Get to know Fierce!

Born in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, at the studios of 2NCR River FM, Fierce! is a weekly half-hour of all cheeky, loving and hard-working LGBTIQ+ people and events.

Host Peter Lehner has been behind the program for almost 6 years now, and a national version of the program is available through the Community Radio Network.

We asked Peter about the history and significance of the program.

Tell us about Fierce! and how the show started in Lismore.

An explosive celebration of cheeky kweer community, and song requests that make us swoon, Fierce was born back in Feb 2014 in Lismore, Bundjalung nation, by clearing my throat and asking naughty questions. Fierce comes from the Latin word for wild animal. It means strong, proud, dangerous and ready to roar! It's a little piece of degeneracy in the heart of macadamia country; a fun time for the radical faeries, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, trans, intersex, queers, asexuals and straights!  

Were you inspired by similar radio, or did you feel you were starting something very much on its own?

2NCR has a long history of gaywaves, where local community members would be reading out the names of friends lost during the AIDS epidemic. While local media demonized our community and forced many to go underground, we learnt not to close our heart and mind in grief through this community connection on air. For over 10 years there had been no LGBTIQ radio in Lismore, so I put my hand up to support our youth and elder communities sitting in their regional homes.

You're obviously meticulous in your research and some of your guests are surprised with how much you have found out about them! How do you prepare for interviews?

Gosh, thankyou! I wish i was paid and therefore had more time to prep for interviews! My preferred search engine is ECOSIA, who plant a tree for every search! I'm quite passive in my love making, but I'm also a self-proclaimed social-justice warrior who experiences social anxiety, and so for me, having this role to connect with amazing artists, authors, activists, and anarchists is much more thrilling than streaming TV.

What impact do you want Fierce! to have?

To feel part of a fierce movement towards tenderness, appreciation, infatuation and all-inclusive family; a happy, shiny, LGBTIQA+ and straight-friendly fun time!   

There are LGBTIQ+ people in every community in Australia. Living and presenting the show from a regional city, do you think you're changing some of the myths about the metropolitan/regional divide?

The Northern Rivers hosts the largest LGBTIQ community in regional Australia! No matter where I've lived in my long life, I have found a bubble of chosen family to rest with after being misunderstood and publicly humiliated for being different. How our families stand together to conquer stupidity and hypocritical hatred, to fight our way out of marginalization, happens in cities and outback. Right now we are rising against the proposed Religious Discrimination Bill, which will have wide-ranging effects on many areas of public life including access to medical services, schooling, employment, social media, aged care, hospitals and even some commercial services.

For CRN subscribers:

• Program runs 27'50 minutes
• Fierce! distributes Tuesdays at 20:32 AEST/AEDT
• Available for on-demand broadcast by stations via DDN capture and download
• Presented for a national audience
• For more information contact CRN staff on 02 9310 2999 or email [email protected]

Not a CRN subscriber, but want to find out more about getting content like this for your station? Read more here.