It might have been a case of the right place at the right time in the beginning, but Peter Greco has become an integral part of Vision Australia Radio (VAR) over the past 25 years.
Since the early 1990s, Peter has been a constant figure at the VAR studio in Adelaide, presenting multiple programs each week on sport, recreation and other issues from a blindness and low vision perspective.
When legislation changes allowed Adelaide to establish its own RPH network, Peter, who had some previous experience in radio, had little hesitation in putting his hand up to help out.
“RPH in Adelaide went from having two hours a day on community radio to being on air for 24 hours and the station was looking for people to fill the time,” Peter said.
“I was playing blind cricket at the time and so I went in and we started up Leisure Link, a show that’s about sport and recreation for people who are blind or have low vision or happen to be living with any other disability.”
Now 60, Peter has lived with blindness since the age of 12. An accident in early childhood resulted in him losing the sight in one eye, he later contracted an eye disease that resulted in the same happening to his other eye.
Along with Leisure Link, Peter has also gone onto host two other weekly shows for VAR, Focal Point and Vision Extra, both of which focus on issues faced by people from the blind and low vision community.
While the time it takes to research, produce and host three separate shows can vary from week to week, Peter said the level of enjoyment he gets from it has stayed the same over the past two and half decades.
“Some weeks it might take two minutes to organise a show, other weeks I’ll have to spend a bit of time chasing people and researching different things, but I’m a bit of information junkie so I love that anyway.
“When I first started I never really thought I’d be here for 25 years, but it doesn’t really feel like it’s been that long. We’ve got a great team here and coming in every week is something that I look forward to.”
Peter’s efforts make him one of the thousands of people that support Vision Australia each year through volunteering. In the 12 months to June 30 2016, Vision Australia’s volunteer network contributed more than 760,000 hours. VAR alone was supported by 814 volunteers over the same period, who produced more than 200 hours of original content.
Looking back over his time at VAR, Peter counts covering the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney as one of the most memorable moments, however he said much of what keeps him coming back into the studio comes from those he interacts with each week.
“We talk to a lot of different people on Leisure link, some are people who are blind or have low vision and others might be people who live with something such as an intellectual disability.
“One of the best things about what we do is seeing how rapt they are that somebody’s taken an interest in what they do and given them the chance to share their story. Sometimes we can take being on the radio for granted, but we often hear from parents or carers that people we’ve had on are still talking about it months down the track.”
Interested in volunteering at Vision Australia? To find out more head to our website or contact us on 1300 84 74 66 or at [email protected].