 with the late Rhonda Jankovic creating four pilot programs. Rhonda ventured into Melbourne’s grassroots poetry community to find poets to feature on these shows. The show was so popular that on Thursday 21 May 2009, it became a weekly, half-hour program at 3CR with Rhonda, Santo Cazzati, Peter Goodyear and Gerard Watkins sharing the hosting role.

Each of the presenters brought their own style and voice to the show with Rhonda specialising in finding marginalised poets who weren’t performers and giving them a platform on which to share their work. Rhonda was also a poet in her own right, a PhD history student and an activist.

Sadly, in 2012, Rhonda passed away the day before she was to be awarded the Spirit of 3CR award at the station’s annual awards night. With her passing, 3CR lost a passionate and dedicated volunteer and the poetry community lost a valiant champion. 

Read Rhonda Jankovic's obituary.

Past Presenters

Since the Spoken Word show began in 2008, many talented poets and performers have sat behind the microphone - interviewing guests, recording live gigs and bringing poetry and spoken word to the airwaves.

Past presenters include: Rhonda Jankovic (2008-2012), Santo Cazzati (2009-2022), Peter Goodyear (2009), Gerard Watkins (2009), George O'Hara (2015-2021), Jessica Alice, Koraly Dimitriadis, Ela Fornalska, Peter Davis, Carmen Main and Brendan Bonsack (2016-2023). 

If your name is missing from this list, please let us know!

Current Presenters

Di Cousens (2014-Present), Tina Giannoukos (2022-Present), WaffleIronGirl (2023-Present) and Indrani Perera (2024-Present).

Testimonials

“Spoken Word on 3CR isn’t a publicity factory or a babble of trivia. It’s smart, humane, funny, provocative and never predictable. We talk as if poetry matters in the real world, and therefore it does.” Andy Jackson