MUSIC trivia aficionado Mark Boerbach, who became famous as the Rainman of RocKwiz on the SBS television show, has set himself a new challenge — establishing a radio station exclusively run by people with a disability.
Mr Boerbach, of Sutherland, has severe vision impairment and Asperger's syndrome.
He has the savant ability to list the top five tracks in Australia on any date from 1979 to 1992, a skill which helped his team to victory on RocKwiz.
He credits his skill to years spent devising his own personal top 40 charts.
"The funniest thing was my brothers would be playing cricket outside, and I would always be inside listening to the top 40, and devising my own charts every week."
But with such a vast bank of knowledge to draw on, it is no wonder he has tired of the playlists of FM stations.
"The commercial stations play the same 50-100 songs over and over," Mr Boerbach said.
"I just really want to give something different back to Sydney."
Mr Boerbach's station would feature different tracks every day, sourced from the 1960s, '70s, '80s and '90s and, with a personal collection of 5000 CDs and 3000 vinyl records, he has plenty of material to choose from and the station would ultimately have a playlist of more than 25,000 tracks.
Mr Boerbach has an online station, 2PRFM, which he has been running since 2001.
He hopes to convince the federal government to waive the commercial FM broadcast fees for a station run people with a disability.
He said his own experience in trying to secure employment was part of the inspiration for the idea of establishing a station exclusively for those with a disability.
"People [in] the autism spectrum have great difficulties navigating socially," Mr Boerbach said. "Things like navigating what tasks need to be done first and beating deadlines that are stressful for anyone, would send those with Asperger's into a severe anxiety attack."
He said the station, which he hopes to also name 2PRFM, would be staffed by people who, like himself, had found it difficult to find mainstream employment.
To support Mr Boerbach's plans for a new Sydney radio station staffed by people with disabilities visit:
">savesydneyradio.com
