E.T.H.O.S. (The Each To His/Her Own Show)

”The Wireless Show with an Atmosphere of Gay Abandon”

ETHOS was a radio show broadcast on 6UVS FM/RTR FM from 1984-1994, usually on a Thursday night/Friday morning from midnight-1:00am. The program broadcast from the 4th dimension, and featured beauty, health & hygiene tips, really bad music, and the infamous “Serial For The Thinking Woman”

The show featured a bunch of madcap characters including: Wanda Honeywell, Dr Lesbia Brazil and life partner Radcliffe Hall, Pastor O’Brien and his wife Eunice O’Brien, Godfrey, Mother Mary Immaculata (head of the Nun’s phone & fax room), The Cuntessa, Senator Thenelia Cunnee, The Anthropologist in a Box, plus many others.

Over the years it just got more and more absurd. In the late ‘80s when the station moved into more hi-tech studios the team used to take advantage of all the technology available.

At one point they’d have a record on each turntable, cartridges playing sound effects, two CD players with sound effects of monkeys and construction work, all sorts of bizarre sound effects, plus some reel to reel tapes.

The team would put random callers live to air, play records off centre to create odd sounds, and use a plethora of noise making techniques including tape loops and delay machines that took listeners to impromptu worlds.

The team never planned anything. They had three boxes (the ETHOS boxes), two had old op-shop records in them, and the other was filled with 1950’s magazines, pamphlets and religious material, and these were used to craft each week’s show.

Bobby Fletcher spoke to Out in Perth about the show in 2018 which you can listen to below.

Radio DJ operating a soundboard in a studio, wearing headphones, surrounded by audio equipment and vinyl records.
Group of people at a party, some in costume, holding drinks, smiling and posing for the camera.
Three people sitting at a table with microphones, engaging in a discussion or interview. One person is wearing a white shirt, another a patterned shirt, and the third a black shirt. Papers and a vinyl record are visible on the table.
Four people sitting in a radio studio with microphones and headphones, one is turning to the camera and smiling, bulletin board with papers in the background.
Group of people in a radio studio with microphones and festive decorations.